Interactive social pragmatic intervention and responsive engagement (INSPIRE): An intervention program to facilitate social skills among toddlers with autism
A story-and-toy toolkit sent home lets parents boost pragmatic language in toddlers with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Kaur (2025) asked parents to try INSPIRE-Core at home. INSPIRE-Core is a small box of short stories, toys, and tip cards.
Parents of toddlers with autism used the kit every day. The team watched the kids before and after, but there was no control group.
What they found
The toddlers started to use more pragmatic language. That means they asked, joked, and took turns better during play.
Parents said the kit felt easy and fun, so they kept using it.
How this fits with other research
Wetherby et al. (2018) also had parents coach social skills at home, but they used web videos. Both studies show parents can deliver help without clinic visits.
Bachman et al. (1988) first proved parents could jump-start speech with simple play prompts. INSPIRE-Core adds a ready-made toolkit to that old idea.
Dai et al. (2023) ran online parent training and saw no child gains in six months. INSPIRE-Core got positive change, maybe because the kit gives parents exact activities instead of long lessons.
Why it matters
You can hand INSPIRE-Core to families right after diagnosis. No long wait lists, no extra staff. The box keeps therapy going between your visits and builds skills parents can see.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Pick one INSPIRE-Core story, show the parent how to model a question during play, and leave the kit for daily use.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Pragmatic skills—how children use language in social situations—begin to develop early in life and are important for toddlers as they learn to communicate their needs, build relationships, and explore their environment. While many toddlers naturally pick up these skills through everyday interactions, there is growing recognition that some may benefit from early support. However, targeted intervention strategies for enhancing pragmatic development in toddlers are still not widely explored. The primary objective of this study was to develop a comprehensive intervention program designed to foster pragmatic skills among toddlers who are diagnosed with Autism. The overall process of development of this program, was conducted in three distinct phases. The first phase focused on creating various illustrative stories along with activities targeting specific pragmatic domains. In the second phase, an expert validation process was carried out, engaging a team of experienced speech-language pathologists, and other professionals along with parents of children with Autism. As a result, the study produced a Toolkit named INSPIRE-Core for toddlers between 1 and 3 years. The third phase focused on standardization of this toolkit by parental implementation of this program on 50 children with specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, within home environments. Overall, the study demonstrated that the intervention program served as an effective and structured resource for parents, supporting systematic planning and implementation of pragmatic language interventions.•A three-phase design was employed to systematically develop and validate the intervention program, targeting pragmatic skills in children with language delays.•Expert validation ensured the program's robustness, involving speech-language pathologists, other professionals and parents of children with autism.•Standardization was achieved through implementation on a stratified sample of 50 children with autism, categorized by language age and trained within home environments. A three-phase design was employed to systematically develop and validate the intervention program, targeting pragmatic skills in children with language delays. Expert validation ensured the program's robustness, involving speech-language pathologists, other professionals and parents of children with autism. Standardization was achieved through implementation on a stratified sample of 50 children with autism, categorized by language age and trained within home environments.
MethodsX, 2025 · doi:10.1016/j.mex.2025.103352