Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) impacts various developmental domains, requiring interventions by professionals from multiple disciplines. In Israel, ASD community preschools’ multidisciplinary teams aim to provide each child with an integrative intervention program. The current study focused on the working experience of 21 professionals from multidisciplinary teams in ASD-preschools, with special emphasis on their perceptions of the intra-staff dialogue in their teams. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed through grounded theory. Arising themes covered: challenges characterizing the delivery of intervention to children with ASD in a community setting; challenges met by professionals when attempting to navigate multidisciplinary teamwork; and factors that facilitate multidisciplinary work. Practices that support multidisciplinary team cohesion at the team, the organizational, and the policy-making levels are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4634-4645 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Nov 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Funding
We would like to thank the Association for Children at Risk, Israel, and the community preschool professionals who participated in the current study. We are grateful to Drs. Rivka Tuval-Mashiach and Aubyn Stahmer for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Association for Children |
Keywords
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Education services
- Health services
- Policy
- Pre-school children
- Qualitative research