Autism Spectrum Disorders

Kase, Colleen, Mandell, David S., Nahmias, Allison S. (2014). Comparing cognitive outcomes
     children with autism spectrum disorders receiving community-based early intervention in one
     of three placements. Autism, 18(3), 311-320. Retrieved from
     http://ezproxy.trnty.edu:2553/10.1177/1362361312467865


     This was a very interesting article.  I currently work as a Parent Educator and I run a birth to three program.  My program "piggy backs" off the pre-k program when it comes to field trips, parent nights, etc.  The pre-k program uses a blended model which means we no longer have a separate classroom for children with IEPs beyond speech but rather, those students are included with their regular developing peers.
      This article looked at cognitive outcomes of students with autism spectrum disorder who were in one of three early intervention placements.  The article describes the general background of the students, race, and location subjects were taken from.  The three different placements discussed were, inclusive, mixed disability and autism-only preschool early intervention in an urban community.  With each group, the amount of hours and days per week attended at the preschool was discussed.  The amount of preschool attended per week in an inclusion setting ranged from three hours a day, three days a week and up to six hours a day, five days a week.  Special services in all settings were speech, physical therapy and occupational therapy.  Theses services ranged in frequency depending on the setting.  In the mixed disabilities classes, students attended between two and three hours a day for three days a week, however the number of days per week varied between two and five.  Again, students received speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy.  In the autism-only classes, there were three programs that had autism-support. Two of the programs used the Creative Curriculum paired with ABA instructional and behavior management strategies.  Some students were pulled out of the classroom and received one-to-one ABA for half of the program day. In these classrooms, students attended for five hours a day five days a week. 
     The article explains all of the specifics of the testing data, the specific background of the students, and the exact outcomes.  The relative benefit of inclusive preschool placement over mixed disability placements on cognitive outcomes was particularly apparent among children with more sever social impairments, with lower adaptive behavior skills, and with at least some expressive or receptive communication (Kase, Mandell, Nahmias, 2014) This article did not specify the severity of the students with autism spectrum disorder.  I personally believe that this needs to be considered.