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Assessing and improving child care: a personal appearance index for children with autism
L E McClannahan1, G G McGee, G S MacDuff
1Princeton Child Development Institute, New Jersey 08540.
Insights
A new appearance index improved personal care for children with autism. Moving from institutions to group homes significantly enhanced children's appearance and cleanliness, with ongoing feedback further aiding staff training.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Applied Behavior Analysis
- Disability Studies
Background:
- Children with autism often require specialized care and support systems.
- Residential placement significantly impacts the personal care and appearance of individuals with developmental disabilities.
- Objective measures are needed to assess and improve personal care standards in institutional and community-based settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate an index for assessing children's physical appearance and personal care.
- To compare the effects of different residential environments (home, group homes, institution) on child appearance.
- To evaluate the use of data-based feedback for improving personal care among children with autism.
Main Methods:
- Development of a children's physical appearance and personal care index.
- Assessment of children with autism across various residential settings: home, established group homes, new group homes, and institutions.
- Implementation of a multiple baseline design to track changes in personal care following residential placement changes.
- Utilizing the appearance index for data-based feedback to train caregivers in group homes.
Main Results:
- A significant improvement in personal appearance and cleanliness was observed when children transitioned from institutional settings to community-based, family-style group homes.
- The appearance index effectively provided comparative data on the impact of different residential placements.
- Data-based feedback derived from the index served as a successful training tool for group home staff, leading to enhanced child appearance.
Conclusions:
- The developed appearance index is a valuable tool for evaluating and comparing the effectiveness of different residential care models for children with autism.
- Community-based, family-style group homes facilitate better personal care and appearance outcomes compared to large institutions.
- Ongoing, data-driven feedback is crucial for caregivers to maintain and improve high standards of personal care for individuals with severe developmental disabilities.
Abstract:
An index of children's physical appearance and personal care was developed and used to assess youngsters with autism who lived (a) at home, (b) in an established group home, (c) in new group homes, and (d) in a large institution. Subsequently, a multiple baseline design across participants documented major changes in personal appearance and cleanliness when children moved from an institution to community-based, family-style group homes. Finally, data-based feedback generated by the appearance index was used as a training tool enabling group home staff to further improve child appearance. This research demonstrates how an evaluation instrument can be used to obtain comparative data, measure some effects of different residential placements, and provide ongoing feedback to caregivers to promote high standards of personal care among persons with severe developmental disabilities.