A parent education and skills training early intervention for children with autism

自闭症是一种严重的障碍障碍，对社会交往、交流以及行为、兴趣和活动产生不利影响。在过去的9年里，我们的团队对111名患有自闭症的澳大利亚儿童和青少年进行了一项跟踪研究。年轻人的情绪和行为困扰程度仍然很高，总体上没有改善。自闭症儿童的父母承受着巨大的压力；报告说家庭功能高度紊乱和精神健康问题。虽然没有治愈的方法，但早期(5岁以下)提供帮助的儿童受益最大。有几种基于强化行为和教育管理的有希望的干预措施，例如，要求在两年内每周接触40小时的治疗师。作为广泛可用的治疗选择，这样的计划既昂贵又不切实际。培训父母理解和管理他们的孩子也显示了希望。这项研究将评估父母技能培训和教育治疗计划与支持性治疗和普遍提供的社区服务相比的有效性。治疗师将遵循一份治疗手册，以确保治疗方法的一致性和可复制性。自闭症儿童及其家人的进展将在治疗后立即以及在治疗后一年和两年重新评估，以确定治疗的即时和长期效果。如果治疗被证明是有用的，我们将建立一个明确的、具有成本效益的、实用和有效的早期治疗模式，可以很容易地教授给专业人员，并在整个幼儿服务中广泛传播。

Autism is a severely handicapping disorder adversely affecting social interaction, communication, and behaviour, interests and activities. Over the past 9 years our team has conducted a follow-up study of a large group of 111 Australian children and adolescents with autism. The young people have continued to have very high levels of emotional and behavioural disturbance and generally do not improve. Parents of children with autism are under significant amounts of stress; reporting high levels of disturbed family functioning and mental health problems. Although there is no cure, children benefit most when early help is provided (under 5 years). There are several promising interventions based on intensive behaviour and educational management, for example requiring 40 hours per week of therapist contact over 2 years. Such programs are costly and impractical as widely available treatment options. Training parents to understand and manage their child also shows promise. This study will evaluate the effectiveness of a parent skills training and education treatment program compared to supportive therapy, and to generally available community services. The therapists will follow a treatment manual that will ensure a consistent and replicable approach. The progress of the children with autism and their families will be reassessed immediately after treatment, and at 1 and 2 years post-treatment in order to ascertain immediate and long-term effects of the treatment. If treatment proves to be of use, we will have established a defined, cost efficient, practical and effective model of early treatment that can be easily taught to professionals and widely disseminated throughout early childhood services.