Effectiveness of Attention Autism Programme for Adults with ASD and ID
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Attention Autism Programme for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Moderate-Severe Intellectual Disabilities(ID).
IRAS ID
320289
Contact name
C Cook
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cygnet Health Care
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 26 days
Research summary
This study aims to explore if the attention autism programme (Davies, 2014) is effective for improving attention (and other factors) in adults with autism and intellectual disabilities. Previous literature states that the attention autism programme has been useful for children with autism when improving attention, social skills, and ‘problem’ behaviours (McKeown, 2015; Turner et al., 2017; Moore, 2010). Despite evidence highlighting this intervention to be supportive for children with autism, there are no published studies where the same intervention has been used with adults of the same diagnosis. In general, this population of adults has very limited research available (Howlin & Moss, 2012), especially when exploring effective interventions (Bishop-Fitzpatrick, Minshew & Eack, 2014); making it difficult for clinicians to offer support.
Therefore, this study will involve the researcher completing 12 sessions of the attention autism intervention with adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and moderate-severe intellectual disabilities. The programme involves four stages that each individual will progress through: 1) Bucket Therapy, 2) Attention Builder, 3) Turn-taking and Re-engagement, and 4) Shifting and Re-engaging Attention. These stages involve activities such as exploring sensory engaging toys, watching attention-building experiments, turn-taking in experiments, and arts and crafts turn-taking. The individuals completing these sessions will be recruited from the residential homes I currently work at through purposive sampling (selected due to having characteristics required within the sample).
Data will be gathered on behalf of the autistic adults due to limited capacity. The assessments will explore the outcome of attention, social and communication skills, ‘challenging’/ problem behaviours, and mental health. These will be completed with support staff familiar with the individuals completing the sessions. Assessments will be completed before, after and 6-weeks after the intervention sessions have taken place- this is to explore the long-term effectiveness.REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/EE/0056
Date of REC Opinion
19 Apr 2023
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion