Étude rétrospective des bénéfices développementaux et comportementaux d'une intervention psycho-éducative pour des enfants porteurs d'un Trouble du Spectre de l'Autisme

The purpose of the study is to measure the impact of a 4-year-psycho-educative intervention on the skills and behaviors of 26 children with autism located a Day Center Hospital of High Normandy. Communication, autonomy and social abilities are the main area stimulated in order to develop the skills of the children. Autistic behaviors are referring to the behavioral patterns associated to autism which could limit social integration as well as the availability of the child for the proposed acquisitions. To estimate the children's progress during the period of intervention, tests and scales adapted for autism, recommended and validated are used (PEP, Vineland and ECA). The evolution rates are calculated from the scores obtained every year in these evaluations. They allow to quantify in percentage the evolution between two dates. These analysis show evidence of 89% of increasing in psycho-educative abilities (PEP), 79% in socio-adaptive competencies (Vineland) and 73% of decreasing in autistic behavior (ECA). The children's acquisitions testify of progress in favor of new skills development from one year to the next: faster progress are observed at the beginning of the program, a threshold effect is noticed after several years of intervention. The regulation of the autistic behavior is globally more and more effective during the intervention, although punctual periods of outbreaks of this behavior are observed. The length of the intervention also has a favourable impact on the progress in all the domains.