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Efficacy of Communication DEALL—An Indigenous Early Intervention Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Abstract

Objective

To establish the efficacy of Communication DEALL, an indigenous early intervention program; in the management of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Methods

ABA design of pre intervention assessment, intervention and post intervention assessment was utilized, across an 8 month period. The first set of measures covered the assessment of developmental skills in the eight areas of gross motor skills, fine motor skills, activities of daily life skills, receptive language, and expressive language, cognitive, social and emotional skills. The second independent measure was the rating of each child on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale. Parental observations and parental estimation of the child’s progress were also recorded. The study was conducted in the Com DEALL units in Bangalore, including thirty subjects diagnosed with ASD. Main Outcome Measures were developmental skill gains and decrease in behavioral issues.

Results

Statistically significant increase in all eight developmental domains and statistically significant decrease in behavioral symptoms as measured by the CARS, were seen.

Conclusions

Thus, the Communication DEALL program shows promise as an effective early intervention program. It also indicates a need to further enhance the stabilization of the pre linguistic skills such as maintenance of eye contact, attention, sitting tolerance and compliance, in the program.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Ms. Alphonsa Joseph, Lecturer, Dept of Psychology, SRCISH, for the CARS assessments of the subjects.

Contributions

P. K.; Developed and implemented the Communication DEALL program, envisaged the current efficacy study, provided access to subjects enrolled in the program and wrote the paper. S. S.; Carried out the pre and post therapy evaluations and the statistical analysis of the data, as a part of her Master’s dissertation at SRCISH under the guidance of P. K., N. S.; coordinated and facilitated the data collection.

Conflict of Interests

The Communication DEALL program was developed by the first author.

Role of Funding Source

In the form of grants, equipment, drugs or all of these; Nil.

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Correspondence to Prathibha Karanth.

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Karanth, P., Shaista, S. & Srikanth, N. Efficacy of Communication DEALL—An Indigenous Early Intervention Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Indian J Pediatr 77, 957–962 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-010-0144-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-010-0144-8

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