Early Childhood Intervention for Asperger’s and High-Functioning Autism
“What are the most important treatment strategies or program goals for treating younger children with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism?” Although treatment programs may differ in philosophy and emphasis on particular treatment strategies, they share many common goals. There is a growing consensus that important components of effective early childhood intervention for Asperger’s and HFA include the following: entry into treatment as soon as a diagnosis is “seriously considered” rather than deferring until a “definitive” diagnosis is made functional adaptive skills that prepare the youngster for increased responsibility and independence functional, spontaneous communication skills implementation of techniques to apply learned skills to new environments and situations (i.e., generalization) and to maintain functional use of these skills in the educational setting, low student-to-teacher ratio to allow sufficient amounts of one-on-one time and small-group instruction