Dr Michelle Braithwaite

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Autism and Stronger Families
An early intervention perspective

• Dr Sylvia Rodger
• (School of Health
• Rehabilitation Sciences)

• Dr Michelle Braithwaite
• Dr Deb Keen
• Dr Anne Jobling
• (School of Education)

With support from the Australian Government
Department of Family and Community Services
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• Photo
• Strengthening the family and community networks
  of young children with ASD by increasing
  knowledge of best-practice and developing skills
  within natural contexts and routines.

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Family-centred practice

• Family-professional collaboration
• Family priorities/goals
• Family strengths and resources
• Dunst, C. (2002). Family-centered practices
  Birth through high school. Journal of Special
  Education, 36, 139-148.
• Knox, M., Parmenter, T.R., Atkinson, N.
  Yazbeck, M. (2000). Family control - The views of
  families who have a child with a disability.
  Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual
  Disability, 13, 17-28.

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Participants

• Baron-Cohen, S., Allen, J., Gillberg, C.
  (1992). Can autism be detected at 18 months? The
  needle, the haystack, and the CHAT. British
  Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 839-843.
• Robins, D. L., Fein, D., Barton, M. L., Green,
  J. A. (2001). The Modified Checklist for Autism
  in Toddlers An initial study investigating the
  early detection of autism and pervasive
  developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and
  Developmental Disorders, 31, 131-144.

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2 day workshop
community session
home facilitation
family links
community links
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Parent Workshop

• Positive, strengths-based approach
• Provision of information
• Linking families

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Synchrony

• parent sensitivity to childs focus of attention
• levels of synchrony related to later language
  outcomes
• Siller, M. Sigman, M. (2002). The behaviors of
  parents of children with autism predict the
  subsequent development of their childrens
  communication. Journal of Autism and
  Developmental Disorders, 32, 77-89.

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Home facilitation

• Family is the expert
• Home-facilitator provides support to identify
  priorities and goals
• Suggests techniques to achieve goals

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Family priorities and goals

• Communication
• Play
• Behaviour
• Self-care

• Law, M., Baptiste, S., Carswell, A., McColl, M.,
  Polatajko, H., Pollock, N. (1998). Canadian
  Occupational Performance Measure Manual. (3rd
  ed.). Ottawa CAOT Publications.
• Rodger, S., Keen, D., Braithwaite, M. (2003).
  Modified Canadian Occupational Performance
  Measure (M-COPM). Adapted from Law et al. COPM.
  Brisbane, Australia Unpublished manuscript.
• Rodger, S., Braithwaite, M., Keen, D. (under
  revision). Early intervention for children with
  autism Parental priorities. Australian Journal
  of Early Childhood.

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• Importance
• Performance
• Satisfaction

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Family links
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Community links
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Measure of family-centredness

• MPOC measures how family-centred parents perceive
  the services they are provided to be
• 56 item self-report questionnaire rated on 7
  point scale
• 5 subscales Enabling Partnership, Providing
  General Information, Providing Specific
  Information, Coordinated Comprehensive Care,
  Respectful Supportive Care
• King, S., Rosenbaum, P., King, G. (1995). The
  Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC). Hamilton
  McMaster University and CanChild.

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Where to from here?

• Comparison groups
• Extend to more families and children
• Develop for older children (preschool age)
• Program video

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Collaborative Research Group on Autism and
Related Disorders

• School of Education
• The University of Queensland
• Brisbane Q 4072 Australia
• Phone [phone]
• deb.keen_at_uq.edu.au
• Web www.uq.edu.au/education/
• (click on research activities)