During this period, the intervention framework is based on the normal developmental process, and the goal is to align with it as much as possible. Once the diagnosis is made, a comprehensive assessment of the child's functioning must be completed, and a therapeutic intervention plan should be implemented as soon as possible. Both a series of studies and common sense indicate that early intervention is rewarding. After the diagnosis, parents need ongoing information and personal support. The value and contribution of self-help organizations, such as parent associations, are evident.

There is also an objective need for home-based programs, which are rarely available in most European countries.

The family can and should play a decisive role in counteracting self-absorption, encouraging imitation and shared attention, promoting communication, and developing social skills, as well as in many other aspects considered in the individualized plan for young children with autism. Special attention should be given to issues that are crucial in daily life at this age, such as nutrition, diet, bowel control, and sleep.

At this age, establishing an appropriate detailed educational program tailored to the individual is the focus. Since students with autism differ from one another, it is necessary to have access to a wide range of educational opportunities. Although the European Union favors inclusion in regular schools, this does not mean that students are left without support and with untrained personnel. For each individual, a balance should be sought based on local conditions and available possibilities. In recent years, significant progress has been made in educational technology, and it is widely worth applying. The implementation of methods that support the learning process visually, the use of information technology applications, a functional detailed educational program, structuring time and environment, partial participation, and peer-based learning can make the school period of the autistic child very meaningful. It is crucial for them to learn things that will be important later in life, and to achieve this, it is essential to involve the family, adapt educational materials, foster the student's participation in various environments, and help them establish stable relationships with people.

At this stage, the therapeutic intervention plan must have an ecological basis and aim at acquiring the functions required for participation in normal community life.

While limitations due to mental age are taken into account, it is important that the personalized plan is always based on present and future chronological age. Adulthood is the longest period of life. It is of utmost importance to ensure a range of services based on current knowledge of autism, to which individuals with autism have access. The 'adult' therapeutic intervention plan should emphasize:

• Access to living arrangements/life homes, with support ranging from residential care under protected conditions to immediate support in times of need (ad hoc).
• Employment opportunities ranging from structured employment in day care centers to sheltered and specialized employment and ultimately to full occupational integration.
• The need for continuing lifelong education and the support necessary for participation in community life.

As individuals with autism grow older, they will reach the stage of retirement, but their need for special support does not cease, and an appropriately age-adjusted plan should continue to exist. Throughout life, emphasis should be placed on issues such as individualization, personal choices, age-appropriate approaches, skill acquisition, the development of a functional detailed educational program, participation in community life, respect and dignity, and the coordination between professional and client.

Families of individuals with autism and professionals who work with them learn from experience that there is a wide range of therapeutic options. Generally, very few of these methods are available locally. As with many other health problems for which there is no specific treatment, various approaches are suggested.

Some approaches have been empirically proven to be effective in helping individuals with autism. Others are based on anecdotal or informal and unsubstantiated reports. There are therapeutic methods that ignore or even defy the evidence we have about autism (e.g., those that continue to blame inadequate parenting for causing autism). Others have not been evaluated or cannot be scientifically evaluated. Some claim to be specific for autism, while others are recommended for all types of developmental difficulties. The media, and sometimes professionals with personal interests, often overemphasize positive outcomes while downplaying the lack of empirically supported results.

Families are advised to seek:

• Clinical assessment performed with standardized and valid evaluation tools.
• Services that provide a continuously evaluated approach.
• References in reputable scientific journals for the proposed intervention method.

Families should be encouraged to take a critical stance and consider the potential risks and impacts of any intervention on the family as a whole and other members before committing to a therapeutic intervention. Families face various challenges and trials during the life of their relative with autism. To help them bear the burden and find fulfillment in life, a range of services should be made available to them. These services should not be seen as luxuries but as a standard measure of support that they are entitled to. Unfortunately, few families in Europe have easy access to a minimum of provisions such as:

• Information and referral to specialized services and parent associations.
• Practical counseling.
• Adequate financial support.
• Recreational opportunities.
• In-home help, such as childcare or supervision.
• Short-term accommodation/weekends.
• Legal advice.
• Access to services in times of crisis and in regular times.

