Early Intervention System for Preschool Children with Autism in the Community

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Abstract
The article reports on DISCOVERY, a conceptual model for a clinical system of early detection and early intervention in cases of autism that has been implemented in Yokohama, Japan. The minimal requirements for this system are subsystems dealing with detection, diagnosis and intervention. Specific issues involving early diagnosis that complicate the design of the system are the seemingly contradictory considerations of early versus precise diagnosis, the undifferentiated recognition of a child’s disorder on the part of the parents, and the difficulty of establishing cooperative working relationships among related facilities. To overcome these issues, an ‘interface’ linking consecutive subsystems is emphasized in the DISCOVERY model. A clinical system based on this model has been developed in Yokohama. This system not only benefits clinical performance, but will also add significantly to research on autism.

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