EFFECTS OF A MODEL TREATMENT APPROACH ON AUTISTIC ADULTS

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The primary purpose of this proposal is to evaluate the effectiveness of a new residential treatment modality implemented by Division TEACCH for adults with autism. This residential program is an extension of the cotherapy model pioneered and implemented in North Carolina twenty years ago. It is now extended to the collaboration between residents and program staff, in which every staff member also teaches his program function to the residents. The resulting skills will enable residents to participate in the program and prepare them for vocational placement in the community. Thirty subjects will be admitted to the treatment program, the Carolina Learning Center. A control group will be composed of 30 matched autistic adults on the waiting list. Subjects will also serve as their own controls, receiving four equally spaced evaluations beginning six months prior to admission. Both the residents' skills and the environmental structure developed by the staff will be evaluated. Measures will assess self-help, communication skills, vocational skills adaptive behavior, social and leisure skills for subjects. Environmental structures will be evaluated by standardized interview, questionnaires and direct observations. These measures will assess the degree to which the treatment programs are in effect, direct and indirect treatment costs, and staff attitudes and behavior. The analyses will compare the progress between groups, as well as the individuals' progress during baseline versus treatment. Additional analyses will describe the social processes and behavior profiles of individual subjects.