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Changes in Autistic Symptoms and Adaptive Functioning of Children Receiving Early Behavioral Intervention in a Community Setting: A Latent Growth Curve Analysis

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Abstract

Despite showing effects in well-controlled studies, the extent to which early intensive behavioral intervention (EBI) produces positive changes in community-based settings remains uncertain. Thus, our study examined changes in autistic symptoms and adaptive functioning in 233 children with autism receiving EBI in a community setting. The results revealed nonlinear changes in adaptive functioning characterized by significant improvements during the intervention and a small linear decrease in autistic symptoms from baseline to follow-up. The intensity of intervention, initial age, IQ and autistic symptoms were associated either with progress during the intervention or maintenance during the follow-up. The next step to extend this line of research involves collecting detailed data about intervention strategies and implementation fidelity to produce concrete recommendations for practitioners.

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Notes

  1. Special education technicians is a terminology unique to the province of Quebec and refers to college-level technicians.

  2. In order to provide estimates of uncertainty for the mean scores across time, Table S3 available in the online supplements provides residual variances for Model 6 at each time points.

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Acknowledgments

This paper was written in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Ph.D. degree in Psychoeducation at the Université de Montréal by the first author. This research project was supported in part by a Canadian Graduate Scholarship to the first author, by a salary award from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé to the third and fourth authors, and by a grant from the Ministère de la santé et des services sociaux du Québec to the fourth author. All authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding

This research project was supported in part by a Canadian Graduate Scholarship to the first author, by a salary award from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé to the third and fourth authors, and by a grant from the Ministère de la santé et des services sociaux du Québec to the fourth author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. École de Psychoéducation, Université de Montréal, Succursale Centre-Ville, C.P. 6128, Montréal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada

    Isabelle Préfontaine, Julien Morizot & Marc J. Lanovaz

  2. Centre de recherche de l’institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    Marc J. Lanovaz & Mélina Rivard

  3. Département de psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    Mélina Rivard

Authors
  1. Isabelle Préfontaine
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  2. Julien Morizot
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  3. Marc J. Lanovaz
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  4. Mélina Rivard
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Contributions

IP conducted the statistical analyses and wrote the original draft of the manuscript. JM supervised the analyses and the writing. MJL supervised the writing, provided critical revisions and helped with edition. MR was responsible for data curation. All the co-authors commented on the manuscript and approved its submission.

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Correspondence to Isabelle Préfontaine.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of [removed for blind review] and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

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Parents provided informed consent for them and their child.

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Préfontaine, I., Morizot, J., Lanovaz, M.J. et al. Changes in Autistic Symptoms and Adaptive Functioning of Children Receiving Early Behavioral Intervention in a Community Setting: A Latent Growth Curve Analysis. J Autism Dev Disord 53, 901–917 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05373-2

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