Autism Therapy: home-based therapy

definition of home-based therapy: not yet defined.

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One-Year Follow-Up of the Outcome of a Randomized Controlled Trials of a Home-Based Intervention Programme for Children with Autism and Developmental Delay and their Families
Child: Care, Health and Development, by Rickards, AL, Walstab JE, Wright-Rossi RA, Simpson J., and Reddihough DS, published in 2009, summarized Feb 1, 2010

Home-based therapy for children with autism may be most helpful for cognitive and language skills.

Preschool children with autism in this study (59 children, 3 to 5 years old) attended special intervention centers and also received additional home-based services. There were 40 home visits over 1 year. This study asked whether improvements in cognitive skills and behaviors were still present one year after intervention was stopped. Improvements in cognitive and language skills lasted, but improvements in behavior did not. The authors said that children from more highly-stressed families benefited the most.


Parents’ Experiences of Home-Based Applied Behavior Analysis Programs for Young Children with Autism
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, by Grindle, CF, Kovshoff RP, Hastings RP, and Remington B., published in 2009, summarized Jun 11, 2009

Home-based therapies may be more beneficial to children with autism if therapists also provide parent support.

Parents are often involved with home-based early intensive behavior intervention (EIBI) for their children with autism. They say it helps them, their child, and the rest of the family. But there are difficulties: daily life activities along with the added therapy duties made some parents more stressed and they had less energy to continue the therapy. If therapy providers help support parents, home-based therapy may be carried out longer and be more helpful.


A Two-year Prospective Follow-up Study of Community-based Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention and Specialist Nursery Provision for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, by Magiati, I., Charman T., and Howlin P., published in 2007, summarized Nov 1, 2007

Home-based therapy and school-based therapy work equally well to help preschoolers with autism.

This study was designed to test whether preschool aged children with autism do better if they receive therapy at home or at preschool. The study included 44 children in the United Kingdom who received two years of therapy. While this study found that children did the same at home or in preschool, other studies have found that children do better when they receive therapy at home. This study found that the difference in outcome between home and preschool groups was not as large as the difference between individual children, no matter where they received therapy. The authors note that it is important that the children receive therapy from specialists.


A Randomized, Controlled Trial of a Home-Based Intervention Program for Children with Autism and Developmental Delay
Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, by Rickards, AL, Walstab JE, Wright-Rossi RA, Simpson J., and Reddihough DS, published in 2007, summarized Oct 23, 2007

Young children with autism do better if some therapy is given in the home.

This study was designed to see if children aged 3-5 had a better response to center-based therapy if they also received home-based therapy. There were 59 children in the study and 91% of them stayed in the program for the two years of the study. The study had only 12 girls. Children who received center-based therapy and home-based therapy were smarter and better behaved. The authors described the cost of the home-based program to be modest and worthwhile when balanced against the gains of the children.


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Home-Based Therapy as Intervention for Autism

Aug 11, 2008

Intensive Multi-Treatment Intervention (IMTI) is the autism treatment of choice for five families in Toronto, Canada. Jonathan Alderson, creator of IMTI, integrates a three-prong approach to the therapy. It combines  biological, behavioral and cognitive education, and family/therapist "Attitudinal Fitness" training to improve the child's life. Since the therapy requires 30-40 hours a week in a home-based playroom, families rely on volunteers. One mother explains the first of six phases, focused on building rapport with the child. "The approach doesn't attempt to eliminate the autistic behavior, but rather to join the child in what he's doing." The individualized program then introduces an adult-led instructive phase and a peer-play phase with the goal of the program to mainstream the child into school.

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