Parent Intervention Strategies

Having a child given a diagnosis of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a very stressful event for parents. It is imperative to understand that there is much that can be done for both parent and the child. From the current literature we know that parents of children diagnosed with autism worry about many things like lifetime dependency to family dissonance. We know that these parents are distressed and angry, the parents of children with more unusual behaviors feel a lot more stressed than the parents of children with fewer unusual behaviors. However, having a strategy to approach it correctly and to get the best possible help for your child is probably the most important step, one can take to relieve stress and to aid the child’s development.

The method describes the participants as two children diagnosed with autism and had language skills that were appropriate for the Social Stories intervention. The participants were in two different general education kindergarten classrooms, full-time at a public elementary school. The fist participant, Matt, was a 6-year-old Asian American boy who had a teaching assistant assigned to his classroom and the second participant, Ted, was a 5-year-old Caucasian boy who had a teaching assistant assigned to accompany throughout the school day. The participants received training sessions one to four times per-week that were conducted in private rooms for 10 to 20 minutes in the morning before class at each participant’s school. The participants only read Social Stories that only pertained to their individual targeted behaviors for intervention. The stories used had no pictures, only large text on white paper. The participants were read one story per

A few sets of parents underwent training in order to correctly teach their child the most effective way possible. The dependent variable being measured was the language skills their children learned over the course of a few months. months. This study reported, “that a group training model for the parents is beneficial in targeting language deficits observed in children with ASD” (Minjarez, 98). The children from the study presented enormous growth in their language skills as well as behavioral and emotional. These experiments as well as others currently being conducted help provide beneficial evidence that focus on other ways to provide education for children with ASD. Overall, while PRT itself has tremendous benefits, the fact that it can be brought into the home with evidence that it is effective is even better. This method has continued to be revised and studied for many years since the 1970’s and making it available to everyone who has a child with ASD is the overall

This is why it is important that parents become trained in ABA. However, it is important that parents do not think that one approach will solve any child 's autism difficulties. The idea of using a “cookbook recipe” to fix their child is something that must be thrown out the window and techniques that encourage parents to become educated about the broadness of autism should be used. This includes learning how their child functions and ways to help design a ABA for their child rather than basing it off of statistics (Dillenburger et al.,2004).

Davis, DeRosier, Matthews, McMillen and Swick (2011) conducted a study to test the efficacy of a social skills intervention, Social Skills Group Intervention-High Functioning Autism (S. S. GRIN-HFA) for individuals with high functioning Autism. Authors hypothesized that students who received S.S.GRIN-HFA would demonstrate greater gains in terms of social behaviors and have greater parent involvement when compared to the control group of Social Skills Group Intervention (S.S.GRIN). Participants included 55 children all diagnosed with high functioning Autism and ranging in age from 8-12 years, and predominantly male and white. Specific selected criteria included: 8-12 years of age and a prior diagnosis of autism, Asperger’s Disorder, or

demonstrated that naturalistic interventions, such as pivotal response training (PRT) are effective in producing positive changes in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

The Regents of the University of California. (2014). About PRT. Retrieved from The Regents of the University of California: https://education.ucsb.edu/autism/pivotal-response-treatment

With the prevalence of autism at an all-time high, there are many benefits to identifying a child as early as possible. Identification and intervention can dramatically improve outcomes for children with ASD. Children have increased neural plasticity at a very early age, making it easier for children to learn new skills such as communication, play, and overall skill development. Early intervention will improve children’s behaviors and remediate areas of weaknesses. Also, according to the New Jersey Early Intervention System program, early intervention makes the transition into preschool easier for children diagnosed with autism. In addition, parent-implemented intervention usually leads to better parent-child interaction, improved communication, behavior, and better maternal knowledge of autism.

Readers are taught how to use ABA to teach speech and language, social, motor, and adaptive skills through a system of repetition, reward, and goal adjustment. The author also discusses what families should consider before choosing any treatment method for their child with autism, and specifically what key elements an IBI program should have. The curriculum, professional roles, parent involvement, inclusion, and pros and cons of a home based versus center based program are all covered. Staff training….. Characteristics of characteristics of children with autism.

Ganz and Simpson (2004) were attempting to discredit this argument. They did this by trying to determine if the language abilities of three children with ASD would increase after the inclusion of a PECS program into their treatment plans. The researchers in this article found that two of the children who took part in this study made large gains in their ability to use the PECS system (they were both able to make it the phase 4). However, the third participant was unable to master any levels of the PECS protocol and, instead, had to use a modified PECS system. They also found that none of the three participants readily verbalized their wants at any point of the PECS phases, showing that the use of PECS is not always going to lead to an increase in expressive communication skills. This result adds strength to the argument that PECS interventions, don't increase the verbal communication abilities of children with ASD. However, the PECS program was still able to increase requesting capabilities. The researchers brought up other areas that require further research. These areas included; the need to understand comorbid diagnoses, other factors that might lead to an individual not being positively affected by a PECS program, and the modification of

Pivotal response treatment (PRT) is a form of naturalistic behavioral intervention based on the principles of applied behavior analysis, which assumes that children’s impairments can be improved with environmental manipulations such as reinforcement, consequences, and extinction (Koegel, Koegel, & Carter, 1999; Stahmer, Suhrheinrich, Reed, Bolduc, & Schreibman, 2010). Pivotal response treatment (PRT) is one of the few interventions used in the treatment of children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is both comprehensive, as listed by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, and empirically supported. It is also recognized by the National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders

Seitler, Burton Norman PhD Intricacies, Complexities, and Limitations of Research on Autism Treatments: An Examination of Seven Treatment Approaches. Ethical Human Psychology & Psychiatry. 2011, Vol. 13 Issue 2, p155-168. 14p. DOI: 10.1891/1559-4343.13.2.155

The study included 61 preschool children with autism who were randomized to one of two groups; one receiving intervention

Trainers conduct an assessment that identifies the emerging skills and addresses them as the first teaching goals. Students begin by learning functional skills, and good work habits that enable them to function with little intervention provided they are within the TEACCH structure (Jordan, Jones and Murray, 1998). This is the most widely used approach for teaching autistic children. Visual information, predictability and structure help the children understand what they are supposed to do, where and when it should be done, and the order of doing the activity. Parents are also involved in the programme, and their work is to promote a feeling of competence and well-being among the children. They work as co-therapists and participate in home activities when TEACCH instructors make home visits (Jordan, Jones and Murray, 1998). Parents also provide home training for goals such as independent play, increasing communication, and toilet training. They are provided with parent support information that helps them learn strategies of effective training.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is not curable but it can be controlled using a certain type of treatments. There are various types of treatments used by parental, caregiver and clinical. The treatments can be separated into behavior and communication approaches, medication and complementary and alternative medicine. Applied behavioral analysis is a treatment approach that is used in many schools and treatment clinics (Foxx, 2008). There are different types of ABA and one of it is early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI). EIBI is the most effective treatment used for young children from birth to 3 years old as the services consist of treatments to assist the child to talk, walk and interact with others (Matson & Goldin, 2014). Discrete trials teaching (DTT) is one of the key teaching methods in EIBI. An efficient approach for teaching children with ASD has been shown by DTT and it plays an important role in language, social and academic skills. DTT has a sequence of discrete learning units that allows the skills to broken down into smaller units when teaching a new skill. DTT consist of three-term possibilities,