TRIAD - Therapy and Research for Intervention with Autistic Disorders

Therapy and Research for Intervention with Autistic Disorders

Our Vision

1) Our main and most immediate priority is to continue to establish our Early Intensive Applied Behaviour Analysis Intervention Centre for children with ASD in the Highway area. This centre aims to provide therapy for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder under the age of 4 years.

Our goal is that, backed up by empirical research, with early and intensive therapy a large majority of young children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder will, by the age of 7 years, move into a mainstream educational setting, without requiring special support on any level. The remaining children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, who have received early and intensive therapy, will move into a mainstream setting with some degree of specialised support. This support will however, be minimal in comparison to what these children would have required had they not received the ABA therapy.

As children with ASD therefore really only have the first 7 years of their lives to bring about these changes, it becomes crucial to act immediately and to establish our centre as soon as is humanly possible.

The long-term benefits of an early intensive ABA therapy programme on a large scale for children manifesting Autistic Spectrum Disorder in terms of government intervention are evident. An investment made in terms of financial support for an early intervention ABA programme, may negate the need for the child, or the child’s family, to rely on any additional government services in later life. Thus additional therapies, medications, institution fees, special support structures within the school environment, sheltered employment and disability grants for these children are drastically reduced, if not eliminated completely. For the children that do not make as drastic an improvement on the programme, gains made are still vastly sufficient enough to prevent the financial strain on government resources being nearly as heavy as it would be should these children not receive early intervention.

2) TRIAD aims to establish a resource centre, in the immediate future, whereby parents will be referred to by educators, General Practitioners, Homeopaths, Pediatricians etc. the moment they receive, or even suspect, diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder. This centre will provide parents with the crucial information they need regarding ASD, intervention methods available for ASD, latest research surrounding ASD, as well as the support and help needed in answering all the vital questions parents have when receiving such a diagnosis. This centre will further outsource parents to Speech therapists, Occupational therapists, available schools, and available ABA programmes suitable to their child (depending on the child’s age, level of functioning, skill deficits). This centre will additionally serve to supply educators, doctors and the general public with all available information on ASD.

3) To continue to develop our life skills and vocational training programme for teens and young adults with ASD that are already too old, or have become too old, to be accommodated in the mainstream inclusive educational setting. This programme may possibly lead into some form of sheltered housing/employment facility, whereby our adults with ASD will have a better quality of life through having received the correct intervention strategies necessary to prevent them from leading an institutionalised life. As the ASD child becoming an ASD adult and having no means of support once their immediate families are no longer alive is a grave concern to most parents living with ASD, this level of peace of mind is imperative to our parents.

4) A realistic goal, in terms of costs, is that of having ABA therapy as a treatment for Autistic Spectrum Disorder recognised in terms of medical aid schemes. We continue to strive for this goal. Although Speech, Occupational and Physical therapy is covered in terms of most medical aid schemes and rates, ABA therapy does not, as yet, exist on South African Medical Aid Schemes as a recognised means of therapy intervention for children with ASD. Due to the fact that ABA therapy requires such intensive hours of therapy, if parents were able to claim compensation from the medical aid we would be able to reach and assist a far greater number of children with ASD.

We want to begin a legacy of Early Intervention in Autistic Spectrum Disorders through the filed of Applied Behaviour Analysis that will continue to grow, thrive, and move from strength to strength for decades to come.