title: Parents' Adoption of Social Communication Intervention Strategies: Families Including Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Who are Minimally Verbal.
abstract: Notably absent from the intervention literature are parent training programs targeting school-aged children with autism who have limited communication skills (Tager-Flusberg and Kasari in Autism Res 6:468-478, 2013). Sixty-one children with autism age 5-8 with minimal spontaneous communication received a 6-month social communication intervention including parent training. Parent-child play interactions were coded for parents' strategy implementation and children's time jointly engaged (Adamson et al. in J Autism Dev Disord 39:84-96, 2009). Parents mastered an average of 70% of the strategies. Further analyses indicated some gains in implementation occurred from mere observation of sessions, while the greatest gains occurred in the first month of active coaching and workshops. Children's joint engagement was associated with parents' implementation success across time demonstrating parents' implementation was relevant to children's social engagement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, 67-448 Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA, sypatterson@ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Stephanie Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Shire
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goods
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Distefano
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: Courtney
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mathy
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Landa
authors.forename: Connie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kasari
mesh_terms: D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D004493:Education; D005196:Family Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010988:Play and Playthings; D014705:Verbal Behavior