Helping Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Develop Social Ability: The Early Start Denver Model Approach

Abstract

The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) is a comprehensive approach for young children with autism spectrum disorder 12–60 months of age that focuses particular attention on social communication and social learning in everyday routines as the primary learning vehicle for young children. ESDM principles and practices were derived from decades of research in developmental psychology (i.e., cognitive, social, emotional, linguistic, and communicative development) and learning science. ESDM is a manualized intervention that focuses on the skills and learning opportunities available to young children in everyday routines involving play and caregiving across their life environments. ESDM defines both teaching procedures and teaching content aligned to the strengths and needs learning profiles seen in early autism, and it allows for individualization of both content and procedures via a detailed hierarchical curriculum and a decision tree that determines when teaching practices should be modified. While the approach is specified, the delivery is highly flexible and can be carried out in any setting involving children and adults, and by anyone who has learned the principles: parents and caregivers, professionals across disciplines, and paraprofessionals. ESDM integrates the principles used by applied behavior analysis, allied health professions, and early childhood intervention and its efficacy in improving social communication and overall learning rates has been demonstrated by a variety of studies. This chapter focuses on how ESDM draws from empirical studies to conceptualize the problems and process of social-communicative development in autism spectrum disorder, and how it translates those concepts into a manualized intervention that improves children’s social communication.