Improvement of autism symptoms after comprehensive intensive early interventions in a clinical setting

Abstract

IntroductionThe last two decades increase in early detection and diagnosing children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has challenged child and youth habilitation centers to offer the best and most appropriate treatment and support.Objectives and aimsTo evaluate an ongoing Comprehensive Intensive Early Intervention (CIEI) program for children with ASD based on principles of behaviour learning and developmental science, implemented in the child's natural setting.MethodThe change in autism symptoms among children participating in CIEI (intervention group, n = 67) was compared with children who received traditional habilitation services only (comparison group, n = 27). Symptom changes were measured as evaluation-ADOS-R-scores, total-, severity-, and module-adjusted-scores (ADOS-MAS), minus the corresponding baseline-scores, divided by the time between baseline and evaluation, and estimated using ANOVA adjusting for confounders. The ADOS-MAS were developed to allow improved communicative functions to be counted in the overall symptom improvement.ResultsChildren in both study groups improved their autism symptoms as measured with the ADOS-MAS, and the improvement was statistically significantly larger among children without any developmental delay (P < .001). When adjustments were made for developmental delay, there was a statistically significant larger improvement of ADOS-MAS among children in the intervention group than in the comparison group (P = 0.047). Similar results were found for ADOS-R-total and ADOS-severity scores (P = 0.023 and P = 0.060. respectively).ConclusionThe results of the current study indicate that the CIEI program significantly improve social and communicative skills among children with autism, and that children with developmental delay could benefit to a similar degree as other children.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.