The Effect of Parent Training Programmes on Screen Time and Social Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Khoo and colleagues ran a single-group class for parents of preschoolers with autism. The class taught the American Academy of Pediatrics screen-time rules: no screens during meals, a one-hour daily limit, and a 30-minute bedtime buffer.

Parents filled out a social-skills checklist and kept a screen-time log the week before the class. They did the same forms again four weeks later. No other treatment was added.

After the class, kids lost 51 minutes of screen time each day. Their social-responsiveness scores also rose a little, moving from “mild difficulty” to “borderline” on average.

Parents said the bedtime buffer rule was easiest to keep. Meal-time screens dropped the most.

Sinai-Gavrilov et al. (2024) and Manohar et al. (2019) also gave short parent-coaching packages to families of autistic toddlers. All three studies show the same pattern: four to five sessions create small but real social gains.

Wang et al. (2025) simply counted screen minutes and found more screen time linked to worse sleep and pickier eating. Khoo’s trial moves that survey data into action—showing parents can reverse the link once they know the rules.

Preston (1994) warned that parent-training often helps parents yet fails to change child behavior. Khoo’s data partly echo that caution: social gains were modest, even though screen time dropped sharply.

You can copy this workshop tomorrow. One 90-minute session plus a take-home sheet cut almost an hour of daily screen use. Pair the AAP rules with your ongoing social-skills program to stretch the benefit. Track bedtime and meal routines first—they change the fastest.