Factors Associated with Improvement of Autistic Spectrum Children on Different Behavior Therapy Programs

Abstract

Background: Choice of effective behavior therapy program(s) for autistic spectrum children (ASD) patients have been a concern for therapists, speech and language specialists, and psychiatrists. Failure of teaching program or combination of programs might lead to family frustration, unnecessary cost and high level of drop off from therapy. Objectives: to determine factors associated with improvement on different teaching and behavioral programs used for autistic children in Palestine and to quantify improvement. Methods: This retrospective cohort study involved 60 ASD children at Muhmamd Ben Al Maktoom Centre at Hebron City, West Bank. We followed them back in time for the last 6 months of 2021. We used Gilliam scale to determine degree of the condition. Subject of this study were exposed to different behavioral therapy programs for average period of 3 years. We calculated the child overall percentage improvement in performing assigned tasks of these programs as the main outcome of study for the last 6 months. We used SPSS V 25 for data analysis and prediction model construction. Results: Sixty children participated in this study, 5.9 ± 2.11 years old and 81.7 % males. Almost 80% of these children were diagnosed with ASD. Almost 83.3 % were moderate to over moderate on Gilliam. Three categories of behavioral therapy programs were assigned for these children: language, social and communication, and/or cognitive and self-help. Almost 120 children used first category programs, 57 children used second category, and 59 children used the third category. Average improvement was 64.93 ± 16.51%. Diagnosis significantly affected total improvement, p=0.000. Pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) and complex disorder significantly predict improvement among autistic children at p=0.047 and 0.001, respectively. Conclusions: improvement of autistic child on behavioural therapy programs is dependent on age and severity of condition upon diagnosis.