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Social communication deficits are a core symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present paper reviews 54 studies evaluating social communication interventions delivered by parents and siblings to children with ASD under 6 years old. Fifty studies evaluated parent-mediated intervention, and four studies evaluated sibling-mediated intervention. Fourteen studies evaluated interventions using telehealth. Treatment effects and research strength were variable across studies. Treatment modality, setting, and dosage had inconclusive impact on treatment effect. Parent-implemented intervention packages, Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT), Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), and Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement & Regulation (JASPER), qualified as established evidence-based practice for this population. Most studies reported successful generalization of skills for some, but not all, children. Telehealth and sibling-mediated intervention are promising areas of further research and clinical practice.

Preschool is an important educational setting for child development, and problem behavior is a prevalent barrier within this setting. Preschool teachers have expressed the need for evidence-based classroom management interventions to address problem behavior. Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) is an intervention that incorporates social skills training, group contingencies, and reinforcement to address problem behavior within classrooms. This intervention has been found to be socially valid by teachers and children, and effective in increasing children’s engagement, decreasing problems/problem behavior in elementary, kindergarten, and first- and second-grade classrooms. The aim of the current study was to evaluate a modified CW-FIT as an effective strategy to address problem behavior within two community preschools in Ireland across three preschool classes with 32 children. A multiple-baseline design across groups was employed to evaluate the outcomes, with measures of generalization and maintenance (for one group) also taken. Visual analysis of data revealed an increase in the children’s on-task behavior and social skills as well as a decrease in children’s problem behavior within these settings. Generalization (across all three groups) and maintenance (across one group) of these findings for on-task behavior and problem behavior were also observed. Social validity measures showed that teachers rated the intervention as socially acceptable.

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Parental involvement in intervention can support intervention efficacy, improve generalization, and increase accessibility. The Preschool Life Skills (PLS) program is designed to teach 13 preschool life skills and prevent problem behavior. The current study explores the utility of the PLS program as delivered by parents. In Experiment 1, 6 parents were taught to use the PLS program at home with their typically developing children (3 years 3 months to 4 years 11 months). This application of the PLS program led to an increase in preschool life skills and a decrease in problem behavior and supported some generalization of the target preschool life skills from the home to preschool settings. In Experiment 2, 7 parents were taught to use the PLS program with their children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; 3 years 11 months to 6 years 9 months). Results overall supported the parent implementation of the program and highlighted modifications required to support positive outcomes for children with ASD.

Communication deficits in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can manifest in a myriad of lifelong social and educational challenges. Many children with ASD fail to learn vocal verbal behavior and may require intensive individualized intervention to learn early verbal operants. The current research aimed to evaluate the effects of a parent delivered stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) procedure on target vocalizations of two young children with ASD who did not present with vocal verbal behavior. Results indicated the intervention was successful in increasing the frequency of the target vocalizations for both participants. Social validity results indicated that parents were satisfied with the intervention and their own implementation of these procedures. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for parent delivered interventions. Keywords stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP). verbal behavior. vocalizations. autism spectrum disorder (ASD). parent training Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with a myriad of social communication deficits which vary across individuals. Such deficits are complex, and can range from insufficient speech and language skills (Charlop-Christy, Carpenter, Le, LeBlanc, & Kellet, 2002) to difficulties with more complex social communication skills, such as conversational reciprocity (Watkins et al., 2015). For children with ASD, development of vocal communication is often delayed and may never occur for some children (Kelley, Shillingsburg, Castro, Addison, & LaRue, 2007). In a longitudinal study of 206 children, researchers found that 30% of children did not acquire vocal language by the age of 9 (Anderson et al., 2007). Deficits in vocal communication are often associated with challenges across all stages of development

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