From leading authorities, this state-of-the-art manual presents the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), the first comprehensive, empirically tested intervention specifically designed for toddlers and preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder. Supported by the principles of developmental psychology and applied behavior analysis, ESDM’s intensive teaching interventions are delivered within play-based, relationship-focused routines. The manual provides structured, hands-on strategies for working with very young children in individual and group settings to promote development in such key domains as imitation; communication; social, cognitive, and motor skills; adaptive behavior; and play.

Implementing individualized treatment plans for each child requires the use of an assessment tool, the Early Start Denver Model Curriculum Checklist for Young Children with Autism. A nonreproducible checklist is included in the manual for reference, along with instructions for use; 8½" x 11" checklists are sold separately in sets of 15 ready-to-use booklets.

See also the authors' related parent guide, An Early Start for Your Child with Autism.
 

Sally J. Rogers, PhD, is Professor of Psychiatry at the M.I.N.D. Institute, University of California, Davis. A developmental psychologist, she is involved at the international level in major clinical and research activities on autism, including one of the 10 Autism Centers of Excellence network projects funded by the National Institutes of Health/ National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, involving a multisite, randomized, controlled trial of an infant–toddler treatment for autism. She is also the director of an interdisciplinary postdoctoral training grant for autism researchers. Dr. Rogers is on the executive board of the International Society for Autism Research, is an editor of the journal Autism Research, and is a member of the DSM-V workgroup on autism, pervasive developmental disorder, and other developmental disorders. She has spent her entire career studying cognitive and social-communicative development and intervention in young children with disabilities and has published widely on clinical and developmental aspects of autism, with a particular interest in imitation problems. As a clinician, she provides evaluation, treatment, and consultation to children and adults with autism and their families.  

Geraldine Dawson, PhD, is Chief Science Officer at Autism Speaks, Research Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington (UW), and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. Previously, she was Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at UW and Founding Director of the UW Autism Center, which has been designated a National Institutes of Health Autism Center of Excellence since 1996. While at UW, Dr. Dawson led a multidisciplinary autism research program focusing on genetics, neuroimaging, diagnosis, and treatment. She received continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health for her research from 1980 until 2008, when she left UW to join Autism Speaks. She was Founding Director of the UW Autism Center’s multidisciplinary clinical services program, which is the largest of its kind in the northwestern United States. Dr. Dawson has testified before the U.S. Senate on behalf of individuals with autism and played a key role on the Washington State Autism Task Force. Her research and publications focus on early detection and treatment of autism, early patterns of brain dysfunction (electrophysiology), and, more recently, the development of endophenotypes for autism genetic studies.