Effectiveness of a universal preschool-based program for emotional education in 3- to 5-year-old children with autism spectrum conditions.
A whole-class emotion lesson lifts emotional skills in preschoolers with autism without pull-outs.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bartroli et al. (2024) tested a whole-class program called 1,2,3,emoció! in preschool rooms.
Teachers gave every child the same emotion lessons. No child was pulled out.
The kids were 3- to 5-year-olds with autism in Spain. The team used a quasi design.
What they found
Children who got the lessons gained more emotional skills than children who did not.
The program worked even though it was given to the whole class, not just to the autistic kids.
How this fits with other research
Nagpal et al. (2025) extends this idea. They showed Group-ESDM also works in mixed preschool rooms.
Haglund et al. (2020) did an earlier classroom NDBI and saw small gains too.
Leung et al. (2016) seems to disagree. They trained only parents and still cut child problem behaviors.
The gap is simple: one study added teacher lessons at school, the other added parent lessons at home. Both help, just in different places.
Why it matters
You can run a short, ready-made emotion curriculum with every preschooler. No extra staff, no pull-outs.
Try it during circle time. Track one social skill for one child. You may see the same boost Montse found.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
There are numerous programs and interventions to improve social and emotional skills that expressly target children with autism spectrum conditions. However, there is less knowledge about the impact of universal (directed to all children) school programs of emotional education specifically on these children. In this context, the aim of our study was to evaluate the impact of the "1,2,3,emoció!" universal school program on them. The results show that children with autism spectrum conditions participating in the program improved their emotional competence more than the ones who did not participate. Therefore, we conclude that the "1,2,3,emoció!" universal program is effective in children with autism spectrum conditions. This promising outcome gives the opportunity to these children to benefit from group learning in an inclusive school setting, by complementing individual interventions with a universal program.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2024 · doi:10.1177/13623613231217058