The ‘Committee on Educational Interventions for Children with Autism’ made a set of recommendations about autism. They decided on the best practices for therapy for young children with autism. The Early Start Denver Model, or ESDM therapy, is best practice. Let’s find out why.
Every early intervention program for autism should:
- Start soon after diagnosis.
- Include an individualised program that addresses the child’s unique characteristics, strengths, weaknesses and challenges.
- A trained, professional, interdisciplinary team should design and oversee the program
- The intervention curriculum should focus on the specific areas of challenges in ASD.
- Have data collection to show the child’s progress.
- Adjust the teaching approach when progress slows.
- Have the child actively engaged in every activity and should include intensive intervention each week.
- Include parents in the intervention to set goals and priorities, and teach the parents to use the intervention strategies at home.
The MIND Institute also recommends that the intervention should be based on evidence based practices. This means that the intervention has been tested in scientific studies and published in scientific journals, and that the results showed the intervention practice to be effective.
At our Bondi Junction clinic, OneOnOne Children’s Therapy we have chosen the Early Start Denver Model, or ESDM therapy, for our young children with autism because it fulfils every single one of these requirements.
How does the ESDM therapy achieve best practice?
Intervention can begin with very young children.
The ESDM, or Early Start Denver Model has evidence for use with children as young as 6 month.
There is a curriculum checklist of 480 items that each child must achieve.
However, we individualise each child’s goals and objectives, as well as teaching steps, to match the child’s current ability and learning preferences. There is no ‘one style fits all’ in the child’s individual ESDM program.
Our team of Certified ESDM Therapists are also Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists or Psychologists.
They have completed all the Early Start Denver Model training workshops. They have then taken part in over 100 hours training to get to certification in the Early Start Denver Model. A certified ESDM Therapist can deliver the ESDM to make a difference to a child’s life.
The ESDM therapy is a developmental model.
The ESDM follows typical child development but targets the areas that are more challenging for young children children with autism.
We keep comprehensive data on every session and every activity.
This allows us to chart your child’s progress. It also allows us to recognise and modify a goal when your child may be progressing slowly.
We can incorporate the ESDM therapy into home and preschool activities.
Parents and staff are trained so the intensive hours of intervention are achieved.
The Parent-ESDM is also available.
This is a 12 week course so that parents can use the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) principles across more environments, allowing generalisation of skills.
The Early Start Denver Model is a best practice intervention for young children with autism. Over 30 years of research has gone in to this ground breaking intervention program. In our Bondi Junction clinic we constantly strive to deliver the Early Start Denver Model at a high level of fidelity. We were one of the first small private intervention clinics in New South Wales to offer this evidence based practice.
If you are interested in learning more about how the Early Start Denver Model can support your child’s learning and development, please call us on (02) 80657837 or email us. OneOnOne Children’s Therapy is located in Bondi Junction and Mascot in Sydney. Our team of therapists is trained at the highest levels of fidelity so we can improve children’s lives.
