The purpose of the study is the investigation of how effective could be one of the first residential training programmes based on structured teaching and the principles of TEACCH method, in declining the frequency of challenging behaviours in adolescents and adults with autism, who had never received any kind of intervention or training. Functional assessment records (ABC) were analysed for each participant and frequencies of challenging behaviours were summarised for three deferent periods of time (beginning of the programme, after 12 and 18 months). The results showed significant decline of challenging behaviours frequency after the start of the training programme. The implications of the results in particular will be valuable for further research and service developments in Greece by the Greek Society for the Protection of Autistic People.

Key words: Autism in Greece, challenging behavious, residence, TEACCH, structured teaching, adults with autism.

P. Siaperas, S. Higgins, P. Proios (page 343) - Full article