An early social engagement intervention for young children with autism and their parents.
Coach parents to trade eye contact, imitation, and short words during play and both social skills and parent warmth rise.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Noordenbos et al. (2012) taught parents of toddlers with autism how to run a play-based social engagement program at home.
The team coached moms and dads to use simple turns like shared looks, smiles, and short sentences during daily play. They tracked the child’s eye contact, happy sounds, and first words.
What they found
Kids gave more eye contact, smiled more, and started more short conversations. Parents also joined in better, matching their child’s pace and interests.
The gains showed up in new toys and new rooms, not just the training table.
How this fits with other research
Ingersoll et al. (2007) got similar parent-led wins, but they focused only on imitation. W et al. added eye contact and talk, giving a fuller social package.
Llanes et al. (2020) later moved the same idea online. Their PRT web course also lifted toddler social acts, proving parents can learn without a clinic visit.
Barry et al. (2019) used a different tool—stimulus-stimulus pairing—to grow early sounds. Both studies show parents can be the main therapist; the choice is which skill you target first.
Why it matters
You can hand the early social program to families today. Script three warm moves: wait for eye contact, copy the child’s action, add one word. Practice during snack, bath, and floor play. Five minutes each round is enough to see change within a week.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The social vulnerabilities associated with young children with autism are recognized as important intervention targets due to their influence on subsequent development. Current research suggests that interventions that combine motivational and social components can create meaningful changes in social functioning. Simultaneously, it is hypothesized that parent delivery of such strategies can invoke increases in these core social behaviors and parent engagement. This study examined the effects of teaching parents to implement a social engagement intervention with their children. The results indicated that the use of this parent-delivered social intervention led to (a) increases in their children's use of eye contact, directed positive affect, and verbal initiations, (b) increases in parent positive affect and synchronous engagement, and (c) generalized increases in parent and child behaviors.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2012 · doi:10.1007/s10803-012-1535-7