Study on the effectiveness of the Denver Model of Early Care for Children with Autism and at Risk of ASD. Systematic review

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorders are a high-frequency group of developmental disorders with a wide variety in the manifestation of key symptoms. The results of numerous studies point to the extremely important role of early initiation of corrective and developmental measures in the further trajectory of the development of a child with autism. To date, the Denver Early Intervention Model, which has been implemented in the practice of providing help to children with ASD for about 25 years, is the most well-known in early intervention services. During this time, a large number of studies have been conducted and evidence of efficacy has been obtained, but the data of scientific studies are very contradictory. The purpose of this work was to review the available scientific literature reflecting the results of research on the application of the Denver model in working with children of early and early preschool age with ASD and the risk of ASD. The effects of the model are considered separately for different types of studies, from case studies to meta-analyses of data, due to differences in results. In general, the presented results of studies on the effectiveness of the Denver model indicate positive results in terms of reducing the severity of autism symptoms, developing social skills and intelligence. At the same time, there is a reduced effect on the generalization of data in meta-analyses, which may be due to the wide variety of diagnostic methods used, which examine one area of development, but reflect different aspects of it.