Region 13's E-Campus

The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) is a comprehensive behavioral early intervention approach for children with autism, ages 12 to 48 months. The program encompasses a developmental curriculum that defines the skills to be taught at any given time and a set of teaching procedures used to deliver this content. It is not tied to a specific delivery setting, but can be delivered by therapy teams and/or parents in group programs or individual therapy sessions in either a clinic setting or the child’s home.  This early intervention program integrates a relationship-focused developmental model with the well-validated teaching practices of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Its core features include the following:

• Naturalistic applied behavioral analytic strategies
• Sensitive to normal developmental sequence
• Deep parental involvement
• Focus on interpersonal exchange and positive affect
• Shared engagement with joint activities
• Language and communication taught inside a positive, affect-based relationship

This is an introductory Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) workshop consisting of the main features of ESDM and including hands-on activities in which participants practice three of the main aspects of the ESDM model: constructing developmental objectives in a specific format, breaking them down into individual teaching steps, and coding ESDM fidelity on several videotapes. 

Autism Speaks posted an article online on May 1, 2013 outlining the cost savings of  early behavior intervention, specifically ESDM,   “While early intensive behavioral intervention costs more to deliver in the early years, it more than pays for itself in terms of reduced needs for therapy and educational support by the time a child reaches high school,” Dr. Mandell said."  See the article, High-Quality Early Intervention for Autism More Than Pays for Itself, at http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/high-quality-early-intervention-autism-more-pays-itself