Interventions for young children at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may improve key developmental skills and remediate early ASD signs. Parents of 3 children (19, 23, and 26 months old) showing possible early signs of ASD participated. The Parent Observation of Early Markers Scale (POEMS) identified specific child concerns confirmed in baseline observations. Multiple baseline designs across parent and child behaviors evaluated a parent-mediated behavioral intervention, called Parent Intervention for Children At-Risk for Autism (PICARA), to increase targeted developmental skills (e.g., responding to name, imitation, requesting). Parents received individual behavioral skills training in their home 1 hr per week over 12, 18, and 29 sessions, respectively, based on the number of child skills trained and child performance. All parent and child skills improved and were maintained at the 46-, 12-, and 6-week follow-up periods, respectively. With training, parents of young children at risk for ASD may be able to improve child skills deficits often seen in children with ASD.
The global pandemic has highlighted the importance of telehealth to access behavioral interventions. Face-to-face parent training improves the development and behaviors of young children at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We evaluated a telehealth parent training intervention for a child at risk for ASD. Two parents identified possible early ASD symptoms in their 30-month-old son (lack of imitation, pointing, and vocal manding). Both parents simultaneously received telehealth behavioral skills training on the Parent Intervention for Children at Risk for Autism program for 1 hour per week over 29 weeks. Multiple baseline designs across parent and child behaviors showed that both parents improved their parent teaching fidelity above 80% and the child improved on all trained behaviors. This study expands the utility of telehealth behavioral parent training to young children at risk for ASD to mitigate early symptoms of ASD.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.