Objective: To observe the clinical effect of acupuncture treatment for infantile autism. Methods: After being treated with the needling technique for enhancing wisdom and opening the orifice, 32 cases of sick children were assessed by Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) depending upon their clinical symptoms. Results: After acupuncture treatments, language communication, interpersonal relationships, movements and behavior, and personal ability had all improved. Among them, the remarkable rate of language communication showed a statistical significance in comparison with the other three items (P<0.05). In the comparison of the ATEC scores before and after the treatments, the language items (P<0.01), social relationships, perception and behavior items, showed statistically significant differences (P<0.05). Conclusion: Acupuncture therapy can effectively improve the clinical symptoms of sick children with autism, and the interference effect on language function is especially remarkable. © 2010 Shanghai Research Institute of Acupuncture and Meridian and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.