Supporting Family Capacity-Building: Initial Effects for Providers,Parents,and Toddlers With Autism

Abstract

This article describes a pilot study in which community-based professionals were supported in forging partnerships with families to address early social communication as signs of autism first emerge in toddlers. We examined the preliminary effects of supporting 12 community-based early intervention providers to facilitate capacity-building for families of toddlers with early signs of autism within typical 1-hr weekly home-based intervention sessions. Providers were guided to apply mediated learning practices to facilitate parent conceptual learning related to mediating their toddlers’ active engagement in preverbal social learning. We used a single-case design to analyze independent observational coding of video and audio-recorded data. Results demonstrated that, overall, providers adapted their practices to facilitate parent learning, parents learned to apply mediated learning practices to promote toddlers’ social communication, and toddlers achieved targeted social communication outcomes. Post-intervention surveys of providers and parents supported the intervention’s usability, acceptability, and feasibility. Early intervention practitioners are tasked with supporting learning for families of very young children with emerging signs of autism. This learning requires consideration of how the core autism challenge, social communication, affects early child development and the parent-child relationship and how to address it.