Autism spectrum disorder: communicative profile before and after remote family guidance.
Short online caregiver coaching lifts autistic children’s everyday communication to age level.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave parents of autistic children a short online course. Parents watched slides and used printed booklets at home.
No one came to the house. All help came through the computer. The study tested kids before and after the course.
What they found
After the course, children talked more often. They used more ways to communicate, like asking, pointing, and showing.
Most kids reached the same level as their same-age peers. The gains showed up quickly after the brief training.
How this fits with other research
Silva et al. (2025) ran the same slide-and-booklet package and saw the same jump in communication. The match is almost perfect, so the result is not a one-time fluke.
Strömberg et al. (2025) also coached parents online, but taught only eye contact. Their kids learned to look, while LEH kids learned broad language. Together the papers show parents can teach different social skills from home.
Malucelli et al. (2021) used in-clinic coaching with the ESDM model. Both studies helped toddlers, but LEH did it faster and fully online. The new method saves travel time and reaches rural families.
Why it matters
You can copy this package next week. Email the slide deck and booklet to the family. Ask them to watch one module, then try the step during daily play. Track the child’s new words or gestures for ten minutes. If numbers go up, keep the routine. If not, add live video coaching. Either way, you deliver help without leaving your office.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
<h4>Purpose</h4>To compare the communicative profile of children diagnosed with or at risk for autism spectrum disorder before and after speech-language-hearing guidance (indirect treatment).<h4>Methods</h4>The study included caregivers and/or parents of children aged 2 to 9 years with a diagnosis of or at risk for autism spectrum disorder, with or without speech-language-hearing therapy. Before the intervention, caregivers answered the sample characterization form and clinical history. They also sent a 10-minute audio and video recording of interaction between the child and a familiar adult for pragmatic analysis based on the ABFW Child Language Test. The intervention included online guidance meetings with slides and guidance booklets. After the intervention, a new video of child-adult interaction was collected for pragmatic analysis.<h4>Results</h4>There was a statistically significant increase in the number of communicative acts per minute, the number of communicative functions used, and the communicative space occupied by the children from before to after the intervention. Most children changed their preferred means of communication and increased the number of responses, although these changes were not statistically significant. After the guidance meetings, most participants reached the age-appropriate number of communicative acts.<h4>Conclusion</h4>Indirect treatment is a good tool to benefit the pragmatic abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder.
, 2025 · doi:10.1590/2317-1782/e20240238pt