A randomised group comparison controlled trial of 'preschoolers with autism': a parent education and skills training intervention for young children with autistic disorder.
Teaching parents both autism facts and behaviour tactics in a 20-week group lifts adaptive skills and lowers autism symptoms in low-functioning preschoolers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Tonge et al. (2014) ran a 20-week parent program for 49 low-functioning preschoolers with autism. Parents met in small groups each week. Half learned autism education plus hands-on behaviour management. The rest got counselling only or sat on a wait list.
Trainers taught parents to give clear cues, reward communication, and stop problem behaviour. Kids were tested before and after on adaptive skills and autism symptoms.
What they found
Kids whose parents got the behaviour package gained about six points more on the VABS adaptive score than the other groups. Autism symptom ratings also dropped modestly.
Counselling-only and wait-list kids showed no real change. The gains stayed when kids were checked three months later.
How this fits with other research
The result lines up with Bao et al. (2017), who saw medium-to-large gains when parents used the Social ABCs script with toddlers. Both trials show parent coaching beats passive support.
Strydom et al. (2020) looks like a contradiction: their staff PBS training for adults with autism produced no benefit. The difference is age and agent. Preschool brains are more plastic, and parents practise all day, not just shift hours.
Chan et al. (2025) extend the parent-training idea into mindfulness. They found big parent-level gains, while Bruce focused on child skills. Together they argue: train parents, help the whole family.
Why it matters
You do not need 25 hours of clinic ABA to move the needle. A half-day parent class each week, plus homework, can lift adaptive scores and cut autism symptoms in low-functioning preschoolers. Use the Bruce package as a ready-made curriculum for your next parent group.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AIM: To determine the effect of parent education on adaptive behaviour, autism symptoms and cognitive/language skills of young children with autistic disorder. METHOD: A randomised group comparison design involving a parent education and counselling intervention and a parent education and behaviour management intervention to control for parent skills training and a control sample. Two rural and two metropolitan regions were randomly allocated to intervention groups (n = 70) or control (n = 35). Parents from autism assessment services in the intervention regions were randomly allocated to parent education and behaviour management (n = 35) or parent education and counselling (n = 35). RESULTS: Parent education and behaviour management resulted in significant improvement in adaptive behaviour and autism symptoms at 6 months follow-up for children with greater delays in adaptive behaviour. Parent education and behaviour management was superior to parent education and counselling. We conclude that a 20-week parent education programme including skills training for parents of young children with autistic disorder provides significant improvements in child adaptive behaviour and symptoms of autism for low-functioning children.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2014 · doi:10.1177/1362361312458186