A MODEL of THERAPY Mediated by Parents IN Pervasive Developmental Disorders

Background:  The social impairment, communicative, attentive and play skills shared reduce opportunities for children with Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) to take advantage of natural experiences of everyday interaction. The development of socio-communicative skills in PDD was, in fact, the goal of many research from which they originated many types of therapeutic intervention.

Objectives:  Among the treatments currently used in our contribution concerns a model of Therapy Mediated by Parents (TMG) experienced at the outset, at the UOC Neuropsychiatry Unit of “Bambino Gesù” Children's Hospital in Rome. This model aims to enhance mutual communication and social interaction in a setting starring children and their parents. They become mediators of the proposed therapy in the clinical setting, proposing it to the child in his daily environment.

Methods:  We created a detailed manual of the TMG’s steps which each operator is required to follow. In order to standardize the treatment all therapists had one meeting per month (6 monthly meetings) before and after the treatment verifying the adherence to the manuals. The sample consisted of 26 children with DGS who followed a cognitive-behavioral therapy by up to 6 months. The subjects belonging to the two groups were matched 1:1 for age, sex and diagnosis according to DSM IV.

Results:  The comparison between the two groups after treatment showed a significant difference in the communications’ scales for the group that followed the TMG.

Conclusions:  A first analysis of data shows a statistically significant difference between the experimental group and control groups in the areas of communication, measured by ADOS and percentage of children who become verbal (use of more than 5 words). In order to further verify the effectiveness of the treatment we propose to increase the sample, systematically measure and carry out follow up at 6 months and a year.