There are no known cures for autism, but children can be helped in many ways. Interventions for ASD include special education, behavioural training, and social skills training.

All children with an ASD need some special educational support. This may be in a special school or, depending on the child's needs, he or she may go to a mainstream school with extra individual help. In general, autistic children do better if classroom activities are very structured.

One therapy may work for one child, but not for another, as all children have different levels of needs and abilities.

Behavioural Therapies: 

These may be provided by a clinical psychologist or trained therapist and can help a family cope with any behavioural problems associated with autism. This generally involves rewarding good behaviour with praise but having a consistent and structured way of dealing with challenging or harmful behaviour. Similar methods may be used at school where the child can be taught improved ways to express themselves.

Medicines: 

Sometimes medication is used to reduce specific symptoms. For example, some medicines can be used in the short term to help relieve agitation, obsessional or hyperactive behaviour. However, these can have side-effects if used for a long time. For example, drugs to reduce hyperactivity can increase repetitive and obsessional behaviour. Medication should always be used together with behavioural therapies.

Other Treatments: 

There are various approaches available to help with communication and learning; these include the following:

•  Intensive pre-school training

•  A type of therapy called applied behaviour analysis (eg. Lovaas therapy). This is a home-based one to one
   therapy delivered by professionals (eg. psychologists) and parents, who have been trained in the method. It
   involves a system of rewards for acceptable behaviours. This is an intensive therapy with 35 to 40 hours per
   week of structured contact with the child.

•  A system based on using picture symbols (eg. Picture Exchange Communication System or PECS for short).

•  Berard AIT has helped many children to get rid of their hypersensitivity to sound. It has also helped to calm the
   person down, as it lessen the sensory input and increases the ability to pay attention.