Intervention for young children with autism: From research to practice

Over the past 15 years, empirical studies have described how the psychologi cal aspects of autism differ from other developmental disorders. Studies of general development describe a pattern of specific relative strengths and weaknesses involving cognitive, emotional, linguistic, and motoric capaciti es. Because much of the syndrome-specific pattern of autism is present at t he preschool period, this has implications for the development of curriculu m and educational strategies early on. Early intervention programs that spe cifically target autism include a variety of educational strategies that ad dress the unique learning profile of autism. As community preschool-program s offer enhanced services for this group of young children, they can draw o n a body of work generated both from the scientific work in autism and the effective educational practices developed by model preschool programs.