Hospital of St. John of God, Austria.
Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
Autism. 2021 Aug;25(6):1640-1652. doi: 10.1177/1362361321999905. Epub 2021 Mar 27.
Although there is growing evidence of the effectiveness and importance of certain early intervention programs for children with autism spectrum disorders, little is known about predictive information before intervention to search for the most accurate therapeutic approach for the individual child and his family. In children with autism spectrum disorder, atypical gesture use is one core deficit with consequences for the development of social interaction and language, but there is little knowledge about the relevance of early gesture use in predicting developmental outcomes of children receiving early interventions targeting social-communicative behaviors such as the Early Start Denver Model. In this study, we found that the parent-rated "Gestural Approach Behavior" subscale of the Pervasive Developmental Disorder Behavior Inventory was predictively associated with clinically assessed developmental changes after 1 year of intervention. This subscale was as strong a predictor as nonverbal development before intervention. Our findings suggest that children who use more gestures in daily life might be better equipped to respond to learning opportunities offered by early interventions targeting social communication strategies such as the Early Start Denver Model. Furthermore, we conclude that the parent-rated questionnaire might be a valuable and economic set of questions with high relevance for clinical assessments.
尽管越来越多的证据表明某些自闭症谱系障碍儿童早期干预计划的有效性和重要性，但在干预前很少有关于预测信息的了解，无法为个体儿童及其家庭寻找最准确的治疗方法。在自闭症谱系障碍儿童中，非典型手势的使用是一个核心缺陷，会对社交互动和语言的发展产生影响，但对于早期手势使用在预测接受早期干预的儿童的发展结果方面的相关性，如早期丹佛模式，了解甚少。在这项研究中，我们发现，广泛性发育障碍行为问卷的“手势趋近行为”分量表与干预 1 年后临床评估的发展变化具有预测性关联。该分量表与干预前的非言语发育一样是强有力的预测指标。我们的研究结果表明，在日常生活中使用更多手势的儿童可能更有能力应对早期干预针对社交沟通策略（如早期丹佛模式）所提供的学习机会。此外，我们的结论是，父母评定的问卷可能是一套具有高临床相关性且经济实用的、有价值的问题集。
