FROM THE DETECTION OF INDICATORS OF RISK FOR AUTISM TO EARLY INTERVENTION

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by persistent deficits in communication and social interaction, besides repetitive patterns of behavior and restricted interests. The purpose of this program was to verify the effect of the application of a parenting teaching program/caregivers about their child's performance. An 18-month-old girl with ASD and her caregiver participated in the program. It is a quasi experimental single subject research design- AB (baseline, treatment and follow-up). An individualized program was implemented to teach the caregiver how to use playful procedures, aiming to promote social interaction and an increase in the interactive turns between both participants. The behaviors of both participants were registered in 40-min weekly sessions for a year. Data from the caregiver's responses were submitted to Tau-U. This statistic revealed that not all the caregiver's responses, in the intervention phase, showed strong effects of the treatment, while others attested its robustness. With 95% likelihood of success, the intervention procedures significantly affected the following caregiver's responses: "using children's songs" and "making a funny or complimentary commentary to have the child return to play." There was a great increase of child's initiatives and the caregiver's responses as well as both several types of responses (vocal/verbal, gestural and mixed). Thus, the caregiver's training program strongly influenced the turns frequency and the child's types of responses; and that the caregiver intervention, guided by a professional, can be effective and adequate to the Brazilian socioeconomic context.