A New Focus for Parent Education: Bridging the Gap Between Diagnosis and Intensive Early Intervention Services

Abstract

Abstract Research has documented positive effects of parent-implemented interventions for children with autism. This article presents a new approach to family training in children with autism designed to precede intensive early intervention services for children 12-36 months. The Early Start Denver Model consists of 12 one hour per week sessions with families and children focusing on bringing the child into coordinated, interactive social relations, increasing the reward of social engagement, and developing play activities into joint activity routines. Results of a small-scale efficacy study indicate that parents acquired ESDM intervention techniques during the intervention and maintained these skills during follow up assessment. Additionally, children showed improvements for a variety of social and communicative behaviors.