Maine Set To Lead Multi-State Autism Study

In October, Spring Harbor Hospital in Westbrook, Maine joined a new and wide-reaching autism research project, backed by a $1.2 million grant, to study cases of severe autism across six states.

The project, which this blog reported on in August, involves the recently founded Autism and Developmental Disorders Inpatient Research Collaborative (ADDIRC), consisting of hospitals in New Hampshire, Maryland, Colorado and Pennsylvania, as well as the Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Study (RICART).

Perspectives Corporation joined RICART in August of 2013.

The grant comes from the Simons Foundation and the NLM Family Foundation. The study will be led by Dr. Matthew Siegel of the Spring Harbor Hospital and is expected to included between 500 to 1,000 children, each of whom will be tracked over a period of multiple years.

Discrete Trial Training for the Treatment of Autism

Discrete Trail Training (DTT) is one of several teaching strategies that are a part of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA); one of the most studied and effective therapeutic methods for helping children with autism and related developmental disorders.

DTT was developed in the 1970s by doctors at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) who designed this method of training on the principals of ABA; that when a behavior is rewarded, it is more likely to be repeated. While ABA looks at behavior in these terms of a cue, the behavior and consequence, DTT further compartmentalizes skills into small, or "discrete," components which are systematically taught one by one.

In a landmark study conducted at the UCLA in 1987, it was found that nearly half (47%) of children receiving ABA therapy were able to achieve normal intellectual and educational functioning by the end of first grade. Since then, ABA and DTT have become widely recognized as safe, effective, and proven treatments for autism, and have been endorsed by a number of state and federal agencies including the U.S. Surgeon General and the American Psychological Association.

Perspectives Corporation’s Autism Center of Excellence designs and develops highly effective treatment programs tailored to the unique nature of each individual, while utilizing Applied Behavior Analysis and Discrete Trial Training methodologies, for children and adults with autism throughout Rhode Island.

For more information about Perspectives Corporation's Autism Center of Excellence, visit perspectivescorporation.com/autism.