10.3 Therapeutic programmes for autism

Question 0

What do treatments for autism usually involve to reduce?

Answer 0

Usually aim to reduce any usual behaviours and improve their communication and social skills. However this can be a challenge as difficult to motivate, and the response to treatment is usually poor.

Question 1

What are the five therapeutic programs for autism?

Answer 1

Behaviour modification, aversion therapy for self harm, medication, parental involvement, language training.

Question 2

What is one popular behavioural approach to treatment for children with autism?

Answer 2

Applied behaviour analysis. (ABA)

Question 3

What are the three stages in behavioural Modification, called discrete trial training.

Answer 3

1. Antecedent – request for individual to perform an action E.G choose a crayon John
2. Behaviour – a behaviour is responded from the person E.G John picks up a red crayon
3. Consequence – a reaction from the therapist E.G well done John now let’s draw a picture, what do you want to draw

Question 4

What did Lovaas show in his study, when investigating three groups of autistic people.one group had intensive 40 hour week therapy sessions. Another group had 10 hour week therapy session. The last group had no therapy.

Answer 4

47% of the intensive treatment group achieved normal intellectual functioning. Most joined mainstream school. In the control group, only 2% achieved normal functioning.

Question 5

What is the negative of therapy for treating children with autism?

Answer 5

Therapy can be quite expensive and not available to all children. Only parents with finances motivation a long term commitment are able to benefit from therapies.

Question 6

What is aversion therapy based on? Give an example.

Answer 6

Based on classical conditioning. And undesirable response is removed by associating the stimulus with another aversive stimulus. For example a boy injuring his head may have head banging paired with an electric shock. The boy then associates the pain of electric shock with headbanging behaviour which said then stop.

Question 7

What are two negatives of aversion therapy?

Answer 7

1. ethical implications with causing pain to another individual, particularly as it unable to give their own informed consent.
2. Does decrease specific behaviour, however is not easily generalisable to other behaviours.

Question 8

What does the drug haldol do on the effect of autistic symptoms and what are the drawbacks of usage?

Answer 8

Reduce social with Paul, stereotyped mortar behaviour and aggression. The drawbacks are that many children do not respond to this drug and has no affect on other symptoms. There are potential serious side-effects.

Question 9

What are the three negatives of medication?

Answer 9

1. no drug has been developed to reduce enough of autistic symptoms to be used long term.
2. Side effects may occur.
3. Many drugs have not been tested on children before.

Question 10

What is the benefit of medication?

Answer 10

Can provide relief from symptoms, this will relive some of the stress experienced by carers.

Question 11

What did koegal demonstrate that 30 hours of parent training is as effective as what?

Answer 11

200 hours of clinical treatment.