Brief Report: A Pilot Online Pivotal Response Treatment Training Program for Parents of Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Llanes et al. (2020) built a short, fully online course that teaches parents how to use Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) with their toddlers who have autism.

Families watched videos, took quizzes, and sent in short clips of themselves using PRT at home. No in-person coach visited the house.

After the course, parents used PRT moves like getting the child’s eye contact and offering choices correctly about twice as often.

The toddlers also showed more social talking—comments, questions, and shared looks—than before the course.

Berler et al. (1982) already showed moms can run behavior plans at home and keep gains for years, but they met therapists face-to-face. Elizabeth’s team proves the same idea can now travel through a laptop.

Reinert et al. (2020) give a how-to for teaching parents digital schedules over Zoom; Elizabeth adds a ready-made PRT package with quizzes and fidelity checks.

Van Keer et al. (2017) found that any parent who responds faster during play gets more child initiations; Elizabeth shows one quick way to train that skill online.

You can assign this course as homework and save drive time. Ask parents to upload a 5-minute play clip each week, score two PRT moves, and send back a 30-second praise video. You will see faster gains in child eye contact and words without adding extra visits.