Abstract: | The purpose of the study was to explore a low-cost intervention that targets an
increasingly common developmental disorder. The study was a blinded, exploratory
evaluation of the PlayWisely program on autism symptoms and essential learning
foundation skills (attention, recognition, and memory skills) in children with a
diagnosis of autism, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), pervasive developmental
disorder – not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), and Asperger syndrome (AS).
Eighteen children, 1 to 10 years of age, were evaluated using the Childhood
Autism Rating Scale, Second Edition (CARS2); the PlayWisely Interactive Test of
Attention, Recognition, and Memory Skills; Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist
(ATEC), and the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT). There were
significant treatment effects for the PlayWisely measure on the Yellow Sets that
examine recognition; Purple Sets that examine brain region agility and early
memory skills; Blue Sets that examine phonemic awareness and recognition; and
for the Total Sets, with a similar trend toward improvement in the Green Sets
that examine perception and Red Sets that examine attention. No other measures
reached statistical significance. The results suggest that PlayWisely can
improve recognition, brain region agility, phonemic awareness, letter
recognition, and early memory skills in ASD. It was observed by the parents,
coaches, and study investigators that the children who were less than 3 years of
age showed improvements in autism symptoms; however, the group was too small to
reach statistical significance. Future studies are needed to see if this
intervention can mitigate autism symptoms in very young children with ASD. |