The per:spectrum approach to video work as an early autism intervention, comprises a widely applicable and cross-disciplinary method that can be used in counselling and therapy offered to parents of young autistic children or as part of wider systemic work with family groups.

The per:spectrum seminars, webinars and workshops are created for clinicians who would like to extend their knowledge and expertise in video intervention therapy and developmental consultation of parents, in therapy centres, intensive treatment settings, or in private practice.

Theoretical Background

Over the past decade, the age for diagnosing autism in young children has fallen continually. As a result, parents now become the focus of specialised support and therapy earlier and more frequently. Receiving a diagnosis for their child, sets in motion major changes in the parents' everyday reality and in the way they can plan their future. This is often a traumatic experience, which may overshadow the early development of the relationship between parents and child. Associated feelings of anger, confusion, disappointment, guilt, helplessness and fear often make it harder for the parents to connect naturally through play and to engage in mutual interactions with their child.

Because of the autism-specific difficulties of the child to initiate and maintain eye contact or to engage with parents in reciprocal exchanges of playful vocalisations, parents often struggle to maintain sufficient levels of intuitive responsiveness in the interactions. The disruption of the natural "dance of intersubjective communication" can sometimes lead to parents withdrawing from dyadic interactions or may result in overstimulation of the child (for example by excessive tickling) in order to get a reaction.

If initial difficulties in the parent-child-relationship threaten to escalate into bigger problems, it is of paramount importance to spot crises promptly and intervene as swiftly as possible. VIT (Video Intervention Therapy) is one of the most suitable and successful methods available, to meet this particular task. By jointly observing and analysing video sequences with the parents in the therapy sessions, interactional difficulties can be identified and gradually de-escalated effectively at an early stage of the intervention.

By selecting appropriate video excerpts that show positive scenes, parental self-efficacy soon strengthens and helps parents to progressively restore their natural confidence in their own intuitive abilities whilst interacting with the child.

Furthermore, focussing on videos together with clients in the session, engenders cooperation and trust and cultivates a team-working atmosphere where multiple perspectives or hypotheses regarding the observed content can be generated with open questions leading the way into mutual and productive exchanges.

After many years of using video work in my clinical practice with families or with professionals, I developed a specially adapted video intervention methodology for the field of early autism that draws on relevant evaluation- and consultation-tools from developmental psychology of early childhood, as well as current attachment research.

As a method, the per:spectrum video intervention is very versatile and also compatible with most existing treatment concepts and schools of thought in the field of early autism support.