Preventative Intervention for Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Toddlers and Their Families: A Pilot Study.
Six weeks of blended parent training plus in-the-moment coaching cut toddler behavior problems and parent stress without using time-out.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran a six-week pilot called Holding Hands. It blends parent-management training with live coaching.
Toddlers with early social, emotional, or behavior problems and their parents joined. No time-out chairs were used.
What they found
Parents filled out the same check-ups before, after, and later. Both toddler behavior and parent stress moved into the better range.
Gains stayed steady at follow-up, showing the short program left a mark.
How this fits with other research
Schertz et al. (2018) ran a bigger RCT with autistic toddlers and 32 home visits. Both studies show parent coaching works, but Holding Hands reached similar gains in one-fifth of the visits.
Lee et al. (2023) and Azzano et al. (2023) moved coaching online for autism. They echo the same toddler gains, proving the idea travels across screens.
Solomon et al. (2007) piloted six DIR sessions for autism. Like Holding Hands, they saw happy parents and child progress without a control group, showing the pre-post design is a shared first step, not a flaw.
Why it matters
You can copy this hybrid style when families want help fast. Six weeks, no time-out, mix of teaching parents and coaching live. It fits early-intervention slots, wait-lists, or telehealth bridges. Try taping one play routine, review with the parent next week, and watch stress drop on both sides.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Preventative intervention early in life is key to interrupting trajectories toward subsequent emotional and behavioural problems later in life. This study examined the effectiveness of the Holding Hands program, an innovative program of preventative intervention aimed at improving the behavioural and emotional functioning of 12 to 48-month-old toddlers, and the wellbeing of their parents. This program seeks to synthesise the existing evidence in four ways; it incorporates both traditional Parent Management Training and Direct Coaching methods. It is intensive, significantly reducing session numbers and it explicitly addresses parental emotion regulation. The program also utilises operant learning principals in an effort to contingently reinforce behaviour that parents want to see more of, without employing exclusionary strategies in response to behavior that parents want to see less of. Thirty-one families, with a toddler who met clinical or sub-clinical cut-offs for externalising or internalising problems, were self- or externally-referred to the six- to eight-week program. Results indicated statistically significant improvement in toddler emotional and behavioural functioning, and parent well-being on a range of psychometric measures from pre- to post-treatment. Treatment gains were maintained for parents and children at follow-up. Implications of these findings for clinical practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.
, 2019 · doi:10.3390/ijerph16040569