Long-term outcomes of parent-assisted social skills intervention for high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorders.
Parent-led Children’s Friendship Training keeps kids with autism invited to play for years.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Mandelberg et al. (2014) asked parents to run a 12-week social program at home.
The team taught moms and dads how to coach their high-functioning autistic kids.
They checked back three years later to see if the gains stuck.
What they found
Kids kept getting more play-date invites years after the classes ended.
Parents still saw better social skills and fewer fights.
Loneliness dropped a little, but the big win was lasting peer contact.
How this fits with other research
Kent et al. (2021) got similar play gains, but used school peers instead of parents.
Laermans et al. (2025) doubled interactive play in preschool with teacher-run peer training.
These studies look like they clash—home vs. school, parent vs. peer—but they all show the same skill leap.
The difference is who runs the show, not whether it works.
Why it matters
You now have two solid roads to the same goal.
If parents have time and energy, train them with Children’s Friendship Training.
If the child is in an inclusive class, pick a peer or teacher model instead.
Either way, teach the same steps: greet, ask, share, follow up.
Match the coach to the setting and watch friendships grow for years.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study aims to evaluate the long-term outcome of Children's Friendship Training, a parent-assisted social skills intervention for children. Prior research has shown Children's Friendship Training to be superior to wait-list control with maintenance of gains at 3-month follow-up. Participants were families of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder who completed Children's Friendship Training 1-5 years earlier. They were recruited through mail, phone, and email. Information collected included parent and child completed questionnaires and a phone interview. Data were collected on 24 of 52 potential participants (46%). With an average of 35-month follow-up, participants had a mean age of 12.6 years. Results indicated that participants at follow-up were invited on significantly more play dates, showed less play date conflict, improved significantly in parent-reported social skills and problem behaviors, and demonstrated marginally significant decreases in loneliness when compared to pre-Children's Friendship Training.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2014 · doi:10.1177/1362361312472403