Early Intervention in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract. Early intervention in autism has become possible with the identification of this disorder at earlier ages, but the scientific production on this subject is still very incipient. The present study aimed to characterize scientific production in Brazil regarding early intervention in the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), resorting to the database of the Capes Journal Platform ( Plataforma de Periódicos Capes). The procedure used for the theoretical search was an integrative literature review. The discussion on the analysis of the review occurred with the inclusion of articles published in Portuguese, between 2001 and 2020, with the keywords: “intervention”, “early” and “autism.” As a result, a total of 83 texts were found. Of this total, 65 articles were published in peer-reviewed journals and made available as an online resource on the Capes Journal Platform. In the next phase of data analysis, we decided to categorize the articles included in the search process ( N = 25), based on the following categories: “autism” (19) and “early autism intervention” (6). A very low percentage of publications related to this topic were identified in the search universe, although an increase in studies has been observed in recent years. Nonetheless, we concluded that the six articles on early intervention agree that the sooner the disorder is diagnosed and the child is stimulated, the greater the effectiveness in the development of communication and language, as well as social interaction.