Autism, Therapy and COVID-19
Weekly parent-coaching calls kept Italian toddlers with ASD from losing ABA skills while clinics were closed.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Sergi and her team asked: can parents keep ABA going at home when clinics shut? They worked with Italian toddlers who had autism. The Local Health Authority paid for weekly parent coaching calls during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Each family got ABA lessons through video or phone. Parents practiced communication, play, and daily-living skills with their child. The researchers scored the kids before lockdown, during lockdown, and after clinics reopened.
What they found
Toddlers held on to their skills. None lost words, play steps, or self-help routines. A few even gained new ones while the clinic doors stayed shut.
When centers reopened, the children still had the same skills. They did not slide backward, but they also did not leap ahead until regular therapy restarted.
How this fits with other research
Sutton et al. (2022) ran a similar phone-coach plan in France. Their kids stayed stable, but they did not improve. The Italian toddlers did a little better, perhaps because they were younger or received more hours.
Two surveys seem to disagree. Shawler et al. (2021) and Tawankanjanachot et al. (2024) report large social-skill losses in US and Thai families. The difference is money and support. The surveyed families had little income, no training, and no regular service. Sergi’s families got free, structured ABA coaching every week.
Garikipati et al. (2024) later showed parent-led ABA can keep working after the pandemic. Their data cover all ages and show the same upward trend when parents receive clear instruction.
Why it matters
You can protect a child’s progress during any break—snow week, staff shortage, or future lockdown—if you give parents a short, weekly coaching call and a few bite-size lessons. Start with one goal, one video model, and one data sheet. Email it on Monday, review it on Friday. The child keeps the skill, the parent gains confidence, and you keep the case moving forward.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Pick one target skill, film a 2-minute demo, and schedule a 15-minute parent review call this Friday.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
While numerous treatments for ASD are available, intervention based on the principles and procedures of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) has garnered substantial scientific support. In this study we evaluated the effects of the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, followed by quarantine provisions and during the three months after the resumption of activities. The study was conducted on a group of children taking part on a ABA-based intervention funded by the Local Health Authority (ASL) of the province of Caserta. In this study we considered a sample of 88 children who had been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, aged between 18 and 30 months. The following inclusion criteria were observed: age at the time of diagnosis less than 30 months, absence of other neurological, genetic, or sensorineural pathologies, and severity level 1 measured by symptoms evaluation based on the ADOS 2 module T (used for diagnosis). During the lockdown children experienced improvements in communication, socialization, and personal autonomy. During the three months after the ABA treatment, the acquired skills were maintained but no significant improvement was demonstrated. In this study, we describe how parent training was significant in avoiding delays in the generalization of socially significant behaviors, following the drastic interruption of the treatment in this group of children.
Pediatric Reports, 2021 · doi:10.3390/pediatric13010005