Caregiver mediated joint engagement intervention for young children with autism: A case study

Abstract

Objective.– The purpose of the study was to develop a caregiver mediated joint engagement (CMJE) intervention program with complementary body play for young children with autism in Taiwan.\r\n\r\nMethods.– Two low-to-middle functioning children with autism and their mothers were recruited. Case A was a 33-month-old girl, whose mental age (MA) was 24 months. Case B was a 44-month-old boy, whose MA was 18 months. The CMJE intervention program was based on milieu teaching approach and authors’ clinical experiences about the person-person body play based on dance-movement therapy. The CMJE consisted of 20 sessions for 10 weeks and each session was 60 minutes.\r\n\r\nResults.– The results showed that there was greater improvement for case A and B on joint engagement. In addition, there was decreased for case A and B on their autistic symptoms from ADOS.\r\n\r\nConclusions.– Our initial CMJE intervention for two middle-to-low functioning children with autism seems promising. Further study is needed to design a case-control study to explore the efficacy of the program in children with autism.