Assessing the Effectiveness of a Low-Cost, Evidence-Based, Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI) in IDEA Part C Early Intervention Settings
Abstract
Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face a unique set of challenges in several key areas of development, including their ability to interact socially with others, communicate their needs and desires effectively, and respond flexibly to events and changes in their environment. Research has indicated that these challenges are best addressed by providing ASD-specialized interventions and by starting these interventions within the first 3 years of life. Several different interventions have led to improvements in social, communication, and behavioral functioning and have accumulated enough research evidence to support their use with young children with ASD. In addition, some of these interventions have been found to reduce parents’ stress and to increase their feelings of competence as a parent, perhaps by improving their child’s social responsiveness. Most of these evidence-based interventions have been implemented successfully by clinicians or by parents, but have not yet been adapted for use community-based early intervention (EI) programs, where they may reach a broader segment of the population. The purpose of this project is to identify whether a specific ASD-focused intervention, Reciprocal Imitation Training (RIT), can be used by community-based EI providers to improve ASD symptoms in children and to improve stress levels in their parents. RIT is a short-term, focused intervention that teaches the spontaneous imitation of object use and gestures to children with ASD during ongoing play interactions. In addition to improving imitation skills, RIT has also led to improvements in children’s play, language, and social attention. This project will provide training in RIT to community providers working in publicly funded (IDEA Part C) EI programs serving children from birth to 3 years. These programs are available in every state, at no cost to families, and often serve as the first line of treatment for children with ASD. RIT is ideally suited for EI settings because it is inexpensive, play-based, easy to learn and implement, and can be taught to parents (as well as siblings). This project aligns with three goals listed in the Fiscal Year 2018 Autism Research Program Clinical Trial Award Areas of Interest: (1) Behavioral, cognitive, and other non-pharmacological therapies; (2) Dissemination/implementation of clinically validated interventions; and (3) Healthcare provider-focused training or tools to improve healthcare delivery for individuals with ASD. We have learned from our preliminary studies and current work that most EI providers have children with ASD in their caseloads, yet they are not satisfied with the interventions they are using, and many do not feel comfortable identifying treatment goals, providing intervention to children, or coaching parents of children with ASD. We also know that they report enjoying the RIT training activities and indicate that the training leads to increased comfort and skills in working with the families they serve. The proposed study will help us identify the extent to which RIT impacts important family and child outcomes, as well as whether certain characteristics of children or families, or how aspects in the way RIT is used by providers may impact its effectiveness. This information will lead to a more refined approach to training EI providers in RIT, as well as tailoring the intervention to better match the needs of different families. This project has the potential to enable more children with ASD to receive evidence-based, specialized intervention during birth to 3 years, when it is likely to have the greatest impact. We expect that the receipt of early, ASD-specialized intervention will improve children’s social communication and ability to interact with their families, as well as other children, and that these improvements will have positive effects over the long term. We also expect that caregivers who use RIT will experience increased confide
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 16, 2019
- Source ID
- W81XWH1910293
Entities
People
- Wendy L Stone
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of Washington