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Parents’ Adoption of Social Communication Intervention Strategies: Families Including Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Who are Minimally Verbal

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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.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge funding for the study provided by Autism Speaks (PI Kasari: #5666), Characterizing Cognition in Nonverbal Individuals with Autism. In addition, the first author received a Dennis Weatherstone Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from Autism Speaks (#7036) as well a Doctoral Foreign Study Award from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Thank you to the children and families who participated in this study as well as interventionists who provided the services across the three sites. A version of this paper was presented at the 2013 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Seattle Washington and was developed from a master’s thesis.

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Author notes

  1. Pamela Mathy

    Present address: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, College of Health, University of Utah, 417 Wakara Way, #1112, Salt Lake City, UT, 84108, USA

  2. Kelly Goods

    Present address: First Five Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, 67-448 Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA

    Stephanie Y. Shire

  2. First Five California, 750 North Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90012, USA

    Kelly Goods

  3. Department of Biostatistics, 67-448 Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA

    Wendy Shih

  4. Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, 314C One Magnolia Circle, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA

    Ann Kaiser & Courtney Wright

  5. Department of Special Education, Vanderbilt University, 314C One Magnolia Circle, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA

    Courtney Wright

  6. Center for Autism and Related Disorders, Kennedy Krieger Institute, 3901 Greenspring Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21211, USA

    Pamela Mathy & Rebecca Landa

  7. Center for Autism Research and Treatment, UCLA, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA

    Stephanie Y. Shire, Kelly Goods, Wendy Shih, Charlotte Distefano & Connie Kasari

Authors
  1. Stephanie Y. Shire
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Correspondence to Stephanie Y. Shire.

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Shire, S.Y., Goods, K., Shih, W. et al. Parents’ Adoption of Social Communication Intervention Strategies: Families Including Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Who are Minimally Verbal. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 1712–1724 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2329-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2329-x

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