جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « Pivotal Response Treatment » در نشریات گروه « پزشکی »

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Recent research in this area has focused on cognitive deficits such as future thinking and PASS processes (Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive) in this group of individuals, in addition to diagnostic symptoms. It seems these deficits can explain the behavioral symptoms of the disorder. Therefore, present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of pivotal response treatment on future thinking and PASS processes of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Methods and Materials: 

The research design was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest and follow up with control group. The study population included all children 8-6 years old with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder in Isfahan. The sample included 20 students with high-functioning autism selected through convenience sampling and divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in a 20- session’s intervention, 2 sessions per week. The Cognitive Assessment System (CAS), trip task, Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) were used for data collection. Two months after the end of the intervention, both groups were followed up using CAS and trip task.

The scores of Future thinking and cognitive processes (planning) were significantly improved in the experimental group, compared to the control group.

This study shows promising results for pivotal response treatment as an intervention for improving cognitive components in children with autism spectrum disorder and suggest that cognitive components are malleable through implementation of pivotal response treatment.

Children with autism spectrum disorder use different questions in social interactions in a restricted way. Since asking questions is a pivotal skill which is associated with language skills and learning opportunities, it is crucial to consider this skill as a treatment objective. Accordingly, the present study examined the effectiveness of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) on the correct use of different questions in the context of social interactions of children with autism spectrum disorder.

The present study was a single subject study with an A-B design. The population consisted of the children with ASD in Kahrizak maintenance, training, and rehabilitation center in Alborz Province. From this population, three children were selected using purposive sampling method. The research instruments were the diagnosis scale of autism spectrum disorder (ASDDS) and a researcher-made checklist. For this purpose, after the baseline condition, the intervention began and the pivotal response treatment was provided to participants for 10 weeks. The dependent variable (the correct use of different questions in the context of social interaction) was carefully measured by two observers. For data analysis, charting and stability envelop and the process for graphing, using within and between condition analyses, were employed to investigate the effectiveness of the independent variable on the dependent variable.

The mean scores of 39.59, 41.38, and 39.55 for the three participants in the baseline changed to 51.38, 49.71, and 50.61 after the intervention. In the visual analysis of the data graph, the intervention was shown to be effective for all three participants. The percentages of non-overlapping data (PND) in the two baseline and intervention conditions for the three participants were 90, 80, and 90, respectively. This effectiveness remained visible in the follow-up condition.

The results of the current study indicated that the use of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) improves the correct use of different questions in the context of social interaction in children with autism spectrum disorder. Accordingly, this method can be used in training and rehabilitation of this group of children.