EFFECTIVENESS OF A HOME PROGRAM INTERVENTION FOR YOUNG-CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

This project evaluated the effectiveness of a TEACCH-based home progra m intervention for young children with autism. Parents were taught how to work with their preschool autistic child in the home setting, focu sing on cognitive, academic, and prevocational skills essential to lat er school success. To evaluate the efficacy of the program, two matche d groups of children were compared, a treatment group and a no-treatme nt control group, each consisting of 11 subjects. The treatment group was provided with approximately 4 months of home programming and was t ested before and after the intervention with the Psychoeducational Pro file-Revised (PEP-R). The control group did not receive the treatment but was tested at the same 4-month interval. The groups were matched o n age, pretest PEP-R scores, severity of autism, and time to follow-up . Results demonstrated that children in the treatment group improved s ignificantly more than those in the control group on the PEP-R subtest s of imitation, fine motor, gross motor, and nonverbal conceptual skil ls, as well as in overall PEP-R scores. Progress in the treatment grou p was three to four times greater than that in the control group on al l outcome tests. This suggests that the home program intervention was effective in enhancing development in young children with autism.