1 RESEARCH SUPPORT FOR A COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH TO AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS AND OTHER DEVELOPMENTAL AND LEARNING DISORDERS: The Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-Based (DIR™) Model

Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other disorders of relating and communicating often involve a number of different challenges or problems. Each child, even though he may share a common diagnosis with other children, has his own unique pattern of development and functioning. A comprehensive approach to assessment and intervention must work with each child’s and family’s individual differences. These include differences in capacities to attend, relate, communicate, and think, and to process experience and information and plan and sequence actions (i.e., sensory processing and motor planning). For example, some children are over reactive to sensations, such as touch and sound, while others are under reactive. Some children have relatively strong auditory memories (memorizing entire scripts), while others have relatively weak auditory memories, but relatively strong visual memories. Some children are able to sequence and plan a number of actions in a row, while others are only able to carry out one action at a time (often becoming very fragmented in their behaviors). In addition, children differ in their basic mastery of the foundations for relating, communicating, and thinking. Some children with autistic spectrum disorders can for