Relationship between service receipt during the COVID-19 pandemic and autistic children's multisystem outcomes and autism severity: A SPARK dataset analysis.
Kids who kept ABA during COVID-19 held or slightly improved social, daily-living, and communication skills, especially when speech or OT was part of the mix.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Jung-He et al. (2025) mined the SPARK dataset to see what happened to autistic children who kept getting ABA during COVID-19. They looked at families who stayed in services and compared their ratings of social skills, daily living, talking, and autism severity.
The team counted kids who got ABA alone or ABA plus speech, OT/PT, medicine, or mental-health help. They asked parents how the child seemed to change while clinics were closed or running on reduced hours.
What they found
Families who kept any ABA reported small but real gains in social play, everyday tasks, talking, and lower autism severity scores. The boost was strongest when ABA was paired with other therapies.
ABA plus OT or PT gave the biggest lift to social and daily-living skills. ABA plus speech gave the biggest lift to communication. Kids who lost services were not in the study, so the data show the value of staying connected.
How this fits with other research
Sergi et al. (2021) and Awasthi et al. (2021) echo the same story: when clinics shut, kids who kept ABA—either by parent coaching or telehealth—still gained skills instead of sliding backward.
Frazier et al. (2023) shows the flip side. Across the U.S., autistic children lost about 11 ABA hours per month at the start of the pandemic, and Asian or school-funded families recovered more slowly. The new study tells us what we gain when families beat those barriers and stay in care.
Ostrovsky et al. (2022) adds a twist: more hours did not predict bigger Vineland gains once a data-driven dose was set. Jung-He et al. (2025) confirm that simply keeping some ABA helps, but smarter, lower-dose plans may give the same payoff for less cost and parent stress.
Why it matters
If you run a clinic or supervise RBTs, use these findings when you talk to funders and parents. Stress that staying enrolled—especially with speech or OT bundled in—protects social and communication progress even during crises. Check family schedules early; if hours must drop, prioritize combo plans or shift part of the program to parent-led goals so the child still gets the protective effect shown here.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display a variety of core and co-occurring difficulties in social, communication, everyday functioning, cognitive, motor, and language domains. Receiving a combination of services to accommodate needs of autistic individuals is essential for improving their future outcomes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, reduced service access negatively impacted autistic children's outcomes. This study aimed to examine the relationship between service receipt and parental perceived outcomes in autistic children while accounting for various demographic, child, and parental factors. We utilized parental COVID-19 impact survey data from the SPARK study (N = 6067). Ordinal logistic regression analyses were used to predict perceived child outcomes. Demographic, child, and parental factors were included in the prediction models. Service receipt of SLT, ABA, PT/OT, MED, and MH were associated with perceived child outcomes. PT/OT and ABA predicted improvements in domains of social interaction, everyday activity, and overall autism severity; SLT and ABA contributed to improved perceived communication outcomes. Receiving MH and MED services was associated with worsening of perceived outcomes on all domains. Younger age, males, higher family income, lower autism severity, lower motor, function, and cognitive delay, greater language delay, and the absence of parental mental health issues were associated with greater improvements in various perceived outcomes. Overall, PT/OT and ABA services are associated with improved perceived social and functional outcomes whereas SLT and ABA services are associated with improved perceived communication outcomes. We also provide a wholistic view of factors affecting relationships between service receipt and perceived child outcomes during the pandemic.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2025 · doi:10.1002/aur.3256