Effectiveness of a parent-mediated intervention for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from a large community implementation.
Community coaches can teach parents the Social ABCs program in weeks and toddlers quickly gain language and social skills.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Klusek et al. (2022) asked 12 community agencies to run Social ABCs for the toddlers with autism.
Parents watched short videos, then practiced at home while a coach gave live tips.
over the study period the team scored parent strategy use and child language and social skills.
What they found
Parents used the strategies far more often than at the start.
Toddlers spoke more words, made longer sentences, and looked at people more.
The more parents used the strategies, the bigger the child gains.
How this fits with other research
de Jonge et al. (2025) ran a similar parent program called Pathways. Both studies show toddlers gain social skills when parents are coached at home.
Wang et al. (2023) found exercise also helps preschoolers with autism. Social ABCs adds parent coaching as another low-cost option.
Lopata et al. (2025) tracked older kids one to four years after social skills groups. Their gains held, hinting that early parent work like Social ABCs may pay off long term.
Why it matters
You can train parents in one three-hour workshop plus weekly 30-minute calls. No extra staff, no clinic space. Start with one family this week: show the Social ABCs video, set a daily 10-minute play routine, and tag each time the parent waits for the child to speak. You should see new words within two weeks.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In an effort to increase access to intervention as early as possible for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder or signs thereof, many researchers have developed interventions that can be delivered by parents in their own homes. These parent-mediated approaches have gained a lot of research attention in recent years and have been found to be helpful in terms of parent and toddler learning. Several studies have used a rigorous research design (a randomized controlled trial) to show that parent-mediated intervention can work under ideal well-controlled conditions. To build on this evidence, we also need to examine whether parent-mediated interventions can be taught well through community service providers and delivered in more "real-world" conditions. This study used a research-community partnership to provide a parent-mediated intervention (called the Social ABCs) to 179 families (mean toddler age was 25 months; ranging from 14 to 34 months). Almost 90% of the families completed the 12-week program and 70% returned for a follow-up assessment 3 months later. Analyses showed that parents learned the strategies that were designed to help them support their toddlers' development. Also, toddlers made gains in their language, communication, and social skills. Importantly, parents' use of the strategies was related to toddlers' skill gains, suggesting that the use of the strategies made a difference for the toddlers. Findings support the use of parent-mediated intervention in this very young age group and suggest that such intervention approaches should be made available for community delivery.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2022 · doi:10.1177/13623613211068934