Efficacy of communication DEALL--an indigenous early intervention program for children with autism spectrum disorders.

OBJECTIVE: To establish the efficacy of Communication DEALL, an indigenous early intervention program; in the management of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
METHODS: ABA design of pre intervention assessment, intervention and post intervention assessment was utilized, across an 8 month period. The first set of measures covered the assessment of developmental skills in the eight areas of gross motor skills, fine motor skills, activities of daily life skills, receptive language, and expressive language, cognitive, social and emotional skills. The second independent measure was the rating of each child on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale. Parental observations and parental estimation of the child's progress were also recorded. The study was conducted in the Com DEALL units in Bangalore, including thirty subjects diagnosed with ASD. Main Outcome Measures were developmental skill gains and decrease in behavioral issues.
RESULTS: Statistically significant increase in all eight developmental domains and statistically significant decrease in behavioral symptoms as measured by the CARS, were seen.
CONCLUSIONS: Thus, the Communication DEALL program shows promise as an effective early intervention program. It also indicates a need to further enhance the stabilization of the pre linguistic skills such as maintenance of eye contact, attention, sitting tolerance and compliance, in the program.