Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-2-2021

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

First Advisor

Myriam Kornisch

Second Advisor

Rebecca Lowe

Third Advisor

Carolyn Higdon

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of Early Intervention (EI) provided via a hybrid model of teletherapy and traditional face-to-face therapy for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) compared to children without ASD.

Methods: In total, 10 children were evaluated receiving early intervention via a hybrid model of teletherapy and traditional face-to-face therapy. The children were divided up into two groups. Group 1 consisted of 5 children with ASD and Group 2 consisted of children without ASD. All children were assessed using the Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale (RITLS).

Results: After 20 early intervention sessions, children with ASD demonstrated improvement in all skill areas, but the improvement was not statistically significant. In contrast, children without ASD showed a significant improvement in language expression (p = .041). In addition, children without ASD showed a significant improvement in the areas of pragmatics (p = .034) and language expression (p = .035) compared to children with autism.

Conclusion: The current study supports previous research suggesting that children with ASD may need more intervention sessions in order to fully master new communication skills as compared to children without ASD. Additionally, incorporating traditional 1:1 treatment may illicit visual focus on the SLP and stimulate social attention in order to further develop expressive and recessive skills.

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