The Advantages of Autism Intervention Programs
Recurring and restrictive behavior, impaired capacities for communication along with social interaction are some of the visible symptoms of autism. Over the last two decades, autism has received increasing attention from researchers all around the world. An escalating number of children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have led to the development and modification of diverse evidence-based intervention programs for these children. To deal with this problem a number of un-researched alternative treatment therapies have been also implemented such as acupuncture or the vitamin therapy. Though these evidenced-based autism intervention programs for young children affected by autism differ in their methodologies, most of them adopt an effective psycho-educational approach for enhancing the social, communication and cognitive skills at the same time reducing the problem behaviors.
However, with all these treatments available in the medicinal world, no particular treatment is the most reliable or best. Every treatment has to be typically customized according to the medical and emotional requirements of the child. The common autism intervention programs include the most implemented Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA, language and speech therapy, social skill therapy, communication intervention programs such as Picture Exchange Communication System, parent-communication trainings, occupational therapy, and structured teaching methods like TEACCH program. ABA is an empirically supported therapeutic intervention, specifically in consideration with the early home-based intervention therapy. It is also recommended that a child receiving ABA early intervention must receive around forty hours of intensive therapy for approximately two years. This intensive method was originally created by Lovaas under the UCLA Young Autism Project. In this program it has been observed that the IQ gain of the children was maintained until their adolescence.
Through the application of ABA, the Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention or EIBI has been developed and researched for more than forty years to find out its effectiveness. Most of these EIBI autism intervention programs recognize that each skill necessary for every particular age are completely teachable and must be taught to the child. The general curriculum fields addressed as part of the program are play skills, language, motor skills, social skills, pre-academic followed by academic skills, and most vitally independent livings abilities.
Across early intensive preschool autism intervention programs, the strong consensus is that the following attributes are critical for the program’s success and effectiveness:
- With the diagnosis of the Autism Spectrum Disorder, the child must be immediately enrolled to the intervention program without any delay to wait for the assessment as that can take over a month or two.
- The child must actively participate in the intensive instructional program and must receive adequate individualized attention regularly.
- Teaching sessions must be regular and organized for relatively smaller period for the young children.
- Parents and family must be included in the method of teaching, and parents must receive training.
- The teacher student ratio must be low so that child receives sufficient adult attention.
All these autism intervention programs are specifically intended to develop fundamental and indispensable living as well as social capacities in young children affected with any of the Autism Spectrum Disorders and for their overall growth.
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