Nesrhten……….

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a commonly used augmentative communication systems for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other communication deficits. In this issue of Research in Developmental Disabilities Gantz and colleagues have published a meta-analysis of PECs with individuals with ASD.

Their meta-analysis confirm that PECS is a promising intervention for individuals with ASD. Their analysis indicated that functional communication outcomes were most impacted, and that the younger children and those with autism generally vowed the best outcome. They also found indications that those individuals who completed the most phases of the PECS protocol showed the best results.

Joint attention is by many seemed as one of the core deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and joint attention is assumed to be related to other areas within social interaction and communication. Schietecatte, Roeyers, and Warreyn has published a study where they investigate the relation between joint attention and other ares in children with ASD at 36 months.

In their study involving 23 children they found that joint attention skills, measured by tasks adapted from the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS) were related to several other areas. Response to joint attention was related to intention understanding measured by an adopted paradigm of Behne et al (2005). The number of joint attention initiations was associated with attention disengagement, and somewhat less stronger with social preference. Attention disengagement was measured with a visual orientation task partially based on the paradigm of Landy and Bryson (2004), and social preference was measured by trails of simultaneous presentation of one social and one nonsocial stimulus and coding duration of orientation.

Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) is an effective interventions for most children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but there is great variability in the outcome of EIBI for children with ASD. And research has focused on child characteristic, parent involvement and treatment factors. There are good reasons to assume that parent inclusion affects the treatment outcome for s large group go children. Now Strauss, Vicar, Valeri, DÉlia, Armina and Fava has published a study examining the interrelating factor that impact children´s progress, highlighting the influence of parent inclusion in treatment provision captured by parental stress, how faithfully the parents followed the treatment protocols and the intensity of treatment provided at home. This study is published in Research in Developmental disabilities. Read more…

The importance of early intervention for toddlers with autism is recognized by alle professionals, even if the debate on what intervention is the best suitable for toddlers continues. Research on interventions for toddlers with autism is still limited, and more studies are needed to learn more about the effects of all the interventions available. Now Wilterlin and colleagues has published the first study on the home TEACCH program for toddlers.

In this program parents receive 1.5 hours with a clinician for 12 weeks. In this meetings parents learn to train their own child based on structured teaching. In this study the researchers used both a randomized group design, combined with a single subject design (multiple baseline). In the group design the study measured child progress with Mullen Scales of Early Learning and Scales of independent behavior-revised. The parent stress was assessed using the parent stress index – 3rd edition. In the single subject design part, parent implementation of intervention and children independence was assessed through video scoring.

The results of the single subject design indicates that child independence and parents ability to structure the environment for learning and effectively prompt their children. 6 families participated in this part of the study. The group design that included 20 families and repeated measures analysis of variance for the Mullen scales of early learning, SIB, and PSI did not show significant differences.

Reference.
Welterlin, A., Turner-Brown, L.M., Harris, S., Meisbov, G., & Delmolino, L. (2011). The home TEACCHing program for toddlers with autism. Journal of Autism and other Developmental Disorders. DOI 10.1007/s10803-011-1419-2

Children with autism spectrum disorders are in need of effective and research-based intervention. Providing good information on different interventions and the research base for them should be a priority for all professionals providing autism intervention. This information should be based on factual information on the intervention and the research that it builds on. Unfortunately this is not always the case. Today I found via @autismoaba a commercial on YouTube doing the opposite. Providing not supported statements, not only on the intervention promoted but also providing not factual information to discredit another intervention. This is surely not what children with autism and their families need. Let´s provide factual and scientific evidence for autism interventions. Watch the video;

In many countries and regions the use of paraprofessionals in autism interventions is extensive. Using paraprofessionals require effective and qualitative good training in order to ensure treatment fidelity and effective interventions for persons with ASD. Rispoli, Neely, Lang and Ganz have published a systematic review of the literature on training paraprofessionals to implement interventions for people with autism spectrum disorders in Developmental Neurorehabilitation.

Their review identified a variety of training procedures, such as explanations, modeling, video, role play and feedback. And that paraprofessionals had successfully implemented a variety of intervention including Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), Discrete Trial Training (DTT), Pivotal Response Training (PRT), and more. These results are promising, but the research is limited and more research involving more subjects and more randomized design should be conducted to ensure the effect of using paraprofessionals.

Imitation is an early skill that most likely is important for social development and skills. As mentioned earlier Reciprocal Imitation Training (RIT) is an effective intervention for teaching the social function of imitation to children with autism. Ingersoll have now studied the effect of a focused RIT intervention for 3 hours per week for 10 weeks, compared with treatment as usual. Results from this study indicates that children receiving RIT made significantly gains in joint attention initiations both at post-treatment measurement and follow-up. Results also indicates that social-emotional functioning at follow-up was better for the intervention group, measured by the Social-Emotional Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development.

This study indicates that RIT may contribute to promote social development for children with autism, and be an effective intervention for increase the frequency of joint attention initiations.

Reference.
Ingersoll, B. (2011). Brief report: Effect of a focused imitation intervention on social functioning in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi:10.1007/s10803-011-1423-6

National Institute of Mental Health have published a guide for parents of children with ASD. This guide includes information on ASD, including diagnostic information and information on effective interventions. Read more…