ABA is the science of applying what is learned from the analysis of behaviour to understand the relationship between behaviour and conditions. The goal is to improve socially significant behaviours, such as adaptive living skills, to a meaningful degree.

Floortime is an educational model developed by child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan. The DIR (Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based)/Floortime approach provides a comprehensive framework for understanding and treating children challenged by autism spectrum and related disorders. It focuses on helping children master the building blocks of relating, communicating and thinking, rather than on symptoms alone.

Floortime is much like play therapy in that it builds an increasingly larger circle of interaction between a child and an adult in a developmentally-based sequence. Greenspan has described six stages of emotional development that children meet to develop a foundation for more advanced learning - a developmental ladder that must be climbed one rung at a time.

Through the use of DIR/Floortime, parents and educators can help the child move up the developmental ladder by following the child's lead and building on what the child does to encourage more interactions. This approach addresses emotional development, in contrast to other approaches that tend to focus on cognitive or skills development.

Floortime is a valuable approach for engaging young children with autism in a safe and secure way. It takes considerable skills and formal training to incorporate this approach into a child's overall intervention programme. In Singapore, a number of early intervention occupational and speech-language therapists, psychologist and special education teachers have received extended training in Floortime techniques in autism.

More Than Words (Sussman, 1999), The Hanen Program for Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), gives parents facilitative tools to use with their children to help them communicate. Parents learn how to use everyday activities, visual supports and the four stages of communication, including Own Agenda Stage, Requester Stage, Eearly Communicator, and The Partner (Sussman, 1999).

It is typically an 11-week programme designed to help parents with children under six who have difficulty with language and social interactions. Parents learn strategies to target communication difficulties associated with ASD as well as other disorders that affect social interaction. The programme is set-up to support parents' understanding of their child's behaviour. Parents learn how to modify or act towards these behaviours, such as giving the child a chew-safe toy to bite on so the child does not chew or bite people or harzardous objects. They are also taught techniques to encourage and develop their child's play skills, such as expanding manipulative or symbolic play and creating increased communicative opportunities through practices like putting desired foods or toys just out of reach.

Parents are also shown how to set up predictable routines that make it easy for the child to learn and understand. They are taught how to implement pictures and writing into these routines for increased communication and interactions attempts.

In Singapore, speech-language therapists need to be certified to provide the Hanen "More Than Words" programme. This approach is not routinely covered in general speech-therapy intervention, and requires additional specialist training and skill development.

Occupational therapists focus on assessment and understanding of sensory issues, and the development of fine motor skills. They often assist in the development of sensory "diets" to address specific arousal and/or sensory issues that interfere with learning. Occupational therapists also address areas that interfere with self-care and play/recreation skills.

In order to work effectively with young children on the autism spectrum, it is generally agreed that generalist occupational therapists will require additional training in autism-specific intervention areas such as structured teaching, floortime and sensory-integration therapy.

One of the main areas affected in individuals on the autism spectrum is the ability to communicate. Some will develop verbal language, while others may struggle to talk as their main form of communication. An augmented communication program, such as PECS is an extremely useful "scaffold" for the development of expressive language.

Developed at the Delaware Autistic Program to help children and adults with ASD to acquire functional communication skills, it usees ABA-based methods to teach children to exchange a picture for something they want - an item or activity.

PECS is clear, intentional, and initiated by the child. It leverages a child's learning strengths (visual learning) to facilitate an understanding of how to communicate with others. The child hands an adult an object, photo or picture of the desired item, and his request is immediately understood.

While many parents and teachers are concerned that the use of PECS will stop speech and verbal language from developing, clinical research and classroom practice indicates that routine PECS use can assist in the development of verbal skills.

PECS training is conducted annually in Singapore by skilled trainers from the US and Australia. Levels 1 and 2 of PECS teach the necessary skills to implement the programme in homes and schools. For a PECS programme to be meaningful, a child needs to build up to a minimum of 80 exchanges a day for different functions, with different people, in a variety of contexts.

RDI is based on the model of experience sharing developed by Dr Steven Gustein. The programme educates and coaches parents of children with ASD and others who interact and work with the child.

A primary focus for RDI consultants is on helping parents systematically teach their children with ASD the motivation for and skills of experience sharing interaction. The programme provides a path for people on the autism spectrum to learn friendship, empathy and love of sharing their world with others. People with ASD learn to tolerate and accept change and transition.

Clinicians are certified by The Connections Center to serve as consultants to parents and help them customise and implement their RDI programmes. Certified consultants use information from the relationship development assessment to develop clear and specific treatment objectives and customised activities.

In Singapore, RDI principles are routinely incorporated into social engagement programmes. RDI is viewed as a useful part of a comprehensive intervention programme, especially for children with significant social interaction deficits.

Individuals on the autism spectrum frequently have sensory difficulties. They may be hypo- or hyper-reactive or lack the ability to integrate the senses. Sensory integration therapy, usually done by occupational, physical or speech-language therapists, focuses on desensitising the child and helping him reorganise sensory information. For example, if a child has difficulties with modulation (unable to keep calm), the therapy might include developing various strategious to teach the child to calm himself and maintain self-regulation, such as by chewing, sucking or squeezing.

Auditory integration therapy is used for individuals who have an over- or under-sensitivity to sound. It may involve having the child listen to a variety of different sound frequencies coordinated to the level of impairment.

Before proceeding with any sensory integration therapy, it is important that the therapist undertakes a comprehensive sensory-motor assessment and has a clear understanding of his specific sensitivities.

Sensory integration intervention is an important part of intervention programmes for young children with autism. Working with sensory sensitivities requires a lot of skill and patience. Parents are recommended to seek-out practitioners who have additional formal training (qualifications) and experience.

Speech-language therapists have specialised training in the assessment and remediation of communication disorders involving speech, language, literacy, and non-verbal communication. After a comprehensive assessment, the speech-language therapist can design an intervention programme, and either work directly with the child, or help others to do so. A significant amount of time is spent on training others to understand the child's level of ability, how best to support current communication, and methods for teaching new skills.

Traditional approaches emphasising teaching a child to speak yield very poor results when used with young children with autism. Children with autism need to be taught how to use their communication skills in a variety of specially engineered situations. This will routinely involve the use of visual supports and peer modelling.

In order to work effectively with young children on the autism spectrum, it is generally agreed that generalist speech-language therapist will require additional training in autism-specific intervention areas such as structured teaching, Hanen and PECS techniques.

Structured teaching (Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communications-Handicapped Children - TEACCH) was developed by Dr Eric Schopler of the University of North Carolina in the early 70s. It is widely used in Singapore in both individual and classroom learning in autism. It leverages the student's visual strengths to engage in errorless learning by showing, demonstrating and modelling.

Intervention is highly individualised according to the student's learning profile (i.e. likes, dislikes, learning preferences, interests, strengths, and emerging skills). Structured teaching prevents inappropriate behaviour by promoting meaning and predictability. Various levels of prompting are used to help children to understand and be independent. Prompts can be reduced as the child achieves more mastery and generalisation.

Structured teaching is used widely in classroom learning, inclusion support, one-to-one direct teaching, and during home living routines. When implemented well, it can be used successfully for all levels of children or the teaching of skills in more curriculum areas. It is complementary with many other autism intervention approaches.