A Controlled Trial of a Training Course for Parents of Children with Suspected Autism Spectrum Disorder McConachie H, Randle V, Hammal D, Le Couteur A Abstract: J Pediatr. 2005 Sep;147(3):335-40. Findings
With the rise in early identification of children with suspected autism spectrum disorder (ASD), much research activity has been focused on the development of appropriate early intervention strategies. Children with ASD commonly have problems with joint attention, making pleasurable interaction more difficult for parents to sustain. Thus, teaching parents strategies for improving their child’s shared attention to activities is an early intervention that benefits children and parents. The purpose of the study was to evaluate More Than Words, a training course for parents designed to facilitate social communication with their child by activities such as engaging the child in structured routines (for example, singing action songs) and using household tasks as opportunities for shared attention. The study included 51 children aged 24 – 48 months whose parents either attended the 3 month More Than Words course immediately (intervention group – 26 children) or who had to wait to take the course because one was not available at the time their child’s difficulties were identified (control group – 25 children). For purposes of analysis only, the intervention and control groups were each subdivided into an autism group , where children met all diagnostic criteria for autism, and a non-core autism (NCA) group of children with a diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified or other disorder such as specific language disorder. Outcome measures for both parent and child were taken at recruitment (time 1) and about 7 months later (time 2). The researchers found that parents successfully learned and applied the intervention strategies to facilitate their children’s development of communication, especially parents of children with the clear autism diagnosis. They also found that children of parents who attended the course increased the size of their vocabulary according to an outcome measure that relies on parental report. However, an outcome measure that directly measures social-communication skills did not show a significant effect of intervention.
Conclusions The More Than Words course, which provides communication strategies for parents to use with their children, was well received by parents and appears to have a measurable positive effect on the communication skills of both children and parents.
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