Intensiv beteendeterapi för förskolebarn med autism : En studie om pedagogers erfarenheter av att arbeta med intensiv beteendeterapi i förskolan

Sammanfattning: This study investigates educators’ experience of Intensive Behavioral Therapy (IBT) for preschool children diagnosed with autism. The aim is to examine, from the educators’ perspective, how useful this method has been, what difference it made for the children with autism that took part in this training and also how the educators’ have been able to organize and implement the method. The study is based on 6 semi-structured interviews and 29 surveys. The result has been analyzed from both socio-cultural perspective, and Applied Behavioral Therapy and learning theory. Themes that have been studied in the results are communication, social interaction, behavior, approach/treatment and conditions/organization. The result shows that the educators’ see IBT as a useful method for these children; they have seen a lot of positive effects when it comes to social interaction and the ability to play. The study does not show any negative effects of this training but the positive changes where sometimes fairly small. The fact that the conditions and organizations varied between the different preschools was also mentioned both during the interviews and in the surveys. Also, according to international studies, there’s a difference in how the training is organized in Sweden compared to other countries. The educators’ in preschools have a big part in the training so education and tutoring is something that the informants in this study stressed as very important, along with time, resources and responsibility. In summary, the results and analysis show that IBT is a useful method in preschool if the right conditions are given. From a socio-cultural perspective, preschools have a great advantage; it’s a place where kids with autism can get a great opportunity to social interaction and training in different contexts. The room for learning is much bigger when method and environment can interoperate.