Early intervention designed to teach young children with autism to improve social reciprocity with other children can improve the cardinal symptoms of this disorder, as reflected the latest issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
evaluated intervention included activities specifically designed to encourage children to initiate communication with others, play therapy with the use of toys and techniques designed to improve verbal communication and cognitive development.
As we know, are deficits in communication and socialization determinants of symptoms in the prognosis of pervasive developmental disorders . Precisely research authors, Dr Landa and his colleagues focused their research / action in pursuit of specific interventions to improve these deficits .
This research was the first that was made using an experimental methodology: "We have studied high-risk children dealing with autism because they had an older sibling with autism. We have followed from infancy to school age. Is watching these children as manifested in my eyes, before you see the others. This created in me a great responsibility, devoting my life to this activity, "says Dr. Landa.
IMITATION TEACHING CAPACITY
The study included 50 children from the age of 21 to 33 months. (...) Included a series of homework involving parents in each (...)
addition to intervention with interpersonal synchrony provided a specialized curriculum aimed to complement the capacity of committed social imitation, attention and affection.
According to Dr Landa, "interpersonal synchrony refers to the situation where the patient has a good social contact and the ability to understand the social behavior of others."
"The additional component of the program focused on the rehabilitation of the main deficits of autism, ie the increase in contingent social imitation, theory of mind, the proper response in class, increasing their ability to interpret warning signals to people, thinking they could express what they thought, roasted and share attention with others.
Persistence of the effect.
Both groups experienced an improvement in language development, as expected. However, the group that received a special intervention in socialization experienced greater improvement in social development aspctos.
imitation behaviors paired with eye contact than doubled - from 17% to 42% in the group with interpersonal synchrony. Similarly, children who received more intensive treatment were able to use new skills of imitation in unfamiliar contexts, these improvements persisted at six months follow up after treatment.
Between the end of treatment and follow-up visit, children who were in the interpersonal synchrony condition remained the benefits achieved during the course of treatment "social", which was interpreted as a durable efficacy over time.
"In children who received no intervention specialist socialization noted that the benefits obtained during treatment were phased out.
This, according to the researchers, is a great find, as the deficit social aspect scoring in autism. In short, to Dr Landa, intervention in the social area is essential to change the outcome of autism.
Small changes, big difference
refer According to the researchers, one of the features of this intervention is that it applies only for a few hours a day to supplement the standard classroom activities, having shown that the six-month intervention these conditions improve social imitation skills in children with autism. This improvement is a fundamental pillar for aprenidaze wider social behavior. In short, they say, research and highlights the small changes during early childhood education can become significant improvements in social skills development. The study WAS
Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Landa and Dr. Dawson Have Disclosed Financial irrelevant relationships. J Child Psychol Psychiatry
. Published online December 8, 2010. NOTE
extracted from the Blog of Dr. Joaquín Díaz Atienza, Almería, Andalucía
0 comments:
Post a Comment