Meaningful benefits are found in preschool-aged children with autism-spectrum disorders (ASD) with a parent coaching intervention, suggests a clinical trial.
![Young Children With Autism Benefited With Parent Coaching Intervention Program Young Children With Autism Benefited With Parent Coaching Intervention Program](https://images.medindia.net/health-images/1200_1000/economic-impact-of-autism.jpg)
Parent Coaching Sessions Lead to Improvement in Autism Outcomes 128 families of three- to six-year-old children with ASD—autism or pervasive developmental disorder—in five US cities participated in the clinical trial, one of the largest, most rigorous studies of its kind in the US. Families were randomly assigned to one of two groups: either the PLAY Project plus usual community services for autism or usual community services alone. Usual community services included special education pre-school, speech/language, and occupational therapy services.
The PLAY Project group received monthly, three-hour home visits from PLAY Project consultants trained and certified in the developmental, relationship-based approach. Through coaching, modeling, and videotapes with written feedback, the consultants taught approaches to improve caregiver-child interactions and child social skills development. For example, parents learned how to identify and respond to their child's subtle and hard-to-detect cues during daily play sessions.
The PLAY Project approach "fosters parents' interactional abilities and play skills to promote their children's functional development," according to the authors. Parents reported that they were able to engage their child in 15- to 20-minute play sessions and throughout daily routines, for a total of two hours per day.
After one year, families assigned to the PLAY Project program showed greater improvement in parent-child interaction. Coaching also led to moderate to large improvements in parents' ability to "sensitively respond and effectively engage their child"; and in the children's interaction skills, with "increased shared attention and initiation."
PLAY Project Provides 'Less Costly, Highly Effective' Option for ASD The improvements were achieved without adding to the stress associated with caring for a child with autism. In fact, symptoms of depression decreased for parents in the PLAY group. This is one of the first studies to show an improvement in parents' mental health following autism intervention.
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Applied behavioral analysis (ABA) based approaches, when provided by professionals instead of parents, have been shown to improve developmental outcomes in children with ASD. However, there are challenges in providing such behavioral treatments, especially due to the shortage of trained professional personnel and high costs—$30,000 to $60,000 per year per child. Recent studies have shown promising results with "parent-mediated programs," like PLAY, where professionals train parents to implement behavioral techniques with their child.
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Source-Eurekalert