A growing body of research indicates imitation is a skill that is significantly impaired in young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Relationships between imitation skills and other social and communication skills, such as joint attention and play, have been discovered, leading early intervention service providers to focus on teaching imitation skills to young children with ASD in order to foster related skill development. Parent-implemented interventions can eliminate or reduce the need for outside service providers, which can reduce costs to families and have been shown to have positive effects on parent mental health. They can also yield similar benefits to therapist-implemented intervention when implemented with a high degree of fidelity. Parent-implemented Reciprocal Imitation Training (RIT) has been effective in increasing both object and gestural imitation skills in young children with ASD. This study aimed to replicate those findings. Three young children with ASD were exposed to parent-implemented RIT in two phases targeting object and gestural imitation, and all three increased their rates of both object and gestural imitation during the intervention. / Special Education

Exploring the interventions that promote expressive, verbal language for preschool-aged children with autism is essential. When a child is lacking the ability to communicate, parents express that they would like their child to speak. B.F. Skinner (1957) proposed that the mand repertoire (communicative requests) should be an initial focus of language training. Mand training has been shown to be effective for teaching children with autism to communicate. However, many studies exploring mand training utilize highly trained instructors for intervention implementation. Early childhood best practices recommend the use of family-centered interventions and teaching within the natural environment. This study followed these recommendations. This research utilized a single subject multiple baseline across participants design with two parents and their preschool aged children with autism. The purpose of this dissertation study was two fold: (1) to examine the effects of a verbal mand with direct trial instruction intervention on the verbal communication skills for children with autism, and (2) to investigate if a parent can reliably implement the intervention. Using written instructions, role play, video models, and performance feedback, the researcher taught parents how to implement the intervention with their child. The goal of the intervention was to increase verbal communication skills, specifically the production of independent verbal mands. The intervention under question involved verbal mand training using direct trial instruction (DTI). During DTI the parent taught the child to use mands utilizing a time delay, verbal prompting, and sign language. The researcher collected data during the baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases. In addition to the intervention results, the researcher collected and analyzed social validity, treatment fidelity, and parent competence data. Results from the intervention effects did not show a functional relation between the treatment and the target behavior. However, both participants increased their ability to use verbal and sign language communication. The parents were able to implement the intervention with fidelity and gained high competence scores related to intervention delivery expertise and behavioral responsiveness. The parents also reported that the intervention was extremely useful for their family. The parents generalized the intervention procedures and their children communicated more throughout their daily routines.

Students who display reading difficulties/disabilities at the end of third grade are less likely to succeed in content areas and graduate from high school than their reading-proficient peers. Literature suggests that students in rural school districts lag behind their suburban peers in terms of their reading levels and accessibility to resources. Furthermore, students from low socioeconomic status (SES) households and those who have disabilities exhibit greater learning loss during the summer break. This exploratory study examined the effects of two parent-implemented computer-based reading programs on the reading skills of 20 students at-risk for reading failure during a summer break. Parental and students’ perceptions regarding the effectiveness and desirability of the programs were elicited. Results suggested that both programs facilitated gains in phonemic awareness and phonics. Furthermore, students in the Funnix group exhibited large gains in vocabulary and oral reading fluency, and the students in the PLATO group exhibited large gains in comprehension. Most of the students indicated they liked the programs and the programs helped them read. Similarly, most of the parents agreed that the programs were useful, and they were comfortable using the programs. A description of the computer programs, results, implications, and limitations of the study are discussed.

Parent-implemented interventions (PIIs) can be useful in promoting parents’ knowledge of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in transferring necessary skills to children with ASD. Individuals with ASD can directly and indirectly benefit from PIIs in terms of academics, ASD symptom severity, behavior improvement, cognition, communication, and social skills. Many studies have explored the efficacy of PIIs; however, they have tended to report mixed effects. Previous meta-analyses and systematic reviews have been characterized by limited search terms and literature search procedures, emphases on published manuscripts, dependency on parent reports, dated findings, and comparisons across of different types of control groups. This study attempts to improve on the methodology of prior meta-analyses and to update findings of the effectiveness of PIIs for children and youth with ASD. We located 1925 studies at initial manuscript search in 9 databases. After additional search from other sources, 43 studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies with same participants were merged that yield 40 records for final data coding. Eligible studies coded in Dyches et al.’s meta-analysis (2018) combined with current data resulted in 53 randomized controlled trials for data analysis. The random effects model meta-analysis found a moderate and statistically significant effect (g = 0.55, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.65, p < 0.00001) on overall weighted effect size across 53 studies included. PIIs can improve child outcomes in positive behavior/social skill (g = 0.603), maladaptive behavior (g = 0.519), adaptive behavior/life skills (g = 0.239), and language/communication (g = 0.545). These findings are inconclusive and should be interpreted with caution, especially adaptive behavior/life skill because only six studies reported outcomes on that variable. No moderating variables were identified in post hoc random effects weighted analyses. Implications for future research are discussed.

There is little empirical evidence to indicate the efficacy of early intervention approaches used with young children with cleft lip and/or palate (CLP). The positive effects of a focused stimulation approach have been documented with children having speech and language deficits, although an articulation model has predominated in intervention of young children with CLP. This study examined the effects of a focused stimulation language intervention and a modification of focused stimulation that emphasized stop consonants through overaspiration of stops (Golding-Kushner, 2001). Four mother-child dyads participated in the study. Each mother received training regarding the implementation of the two treatments. The two interventions were counterbalanced among the four dyads and spanned a total of eight weeks in length. Results indicated that both of the treatments increased the vocabulary usage and reduced the number of compensatory articulation errors in the speech of the children.

In this study, the author examined the effects of training four parents from low-socioeconomic environments to use Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) with their young children with language impairment. The investigator used a modified Teach-Model-Coach-Review method to teach parents to use the following EMT strategies during 8-10 individualized, home-based sessions: matched turns, expansions, time delays and milieu teaching prompts. A single-case multiple-baseline design across-behaviors replicated across four parent/child dyads was used to evaluate the parents' use of the EMT strategies. Child language outcomes were also assessed using pre- and post-intervention language samples. All parents learned and demonstrated use of each language support strategy to set criterion levels. Results from this study indicated a functional relation between the brief parent-implemented language intervention training and parents’ use of language support strategies. Additionally, all four children demonstrated gains in expressive language. Additional research is needed to assess fidelity and dosage of parents’ use of strategies on specific child language outcomes and to determine how to facilitate maintenance of parents’ use of strategies over time.