Effect of pivotal response treatment method on initiation skill in children with autism

Autism is a pervasive developmental disability that impress on social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and stereotyped behavioral patterns. Regarding initiation difficulties of these children and weakness of interventions in creation of motivation,in this study we tried to examine effect pivotal response treatment method on initiation's ability of autistic children. In this randomized control trial (RCT) study, according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, 30 autistic participants (6 to 11 years old) that matched based on age, gender and mean length utterance, from especial clinics of Hamedan’s autistic persons selected and placed randomly in one of groups of intervention and control. Sessions was administered individually, lasting for 60 minutes and 2 days a week for 3 months. Both groups of children were tested before and after intervention by CCC (children’s communication checklist) to assess initiation’s ability. Data analysis was done through descriptive statistics tests and covariance analysis. Findings of study showed (according to covariance analysis between before and after of intervention in two groups) there is significant changes in initiation’s ability in intervention group. the result of these study indicated effect of pivotal response treatment on initiation’s ability in autistic children, therefore this method recommended for speech and language pathologist.