Feasibility study of the National Autistic Society EarlyBird parent support programme.
EarlyBird parent groups feel good and are easy to run, but you still need an RCT to prove they work.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ring et al. (2020) ran a small UK test of the EarlyBird parent course. Preschoolers with autism and their parents met in groups for weeks. Staff tracked parent stress and child skills before and after. There was no control group.
What they found
Parents said they liked the course and would tell a friend to join. Their stress dipped a little. Kids showed tiny gains in communication. Because there was no control group, the team cannot say EarlyBird caused the change.
How this fits with other research
Rojas-Torres et al. (2020) and Dawson-Squibb et al. (2020) both reviewed dozens of parent courses. They say ABA-based parent training helps toddlers with autism. These big reviews include EarlyBird-type programs, so the weak results here may reflect the small sample, not the program.
Granieri et al. (2020) tested a similar UK parent course but added a control group. They also saw high parent satisfaction. Their design was stronger, so their data carry more weight. Melanie’s team now knows an RCT is the next step.
Bello-Mojeed et al. (2016) and Laposa et al. (2017) show parent training can work in Nigeria and Bangladesh. These studies extend the idea that parent coaching is doable across cultures, not just in the UK.
Why it matters
If you run parent groups in the UK, EarlyBird is welcome and doable. Use it as a gateway to ABA, but track data. Pair it with an RCT or single-case design so you can show clear gains, not just happy families.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The EarlyBird programme is a group-based psychoeducation intervention for parents of young children with autism. Although it is widely used in the United Kingdom, the evidence base for the programme is very limited. Using a mixed method, non-randomised research design, we aimed to test (1) the acceptability of the research procedures (recruitment, retention, suitability of measures), (2) the parental acceptability of EarlyBird (attendance, views of the programme, perceived changes) and (3) the facilitator acceptability of EarlyBird (fidelity, views of the programme, perceived changes). Seventeen families with a 2- to 5-year-old autistic child and 10 EarlyBird facilitators took part. Pre- and post-intervention assessment included measures of the child's autism characteristics, cognitive ability, adaptive behaviour, emotional and behavioural problems and parent-reported autism knowledge, parenting competence, stress and wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews were completed at post-intervention with parents and facilitators. For those involved in the study, the research procedures were generally acceptable, retention rates were high and the research protocol was administered as planned. Generally, positive views of the intervention were expressed by parents and facilitators. Although the uncontrolled, within-participant design does not allow us to test for efficacy, change in several outcome measures from pre- to post-intervention was in the expected direction. Difficulties were encountered with recruitment (opt-in to the groups was ~56% and opt-in to the research was 63%), and strategies to enhance recruitment need to be built into any future trial. These findings should be used to inform protocols for pragmatic, controlled trials of EarlyBird and other group-based interventions for parents with young autistic children.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2020 · doi:10.1177/1362361319851422