Early parent-led therapy can greatly improve outcomes for babies showing signs of autism.

The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that a specific type of video-feedback-based therapy has the potential to reduce the clinical diagnosis of autism in children by two-thirds at age three.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that affects children's social skills, communication and behaviour.

Around 2 per cent of Australians have been diagnosed with autism, but more than half of all kids receiving support under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) have an autism diagnosis. The average age of diagnosis is three or four.

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In an AusSMC briefing on the JAMA research, lead researcher Professor Andrew Whitehouse, from the Telethon Kids Institute, said that the first two years of development are too important to be missed.

"Anyone who's seen a child develop language knows just how extraordinary the brain is in the first two years of life," Whitehouse said. "And because we're waiting and seeing during that period our therapies are currently missing that really critical period of brain development to support.

"Rather than starting support at age three, we're saying let's identify parental concerns, and then verify that with clinical observation in the first year of life."

The team identified that babies under a year old who begin to develop the behaviours associated with autism, such as differences in the way that they interact with the people around them, can fall "out of sync" with the interactions required for their brains to continue to develop.

"So this can lead to what we call a developmental cascade, where disability becomes more entrenched over time," Whitehouse said. "The children have an early vulnerability, which we know is genetic in origin, but because they are actually interacting with their caregivers in a different way, that disability becomes further and further entrenched."

This is where the therapy, called iBASIS-VIPP, is able to help. It involves a therapist filming the parent or caregiver interacting with the child who is suspected of developing autism. The therapist is then able to work with the parents, and highlight ways for them to alter their behaviour to support and enrich their child's interactions using subtle changes to their everyday routines.

Co-author of the research, Associate Professor Kristelle Hudry from La Trobe University, said this parental behaviour change at such an early stage of development can provide significant improvements in child communication skills and more generally for their development.

"The hope then is that this changed parent behaviour will lead to increased child skills through the parent implementing these subtle changes in their everyday routines, all day, every day, at home in everything that they're doing," Hudry said. "And then ultimately that this will bring improvements in child social communication skills ... and impact their skills to such an extent that the likelihood of autism is changed."

The Australian trial provided 10 fortnightly sessions of the therapy over five months for babies exhibiting early signs of autism between nine and 15 months of age.

After following up with those families over three years, the trial found that only 6.7 per cent of children receiving the therapy met the criteria for autism, compared to around 21 per cent of children who did not receive the therapy.

The critical point here is that although those children have a lower likelihood of subsequently receiving a diagnosis of autism, they still require support services. Whitehouse says that the current system is flawed as it uses a diagnosis as the trigger or entry point to receive support. He says a needs-based service rather than a diagnosis-based service should be provided.

"This therapy is about working with each child's unique differences," Whitehouse said. "It's not about trying to make kids more typical; it's about actually identifying and nurturing and celebrating those differences and using them as a foundation for further development."