Day centre for preschool age children with autism. Planning and design strategy for autism- friendly interventions

Autism is a complex and spectral neurodevelopmental condition that colours every aspect in the life of those affected. It is a lifelong condition and it may be so pervasive to challenge them in the everyday environment, which is ‘egoistically’ attuned to neurotypicals. Despite that, the quality of their lives and, indirectly, of their families could improve significantly through a series of therapeutic interventions and support actions. The early years are the most crucial ones, because of the delicateness of age and the effectiveness of treatments. As autism prevalence rate in new-borns is shooting over 2% and care networks are consistently missing to provide the right support to children with autism and their families, this study aims to explore potential promising avenues that can help individuals affected by autism to overcome their daily challenges. The social and physical adaption to their needs can contribute as positively as the best therapy. Therefore, this research purports to find out “How should a Day Centre for children with autism be like?” The main goal is to understand the role that this setting can have in providing support to the affected families over the covered territory and to examine how to create welcoming and health promoting environments for children with autism. In order to reach the established objectives, this research developed in three stages. It starts with a background study through a wide and interdisciplinary scientific literature overview of the problem area. Investigation phase in four selected countries: Albania, Italy, United Kingdom e United States, follows through on-site visits and analysis of case studies; staff testimonies; in-depth interviews to parents of children on the spectrum and autism experts. The last phase sets forth the proposal of two tools regarding the planning and design strategies of Day Centres for children with autism. These two outcome products identify issues to reflect on and provide insight of what to consider. They use the concept of the spectrum and balance to describe the wide range of possible configurations that the facility may assume in different contexts and to better accommodate children’s needs. The research offers a contribute to the Autism-Friendly Design research in defining an intervention strategy – planning and design - for the realisation of Day Centres for children with autism. It is designated to support technical offices and architects in handling design.