Early speech therapy intervention in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Heloisa Adhmann Ferreira, Paula Mello Pacheco, Thais Helena Ferreira Santos and 1 others
PMID 40767667WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism who completed 24 weeks of DIR/Floortime speech therapy showed significant gains in communicative acts and socio-emotional skills.
However, all participants remained in the deficient range for emotional and functional development, meaning the intervention improved scores but did not resolve the underlying deficits.
Key findings
01After 24 weekly sessions of DIR/Floortime-based speech therapy, children showed a statistically significant average increase of 0.8 communicative acts per minute and a 6.66% increase in communicative space.
02Scores for self-regulation, relationship formation, and two-way communication improved significantly, but all children remained within the deficient reference range for emotional and functional development.
03Use of gestural communication decreased, with some children replacing gestures with vocal or verbal means.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study had no control group, so it is impossible to know if the improvements were due to the specific DIR/Floortime intervention or simply maturation and general therapy exposure. All participants remained in the deficient range on the FEAS, limiting the clinical interpretation of the statistical significance of the score increases. The sample size was small (20 children), and the study was single-site. The authors note the study was limited in time and subject.
Declared interests
The study was supported by a master's scholarship from CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel Foundation). Other authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the statistically significant score improvements as evidence that the children's socio-emotional deficits were resolved. The paper explicitly states that all children remained in the deficient range on the FEAS after the intervention.