Premium
A two‐year prospective follow‐up study of community‐based early intensive behavioural intervention and specialist nursery provision for children with autism spectrum disorders
Author(s) -
Magiati Iliana,
Charman Tony,
Howlin Patricia
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01756.x
Subject(s) - autism , psychology , intervention (counseling) , psychological intervention , cognition , clinical psychology , adaptive behavior , vineland adaptive behavior scale , applied behavior analysis , developmental psychology , psychiatry
Background: This prospective study compared outcome for pre‐school children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) receiving autism‐specific nursery provision or home‐based Early Intensive Behavioural Interventions (EIBI) in a community setting. Methods: Forty‐four 23‐ to 53‐month‐old children with ASD participated (28 in EIBI home‐based programmes; 16 in autism‐specific nurseries). Cognitive, language, play, adaptive behaviour skills and severity of autism were assessed at intake and 2 years later. Results: Both groups showed improvements in age equivalent scores but standard scores changed little over time. At follow‐up, there were no significant group differences in cognitive ability, language, play or severity of autism. The only difference approaching significance ( p = .06), in favour of the EIBI group, was for Vineland Daily Living Skills standard scores. However, there were large individual differences in progress, with intake IQ and language level best predicting overall progress. Conclusions: Home‐based EIBI, as implemented in the community, and autism‐specific nursery provision produced comparable outcomes after two years of intervention.