A Preliminary Study of Telepractice Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Document Type : Original article

Authors

Reyhane Mohamadi   1  mohyeddin teymouri sangani 2  Noureddin Nokhostin Ansari  3  zahra soleymani  4

1 Rehabilitation Research Centre, Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation Science, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Speech and language pathology, School of Rehabilitation, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 2. Department of Physiotherapy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3. Research Center for War-affected People, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 Department of Speech Therapy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental neurological disorder characterized by impaired social interactions. The aim of study was to examine the telepractice Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching (PMT) for ASD children.

Methods: This study followed a pretest–posttest design. 11 mothers of children with ASD aged 26-71 months (mean=47.09 months, SD=14) were included. Mothers were given the necessary training on the PMT for 12 one-hour weekly sessions, through the WhatsApp software. The self-reported McArthur-Bates communication development inventories (CDIs) was the main outcome measure. The data were analyzed using Wilcoxon test.

Results: Mean scores of expressive and perceptive words significantly improved after treatment with large effects sizes (Cohen’s d >0.8). The activity and gestures section scores showed significant improvements after treatment in the areas of communication gestures, play and routines, working with objects and imitation of adult activities (Cohen’s d >0.8).

Conclusion: This study provides preliminary evidence that the telepractice of PMT is effective for children with autism spectrum disorder. Further study with a rigours design is warranted.

Keywords

Adult  Autism spectrum disorder  Child  Gestures  Imitative behavior 

doi: HTTP://DX.DOI.ORG/10.18502/JIMC.V5I3.10943