The Role of Pathways Early Autism Intervention in Improving Social Skills and Respeto for Young Hispanic Autistic Children.
Pathways parent coaching lifts both social skills and the cultural value of respeto in Hispanic autistic preschoolers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
de Jonge et al. (2025) tested Pathways Early Autism Intervention with 26 Hispanic preschoolers who have autism. Pathways is a parent-mediated NDBI. Coaches teach moms and dads to use everyday play and routines to grow social skills.
The team measured two things: general social skills and respeto. Respeto means affiliative obedience—listening and showing respect, a value many Hispanic families cherish.
What they found
Kids made large gains in both areas. Parents reported better sharing, eye contact, and turn-taking. They also saw more respeto—children following directions with a respectful tone.
The study used a quasi-experimental design. There was no control group, but the size of the change suggests the coaching mattered.
How this fits with other research
de Jonge et al. (2025) ran a follow-up RCT on the same Pathways model. It found smaller, yet still positive, boosts in joint engagement. The newer study adds Hispanic families and shows cultural values can be targets too.
Gevarter et al. (2025) also coached Hispanic parents in NDBI. They saw very large jumps in communication, while the target paper saw large jumps in social skills plus respeto. Together they say: coaching in the family language helps many domains.
Capio et al. (2013) did an earlier parent-coaching trial with mostly white families. Gains were medium, not large. The Hispanic focus and respeto piece in the target study may explain the bigger leap.
Why it matters
If you work with Hispanic families, add respeto to your parent goals. Ask parents what respect looks like in their home. Then weave that into your NDBI coaching. You may see faster buy-in and bigger child gains.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
PURPOSE: We know very little about Hispanic autistic children's response to intervention as, historically, Hispanic children are underrepresented in intervention studies. Pathways parent-mediated early autism intervention is one of the few naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs) that is contextually and linguistically responsive to Hispanic families. However, some child-centered NDBI strategies do not align with the Hispanic caregiving value of respeto. A child exhibiting respeto demonstrates affiliative obedience by displaying deference and respect toward adults. Furthermore, theories of the ontogeny of cultural learning suggest that certain levels of social development may be necessary to learn cultural values. The current study investigates (1) the relationship between Hispanic autistic children's social skills and affiliative obedience and (2) the efficacy of Pathways in improving affiliative obedience in Hispanic children. METHODS: This quasi-experimental design study used preexisting standardized test data and video recordings from 26 Hispanic participants who took part in a previous Pathways efficacy study. Recordings were coded for affiliative obedience and social connectedness. Residual change variables were used to measure progress from baseline to post-intervention, and correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to analyze the data. RESULTS: We found significant positive correlations between social skills and children's affiliative obedience for baseline and change variables. In addition, we found Pathways had a significant medium-large magnitude effect on change in affiliative obedience skills. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the benefits of NDBI interventions that advance social development in autistic children and support Hispanic parents in enculturating their children in the value of respeto.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1017/S0140525X05000129