Celebrating Effective
Partnerships
The Early Intervention
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Project in Action
“A comprehensive
educational approach for
children with autism spectrum
disorders”
Prizant, Wetherby, Rubin, Laurent & Rydell, 2007
Our intentions
• To describe the Ministry of Education’s Early
Intervention Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
project
• To highlight the importance of partnerships
between parents/whānau and practitioners
• To identify the impact of the project on children
and adult participants
Background
• The 2004 Budget provided the Ministry of Education with
ongoing funding to develop the knowledge and skills of
parents, whānau, teachers and specialist staff
supporting children and young people with ASD
• The ASD Advisory Group recommended an emphasis
on intervention in early childhood
• The Early Intervention ASD Development Project was
established as one of the Ministry of Education initiatives
• The SCERTS framework was selected as the foundation
for the project
Why SCERTS?
SCERTS is based on the findings from 25 years of
ASD-specific research. It does not dictate specific
interventions, but is a framework for collaborative
assessment and planning. It is well aligned with:
• the evidence base in the New Zealand ASD
Guideline (2008)
• the Ministry of Education Specialist Service
requirements for assessment and intervention
within natural settings and routines
• Te Whāriki, the early childhood education
curriculum
A framework for addressing the core challenges of ASD.
Focus on building competence in Social Communication,
Emotional Regulation and Transactional Supports.
Core principles:
• Recognise individual differences in children
• Family-centred
• Emphasis on functional skills and meaningful
outcomes
• Use partnership approaches
www.scerts.org and www.asdev.org.nz
Partnerships
• The SCERTS framework is based on building
partnerships that enable early intervention specialists to
work collaboratively with early education teachers,
parents, whānau and carers in a team around the child
with ASD
• The team works together to identify the child’s strengths
and support needs and to plan and implement
individualised intervention
• Social partners are viewed as part of the intervention
solutions
Early Intervention ASD Development
Project
• Focus on children age 3 to 5 years
• Currently 115 children and families/whānau
involved
• 12 project teams across New Zealand
• Team members from Special Education,
Health and Early Intervention Specialist
Service Providers
Project objectives
• Improve outcomes for children with ASD and
their families and whānau
• Contribute to the development of staff skills
• Develop an effective model for providing
professional learning and development
• Explore the use of SCERTS in the New Zealand
context
Impact of the project
Information collated through
• Action learning approach – continuous process
of learning and reflection
• Project milestone reports, including six-monthly
child outcome measures
Themed by
• Child and family outcomes
• Partnerships (social interaction and teamwork)
• Practitioner understanding of ASD and practice
changes
Child learning outcomes
Children made measurable progress in all four skill
areas - Joint Attention, Symbol Use, Mutual and
Self Regulation
• Increased ability to self-regulate
• Improvements in social communication
• Children accessing more activities
• Decreased frequency of self-stimulatory behaviours
• Longer periods of joint attention
• Children seeking out more interactions with adults
Example of a child’ learning at the
social partner stage
80
70
60
Percentages
50 Jun-09
40 Oct-09
30 May-10
20
10
0
Joint attention Symbol Use Mutual Self-
Regulation Regulation
SCERTS measures
Example of a child’s learning at the
language partner stage
80
70
60
Percentages
50 Jun-09
40 Oct-09
30 May-10
20
10
0
Joint attention Symbol Use Mutual Self-
Regulation Regulation
SCERTS measures
Example of a child’s learning at the
conversational partner stage
• 70
60
Percentages
50
40 Sep-09
30 Mar-10
20
10
0
Joint attention Symbol Use Mutual Self-
Regulation Regulation
SCERTS measures
Family and whānau outcomes
• Focus on achievable and observable family-centred
developmental goals
• Increased understanding of child’s learning and
behaviour; decrease in challenging behaviours through
use of appropriate transactional supports
• Adapted communication and interactions to support their
child’s development
• The ways in which families and whānau talked about
their children provided insight into the gains they had
made
Partnerships – family and whānau
perspectives
• Increased confidence participating in their child’s
teams
• More frequent contact with team members
• Acknowledged and valued as team members
• Multidisciplinary teaming resulted in a greater
shared understanding of the child
Practitioner outcomes
• Increased understanding of child development
• Consolidated knowledge of ASD and sharpened ability
to prioritise and focus
• Deepened understanding of sensory issues and support
needed for emotional regulation
• More informed observation of the child and partners
• Increased ability to break down goals into small steps
• Improved effectiveness in teaming
• Increased confidence in supporting others, such as new
team members, parents and early childhood educators
Summary Comments
Practitioners reported that
• Their measures of children’s learning have become
more systematic and reliable.
• They are more confident that they can identify what is
working well and when they need to take a different
approach.
• They found the framework was child-centred and
allowed a focus on individual children as well as
systems.
• The framework provided a meaningful way of
collaborating with families/whānau and educators.