TEACCH Program

The acronym TEACCH stands for "Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication Handicapped Children." TEACCH is a comprehensive program focused on the diagnosis, treatment, vocational training, and daily living of individuals with autism. The cornerstone of TEACCH is structured teaching, which is systematically used to make the environment predictable, help the child understand it, operate more securely, utilize, and practice their skills. The environmental conditions promote the child's ability to compensate for their disorder and improve their level of functionality.

Structured teaching refers to the type of guidance that facilitates learning in children with autism and autistic ways of thinking. Structured teaching is preferred for these individuals for five reasons:

1. Organization and structure help children understand the world around them.
2. People with autism are often anxious and uneasy, even if it is not apparent, as sensory stimuli bombard them constantly. This anxiety impedes their learning performance; thus, helping them relax results in behavioral improvement and facilitates learning.
3. Structured teaching helps the individual focus on what is essential and understand the most important aspects of a given activity.
4. The most critical feature of the program is training individuals toward independence, relying on their capabilities and utilizing their exceptional visual skills. Instead of waiting for instructions, the child uses visual stimuli to gather information and acts based on it.
5. Finally, it helps manage behavioral issues as a direct result of the above. Structured environments reduce unwanted behaviors, whereas confusing settings increase them.

The fundamental elements of structured teaching are as follows:

Teachers organize individual workspaces where each child can perform various activities. Visual aids are provided to compensate for the children's deficiencies in auditory processing. TEACCH emphasizes collaboration between parents and educational staff. Parents are encouraged to establish routines at home similar to those in the school environment.

Organizing the environment offers a sense of security and visual cues that help children understand the functionality of the space around them. Depending on each child’s particular needs, an individualized daily schedule and a group daily schedule are created. The daily schedule includes verbal instructions, photos or images, and objects (depending on each child’s comprehension level) placed one below the other to indicate sequence and order. The child is trained to understand and follow the sequence of activities. For example, an individual daily schedule might include the following images: good morning, painting, chocolate, music, and break. A child who sees an individual daily schedule does not automatically know what to do but is systematically trained to understand and follow it.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Children and adults with Asperger’s syndrome or high-functioning autism are prone to developing secondary emotional disorders (such as depression), possibly due to their degree of empathy regarding the difficulties they face in their social lives. Some high-functioning individuals with autism need psychological support to cope with daily challenges, relationships with others, and self-relationship. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is effective in these cases.

Behavioral therapy helps the individual weaken the association between problematic conditions and typical reactions, such as fear, depression, anger, self-harm, and defeatism. Cognitive therapy allows them to understand that specific behavior patterns lead to unwanted symptoms, making them feel anxious, depressed, or angry without reason or choose wrong actions.

Therapy includes emotional education, where individuals learn to experience the range and continuity of emotional experience and expression, and cognitive restructuring, enabling high-functioning individuals with autism to correct their distorted and dysfunctional beliefs and perceptions.

Denver Health Sciences Program

The Denver Health Sciences Program emphasizes using play in interpersonal relationships, language development processes, symbolic thinking techniques, classroom structure, and routine. It is developmentally focused, with a daily schedule for each child lasting 22 hours per week for 12 months, and a teacher/assistant-to-child ratio of 2 to 1. Several studies report that children who participated in programs demonstrated developmental benefits in many areas, such as language, play skills, and social interactions with parents.

LEAP (Learning Experiences: An Alternative Program for Preschoolers and Parents)

The program consists of four essential components: 1) an integrated preschool setting with classrooms hosting typically developing children and children with autism, 2) a parent-targeted training program in behavior management techniques, 3) training initiatives in key developmental areas, and 4) ongoing research in teaching practices. Controlled studies proving LEAP’s effectiveness are lacking, although some promising aspects exist.

Miller Method

The Miller Method addresses children with autism who face challenges with physical organization, social interaction, and communication. It uses two main strategies to re-establish typical developmental processes. The first strategy utilizes the children’s divergent systems to achieve developmental gains based on the belief that all organized behaviors, even divergent ones, can ultimately benefit the child in some developmental area. The second strategy involves systematically introducing skills that align with the child's developmental level to repair developmental gaps and reconstruct developmental sequences. The therapist enhances learning generalization by how they teach specific functions. For example, they teach a child to hang cups on hooks. Initially, they assist the child’s hand until they can do it independently. In the final phase, the child learns to perform the activity with various cups of different shapes and colors from different locations and people. However, there is no research supporting the effectiveness of this method.

