| Description |
This project evaluated the effectiveness of a home program for treating children with autism. The program was modeled on the TEACCH home program (Schopler & Reichler, 1971) and focuses on helping preschool autistic children improve cognitive and pre-academic skills essential to later academic success. To evaluate the program, two groups of children were compared, a treatment group and a control (no treatment) group each consisting of 11 subjects. The treatment group was provided with approximately four months of a home program intervention and was tested before and after the intervention. The control group did not receive the treatment, but was tested at the same four-month interval. The Psychoeducational Profile-Revised (PEP-R; Schopler, Reichler, Bashford, Lansing & Marcus, 1990), a developmental test for children with autism, was administered at both the pre-test and post-test phases. This test evaluates imitation, perceptual, motor, verbal, and conceptual development. The groups were matched on age, pre-test PEP-R scores, severity of autism, and time to follow-up. Results demonstrated that subjects in the treatment group improved significantly more than the control group in imitation, perception, fine motor, gross motor, and nonverbal conceptual development. This suggests that the home program intervention was effective in enhancing development in young children with autism. |
