ESDM intervention in severe preschool autism: an Italian Case report, psychological and social medicine reflections.

This study looked at one 3-year-old child with severe autism who received Early Start Denver Model therapy in Italy. The child initially had no eye contact, didn't speak, and had difficulty with movement and repetitive behaviors. Even with limited therapy sessions, the child showed improvements. The study shows this therapy can work in Italy and highlights how community organizations can help families access treatment when public services are limited.

This Italian case report describes the application of Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) intervention for a 36-month-old child with severe autism spectrum disorder. The child presented with significant challenges including absence of eye contact, vocalizations, communication impairments, motor difficulties, and stereotypies. Despite low treatment intensity, the intervention reportedly led to improvements, demonstrating ESDM's adaptability to the Italian healthcare context. The study utilized Vineland and ABAS assessments to measure adaptive behavior.

The authors highlight challenges in public health service delivery and note limitations in current adaptive behavior measurement tools. This work emphasizes the importance of early intervention and the role of third-sector organizations in providing evidence-based treatments for disadvantaged families.

Supports ESDM's potential effectiveness across different cultural contexts and healthcare systems. Demonstrates importance of early intervention access through community partnerships. Highlights need for improved adaptive behavior assessment tools in autism research and clinical practice.

Single case report with no control group or standardized outcome measures reported. Low treatment intensity and reliance on third-sector support may limit generalizability. Specific improvement metrics not detailed in abstract.

The goal of our contribution is to discuss a preschool intervention based on the Early Start Denver Model and the use of the main tools for the detection of adaptive behaviour in cases of autism: Vineland, ABAS. the work is the presentation of a clinical case that has benefited from an intervention with the Early Start Denver Model methodology for the benefit of a child with socio-cultural and economic disadvantages. This early intervention, in a child of 36 months, which followed the diagnosis, was possible thanks to the intervention of many third-sector organizations which allowed this child, with a serious autism profile, to receive an evidence-based intervention for free. At the beginning of the intervention, the child presented a diagnosis of severe autism with absence of gaze, vocalizations and other communicative impairments. The level of motor clumsiness was also quite high, as were stereotypies.

Research has shown the usefulness of intervening in this area with an early assessment and/or diagnosis and immediate intervention; however, public health services are not always able to maintain this pace. Our contribution therefore shows on the one hand the evidence of the improvements achieved by the child despite the low intensity of the treatment, and on the other hand, demonstrates the total versatility and adaptability of the Denver Model to the Italian context. In our conclusions, there are also some reflections on the tools used to measure adaptive behavior which seem to have a number of limitations and criticalities.