Floor time therapy in autism
Pichon Riviere A, Augustovski F, Alcaraz A, Bardach A, Ferrante D, Garcia Marti S, Glujovsky D, Lopez A, Regueiro A
Record ID 32007000173
Spanish
Authors' objectives:
The objective of the report was to assess the evidence available on the usefulness of Floor Time therapy in autism.
Authors' results and conclusions:
The level of evidence found is poor: Out of the 7 publications found, only one reported a comparative study, the others were just 3 narrative reviews and 3 case reports. Shade-Monuteaux et al. published one communication about a study conducted to assess the effectiveness of an integrated approach for applied behaviour analysis associated to Floor Time therapy in children with autism spectrum disorders. They included 45 children in the treatment group and 45 in the control group. After 3 months, a significant improvement in the Early Social Communication Scale (ESCS) and in the ESCS-Q questionnaire (p<0.05) was found. Three case reports and 3 narrative reviews were found and they reported some kind of improvement in social interaction with Floor Time therapy. However, none of these reports objectively quantified this improvement. The Canadian Paediatric Society s clinical practice guidelines consider that, though there are no good quality studies conducted on education programs for autistic children and, consequently, no treatment can be considered as the gold standard, it is reasonable to have a minimum 15 hour-week of structured or individualized training, where Floor Time therapy could be a choice.
Authors' recommendations:
In general, the quality of the studies associated with educational treatment programs for autistic children are methodologically poor and Floor Time therapy is not an exception. However, it seems that there is a certain degree of benefit from these interventions. There is not enough evidence, with adequate follow-up periods to support the use of floor-time therapy on a routine basis. Nonetheless, this may be significant in autistic children with social interaction disorders when integrated with some approach that enables objective measurements of progress in acquired skills, as in the case of the applied behavioral analysis approach.
Authors' methods:
Overview
Details
Project Status:
Completed
URL for project:
http://www.iecs.org.ar/
Year Published:
2007
English language abstract:
An English language summary is available
Publication Type:
Not Assigned
Country:
Argentina
MeSH Terms
- Autistic Disorder
Contact
Organisation Name:
Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy
Contact Address:
Dr. Emilio Ravignani 2024, Buenos Aires - Argentina, C1414 CABA
Contact Name:
info@iecs.org.ar
Contact Email:
info@iecs.org.ar
Copyright:
Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS)
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.