But fighting the disorder requires constant vigilance. To let up is to watch the child slide back into autism's sucking grasp. You can't turn your back for an instant. The most effective treatment is intensive, repetitive behavioral adjustment, Fricke said. One aspect of the therapy is identifying what triggers problem behaviors and teaching the child new ways to respond, she said.
Many autistic children have a heightened sensitivity to noise and touch.
Some problems can be solved by changing the environment, such as carpeting classrooms to reduce echoes. We have to prepare them for that reality. It took years for Jeffrey LaRoy, now 17, to adjust to such common sounds as a vacuum cleaner and the garbage truck's semiweekly visits, his mother said. Other sounds, such as crying babies, continue to frighten him. He anticipates the problem and that can set him off.