News and Knowledge

As a result of the 2010 Applied Research Grant competition, OAR approved seven new research studies for funding in 2011 for a total of $210,000.   Today’s post features the study sponsored by “Running for OAR by the Shore,” a RUN team of the staff, parents, family, and friends of Lear North Elementary School in North Ridgeville, OH.

Study: Outcomes of a Community Center-Based Program for Toddlers with Autism Spectrum

Researchers: Sam Odom, Ph.D., director, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and Connie Wong, Ph.D., postdoctoral research fellow, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute

Purpose: To objectively evaluate a current center-based model of intervention so that families and professionals have access to practical information to make more fully informed choices in the education of young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Why Is This Study Needed?
Because more and more children with ASD are being identified and diagnosed earlier (before age 3), it’s important to establish evidence-based practices for toddlers with ASD. The current models of intervention are primarily home- and/or parent-based.

This study will look at the effects of center-based interventions for toddlers with ASD. The first goal is to compare outcomes of young children with ASD who attended an existing, comprehensive 20 hour/week, center-based toddler program to other young children with ASD in the same community who did not attend the program by examining program and school records. The second goal is to explore child and family characteristics along with intervention approaches affecting optimal outcomes. The third and final aim is to examine family perceptions on their satisfaction with early intervention services received, reasons for selecting specific early intervention programs, and perspectives on home-based and/or center-based intervention programs for toddlers with ASD by collecting data from a survey and through semi-structured interviews with families.

The results from the study will provide practical information to families in making educated treatment decisions for their toddlers recently diagnosed with ASD as well as to service providers in offering treatment recommendations related to center-based versus home-based programs and guiding intervention practices for individual children and families.

Study Methodology In Brief
The researchers will use records from a local Interagency Assessment Center, which conducts developmental evaluations for young children under the age of three suspected of having an ASD and runs early intervention programs serving the special learning needs of children 24 to 36 months of age with ASDs or suspected of having an ASD. The program includes early intervention services delivers within a classroom environment as well as support services for families.

Using records from the center, researchers will analyze and compare the developmental progress of children at the center compared to children who did not attend a center-based program.

The second part of the study will be a survey of parents of participants in Phase 1. Researchers hope to survey at least 70 families, equally divided between those whose children did attend the center’s program and those who did not attend a center-based program. The survey will ask questions about the child’s program and services to date and the parents’ reasons for selecting the specific early intervention programs and why they chose center- or home-based programs for their child, in addition to obtaining demographic information.

For Phase 3 of the study, the research team will conduct interviews with 30 to 40 families, again equally split, to get more in-depth information on parents’ decision on what intervention programs and services they chose and why and the results of those decisions.

Research Team
Dr. Samuel Odom is the director of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and currently the principal investigator on several federal grants related to evidence-based practices and the treatment of autism spectrum disorders. He is also the principal investigator of an Institute of Education Sciences postdoctoral training grant in which he currently mentors Dr. Wong.

Before coming to FPG, Dr. Connie Wong was an assistant professor of early childhood special education in the Department of Teacher Education at Cleveland State University and was the principal investigator of an Autism Speaks-funded intervention project targeting the facilitation of joint attention and symbolic play in young children with ASD through classroom teachers. Furthermore, she travels regularly to California from FPG and collaborates regularly with Mr. Akstinas and several of the Orange County (Calif.) Department of Education school systems.

Mr. Mark Akstinas is a school psychologist at the Interagency Assessment Centers (IAC) who facilitates the transition meetings to the IAC program as well as out to the preschool services with the various local school districts. He also presented the preliminary study of the IAC child outcomes with Dr. Wong at the International Meeting for Autism Research.