Measures of time to speech and language therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder

Purpose To identify a time parameter of speech and language therapy for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders assisted by the association of both direct and indirect actions, as only by indirect shares. Methods The design of this study is the Clinical Trial pilot. The sample was composed of 11 children with autism spectrum disorders, 4-10 years old. These children were randomly divided into two groups: six were receiving both direct (individual session) and indirect intervention (parent orientation session) (Therapy Group - TG), and five were receiving exclusively indirect intervention (Orientation Group - OG). We used the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) to interview the mothers; Interaction Assessment (IA) and Sample of Vocal Behavior (SVB) to assess and to measure the evolution of children on three occasions: at the beginning, six months later and 12 months later. Results We observed there was greater evolution, in velocity and extension, in the first semester of TG in the Autism Behavior Checklist. In the Interaction Assessment and Sample of Vocal Behavior there were decreased values, specially between 0 and 1 time. Conclusion The six month period is strong evidence for indirect action and for the association between indirect and direct actions. This measure of time can be a parameter for speech and language therapy for children with autism spectrum disorders. .