Group Intensive Family Training (GIFT) for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

Early, intensive behavioral intervention is effective in treating children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), but can be cost prohibitive. Expenses may be defrayed if children can benefit from parents acting as therapists. This quantitative case series examines the efficacy of the Group Intensive Family Training (GIFT) program, a 12-week (180 h, delivered 3 h each weekday) parent-training for preschoolers with ASDs. Parents were individually mentored in the hands-on application of behavior analytic techniques, implementing these skills in vivo within a group of six parent-child dyads. Seventy-two parents and children (ages 25-68 months) with ASDs participated in this study. Children's cognitive and adaptive functioning was assessed before and after the intervention program. Analyses revealed average gains of eight standard score points on the Mullen Early Learning Composite and five standard score points on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Composite after 12 weeks of treatment. Additionally, 14% and 11% of the children moved from the 'impaired' to 'non-impaired' range on Mullen and Vineland composite scores, respectively. This preliminary investigation suggests that GIFT's behavioral, group parent-training can lead to significant, yet cost-and time-efficient gains for children with ASDs. Results must be interpreted with caution because of the absence of a control group. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTIONParents and professionals alike are increasingly concerned with the rising rates of individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), an often disabling continuum of neuro-developmental conditions (Fombonne, 2003). Autism's core symptoms include a reduced capacity for reciprocal social interaction, qualitative impairments in verbal and nonverbal communication, and the presence of restricted or repetitive patterns of behavior (Volkmar & Cohen, 2005). Especially in the absence of effective treatment, young children with autism often develop increasingly problematic behavior, including disruptive actions, aggression, and self-injury (Durand, 1990).Fortunately, more clinicians now routinely screen for ASDs in younger patients, allowing diagnosis in children as young as 18-24 months (Johnson, Myers, & American Academy of Pediatrics, Council on Children with Disabilities, 2007a;Matson, Wilkins, & Gonzalez, 2008). The primary goal of early diagnosis is early intervention, which is particularly important in light of negative correlations between age at onset of intervention and treatment gains (Fenske, Zalinski, Krantz, & McClannahan, 1985). The National Research Council, Committee on Educational Interventions for Children with Autism (2001) reports that children who receive individualized, intensive intervention starting at an early age show the most dramatic treatment response. Their guidelines recommend preschoolers receive a minimum of 25 h of treatment a week, year-round.Treatment programs applying behavioral principles have received strong empirical support (Cohen, Amerine-Dickens & S...

A Brief Group Intervention Using Video Games to Teach Sportsmanship Skills to Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Perhaps offering booster-training sessions to parents and/or participants would facilitate the maintenance and generalization of the target skills (Anan, Warner, McGillivary, Chong, & Hines, 2008). Although generalization data was collected during the present study, the generalization probes involved the same participants, clinicians, and/or environmental settings as the baseline and intervention probes.…”

Overview of Meta-Analyses on Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Table 2 provides characteristics of each study included across meta-analyses. As shown in Table 2, most studies were included in two, three, or four meta-analyses, except for one study that was included in all five meta-analyses (Smith et al 2000) and eight studies that were included in only one meta-analysis apiece (Anan et al 2008;BakerEriczen et al 2007;Ben-Itzchak et al 2008;Harris et al 1991;Harris and Handleman 2000;Boyd and Corley 2001, Matos and Mustaca 2005, and Reed et al 2007b.…”

“…Although all meta-analyses synthesized comprehensive treatment programs for young children with ASDs based on applied behavior analysis, the specific definitions of the intervention varied from restriction to EIBI based on the manuals of Lovaas (e.g., Lovaas 1981, 2003; inclusion criterion of Reichow and Wolery 2009) to broader definitions of EIBI leading to the inclusion of programs such as Pivotal Response Treatment and Group Intensive Family Training (studies by Baker-Ericzen et al 2007 andAnan et al 2008, respectively; inclusion criterion of Virués-Ortega 2010), which have significant differences from the treatment described in the Lovaas manuals and many conceptualizations of EIBI. Care must be taken when conducting meta-analyses not to combine studies evaluating different independent variables (frequently referred to in meta-analysis as the apples and oranges problem; Borenstein et al 2009), which appears to be a possible confound that cannot be ruled out of all metaanalyses included in this overview.…”

A Systematic Review of Social Communication and Interaction Interventions for Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Other studies within this category were open studies, most of which were small pilot studies (74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80)(81)(82)(83)(84)(85)(86)(87)(88)(89)(90)(91)(92); others were randomized small pilot studies (93) or the further analysis of previously published studies (94,95).…”