An Introduction to the Issue of Autism

The research in this chapter was in the form of a case study. The study was carried out in order to see if behavioral treatment for dental fear in autistic children was a more humane and positive approach that can be accomplished relatively efficiently. Autism is a disorder in which a person, in this case a child, has many of the following problematic behaviors: impairments in social interaction and difficulty in using nonverbal behaviors, impairments in communication, and/or behavior is repetitive, restricted and stereotyped.

The participants in this case study were three autistic boys, two were nine years old, and the third was six years old. All three participants had shown maladaptive behavior towards visits to the dentists office. The dentist visits for the treatment were to take place in an analog office, designed to be very similar to a real office, that was located in the childrens school in order to make the whole process simpler. The treatment plan that was to be used was desensitization, modeling, and positive reinforcement.

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To judge progress, a 13-step fear of dental examination hierarchy was created, with leaving the car or classroom to go to the examination being the first step, and being able to tolerate new procedures by dentist the thirteenth step.

The study began with the participants watching a video of peer models going through the 13 steps of the dental exam, were given an antianxiety stimuli for desensitization, and a positive reinforcer was selected for the successful accomplishment of each step.

The children were brought to the analog office once a week for a session. For the last few steps the children were brought to an in vivo environment, that being a real dentists office.

It was found that all three treatments at the same time significantly decreased the fear of dental examination in the three autistic children. The three participants in this study were all able to participate in an analog dental examination within less than a month of the initiation of treatment. In addition, after a small number of in vivo sessions, the participants were able to take part in an actual dental examination.

These findings are significant because they show that treatment is possible for some autistic children, which means that quality of life for these children can be improved.