Study for establishment of early intervention program for children suspected Developmental Disorders and their parents

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We have developed an early intervention program for children with suspected Autistic Spectrum Disorders(ASD) and their parents. This program was designed to be implemented within the scheme of childcare support systems in the community., The study was conducted in cooperation with Child Rearing Main Support Center to establish a support model as one of the childcare support systems. The effects of this program including parents behavior were analyzed. Parents' continuous articipation in the program over two cycles demonstrated the following effects :(1) the parents' mental state has changed through four stages ;(2) the parents' depression levels were slightly reduced, and the parenting stress, especially the stress on mothers' ompetence for parenting was reduced ;(3) the children showed increases of the developmental quotients in the total areas or the language-social area according to the Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development at the early stage ;(4) the children learned actions and acquired skills necessary for the life in a group, while their mothers learned how to specifically communicate with their children ; and(5) most of the children finally attended a nursery school or kindergarten, and 60 percent of the middle class children required less support. Such a program operated within the scheme of childcare support systems in the community can offer an opportunity to support children with ASD and their parents. The study has showed that our program was beneficial for both parents and children.