An increasing number of interventions have some empirical support ; others are emerging as potentially efficacious .
This evidence base up date examines the level of empirical support for interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) younger than 5 years old .
A two-year prospective follow-up study of community-based early intensive behavioural intervention and specialist nursery provision for children with autism spectrum disorders.
BACKGROUND This prospect i ve study compared outcome for pre-school children with autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ) receiving autism-specific nursery provision or home-based Early Intensive Behavioural Interventions ( EIBI ) in a community setting . METHODS Forty-four 23- to 53-month-old children with ASD participated ( 28 in EIBI home-based programmes ; 16 in autism-specific nurseries ) . Cognitive , language , play , adaptive behaviour skills and severity of autism were assessed at intake and 2 years later . RESULTS Both groups showed improvements in age equivalent scores but st and ard scores changed little over time . At follow-up , there were no significant group differences in cognitive ability , language , play or severity of autism . The only difference approaching significance ( p = .06 ) , in favour of the EIBI group , was for Vinel and Daily Living Skills st and ard scores . However , there were large individual differences in progress , with intake IQ and language level best predicting overall progress . CONCLUSIONS Home-based EIBI , as implemented in the community , and autism-specific nursery provision produced comparable outcomes after two years of intervention
An increasing number of interventions have some empirical support ; others are emerging as potentially efficacious .
This evidence base up date examines the level of empirical support for interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) younger than 5 years old .