Effect of community interventions on social-communicative abilities of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the effect that different intervention methods have on the social-communicative abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in community settings. Methods: Intervention based on applied behaviour analysis was compared with a more specific intervention programme targeting imitation and joint attention (JA) and with treatment as usual in a sample of 85 children with ASD. Objective measures for imitation, JA, pretend play, language, autism severity and parent report measures were used to assess the effect of six months of intervention. Results: Results revealed no differences between the intervention methods. There was, however, great individual variability in outcome within each treatment method. Conclusion: These results suggest that it is important to focus on “What works for whom” instead of trying to find a one-size-fits-all-treatment for children with ASD.

• Applied behaviour analysis
• social communication
• treatment

Acknowledgements

We thank Sig vzw for their help in the recruitment and we thank the treatment centres and families for participating.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Partial funding for this research was provided by support from Steunpunt Expertisenetwerken, Vlaamse Vereniging Autisme and Sig vzw.

Notes

1. Some treatment centres only provided intervention to children in regular education.

2. The videos were collected for a separate study on the interaction between therapist and child during an ABA-session [47] and were thus only available for the children in the ABA-group.