Social Stories

Social stories are more suitable for high-functioning individuals with autism, learning disabilities, and Asperger’s syndrome. They can be used to serve the following purposes: a) to describe a situation while providing clear indications of the behavior and response the child should exhibit in a non-threatening way, b) to personalize and individualize the teaching of social skills, c) to teach adaptive routines and support the child in modifying certain behaviors, d) to teach appropriate behaviors in a realistic social context to facilitate easier generalization, and e) to address a range of problematic behaviors, such as aggression, fixation on certain routines, anxiety, and fear. Tony Attwood notes that social stories are particularly effective in helping children with autism understand how to react in specific situations and identify actions to avoid.

Circle of Friends

The Circle of Friends is especially beneficial for children with autism, as it systematically uses the social networks within the classroom to create a supportive environment for the "vulnerable" child. The Circle of Friends consists of 12 sessions lasting 30 minutes each, held once a week. The teacher selects certain children from the class based on their sensitivity and the types of interactions they have with the child with autism, and informs them about the purpose of the circle and how they can help the child with autism interact with them. The teacher usually leads the circle and gives directions to the other members. The Circle of Friends is an intervention aimed not at creating friendships but at developing and improving the communication skills of the child with autism, which may eventually lead to the formation of a friendship.

PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System)

Approximately half of children with autism do not use spoken language. PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) was developed as a specific training package in augmentative alternative communication for children and adults with autism who lack verbal and other communication skills, to help them initiate communication. It is designed for teachers, caregivers of children with autism, and their parents, making it usable in various settings. The ultimate goal of the program is for children to learn to make comments and respond directly to questions.

PECS aims to teach and quickly develop functional communication skills, such as fulfilling primary self-care needs like requesting food. Essentially, PECS teaches a child to exchange a picture of a desired item with a teacher, who immediately responds to the request. Verbal prompts are not used, so initiation is immediate, avoiding dependence on aids. Subsequently, children learn to differentiate between symbols and arrange them to form simple "sentences." They are taught to make comments or ask directly for what they want. Once the child can conduct a picture exchange, the training shifts to promote spontaneity, persistence, and generalization. The third phase of training involves decision-making about symbols, following the ability to differentiate between them.

PECS can be particularly effective when appropriately combined with other educational programs, such as TEACCH, which has used images for many years to assist nonverbal children and was essentially the foundation for developing PECS.

Non-Directed Play

Non-directed play is used to develop interaction and to understand and use spoken language. The role of the therapist or parent is to follow the interests of the child with autism. The goal is to provide the child with dynamic and effective strategies for language and communication that can be used in all environments. The core principle of non-directed play teaching is to arrange the environment to increase the motivation and opportunities for the child with autism to respond to different environmental stimuli.

Training in guided response is an intervention method designed for people who live or work with individuals with autism. This method uses one behavior as a guide to influence another behavior. Typically developing children must be trained to use guided training through role-play, model imitation, and teaching. Following this, the peer applies the strategies they learned with the child with autism in a setting where the teacher can observe and provide constructive feedback on using the strategies.

Children with autism who participated in guided training programs were able, even after the program ended, to engage in high levels of interaction, varied object play, and use of language. Integrated playgroups provide children with autism the opportunity to engage in play with more capable, typically developing peers in natural environments such as home, school, and recreational spaces. These interactions are non-intrusive and focus on the child with special needs. The strategies used to guide play vary from orientation (observing peers and activities), to mirroring (imitating a peer's actions), parallel play (playing alongside another child in the same space and with similar materials), and finally to shared attention (the child meaningfully shares and takes turns in an activity), shared actions, and role-playing. Research indicates that solitary and stereotypical play decreases, while interactive play increases.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is not the most appropriate choice for addressing autism, as it is based on theories that have been proven inaccurate. It is a treatment that takes a long time, and time is a significant factor for children with autism, as they need to address some of their challenges quickly to integrate into the school environment. Psychotherapy relies on communication—whether verbal or non-verbal—an area in which children with autism are known to face serious challenges. However, many parents and specialists still choose psychotherapy to address the symptoms exhibited by children with autism. The three popular forms of psychotherapy that have been applied to children with autism are psychoanalytic therapy, holding therapy, and the Son-Rise program or Option therapy (Kalyva, 2005).