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Effectiveness and feasibility of the early start denver model implemented in a group-based community childcare

Giacomo Vivanti1, Jessica Paynter, Ed Duncan

  • 1Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora Campus, Melbourne, VIC, 3086, Australia, g.vivanti@latrobe.edu.au.

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
|June 30, 2014
PubMed

Insights

The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) is effective in community long-day care settings for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ESDM led to greater gains in developmental rate and receptive language compared to other interventions.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental psychology
  • Clinical psychology
  • Special education

Background:

  • The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) has shown efficacy in 1:1 settings for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
  • Further research is needed to evaluate ESDM's effectiveness and feasibility in community-based, long-day care settings with a higher child-staff ratio.
  • Understanding the impact of ESDM in diverse service delivery models is crucial for optimizing early intervention for ASD.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the effectiveness and feasibility of the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) in a long-day care community service.
  • To compare the outcomes of preschoolers with ASD receiving ESDM in a 1:3 child-staff ratio setting with those receiving a different intervention.
  • To assess the impact of ESDM on developmental rate, cognitive, adaptive, and social skills in young children with ASD.

Main Methods:

  • A comparative study involving 27 preschoolers with ASD receiving ESDM (15-25 hours/week for 12 months) in a long-day care setting (1:3 ratio).
  • Comparison group consisted of 30 preschoolers with ASD receiving a different intervention in a similar community service.
  • Outcomes measured included cognitive, adaptive, social skills, developmental rate, and receptive language.

Main Results:

  • Children in both ESDM and the comparison group demonstrated improvements in cognitive, adaptive, and social skills.
  • Participants receiving the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) showed significantly greater gains in developmental rate.
  • The ESDM group also exhibited significantly higher improvements in receptive language skills compared to the control group.

Conclusions:

  • The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) is an effective intervention for preschoolers with ASD within a long-day care community service setting, even with a 1:3 child-staff ratio.
  • ESDM demonstrates particular strengths in enhancing developmental rate and receptive language skills in young children with ASD.
  • The findings support the feasibility and effectiveness of adapting ESDM for broader community-based early intervention services for autism spectrum disorder.

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