"Opt-In" Early Intervention Program for Children Waiting to Receive an Autism Diagnosis

Study Summary

A growing body of literature documents the benefits of parent-mediated interventions for autism starting early in life . However, the median age of diagnosis in the US continues to be 49 months. Even following formal diagnosis, services often do not begin for another 9 months on average. Such harmful delays in accessing autism-specific early interventions are potentially avoidable, as caregivers of children later diagnosed with autism identify concerns about their child's development by 13 months on average - including difficulties that can be successfully addressed through evidence-based intervention practices. Wait times to receive a formal diagnosis of autism are such a significant barrier that they have been referred to as a "crisis" in the field, with parents reporting an average wait time of 1.2 years in the US. The current proposal focuses on circumventing the roadblock of delayed access to diagnosis and intervention by empowering caregivers to address their children's needs before a diagnosis is established. This will be accomplished through the implementation and evaluation of the "Online Parent Training in Early Behavioral Intervention (OPT-In-Early)", a self-directed online resource for caregivers of autistic children which will be made available during their enrollment in waitlists for a diagnostic evaluation. Key features of OPT-In-Early include: (a) a comprehensive scope (i.e., multiple developmental domains are addressed), (b) a focus on evidence-based Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention strategies, (c) a combination of required and optional modules, so that caregivers can focus on areas most relevant to their child's needs, and (d) access to online materials designed for self-directed implementation, as well as access to remote consultation with a clinician for advice, clarification and support (including on selection of appropriate modules). Following an alternative approach to the current "parental concerns - then enrollment in wai

Primary Outcome

The Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) is a proximal measure of intervention response, i.e., a measure that captures changes in the specific goals selected for each participant. The GAS is designed to assess an individual's progress on a goal in relation to their baseline performance. The GAS includes standardized procedures to generate a common metric of intervention change across participants who have different intervention goals. For each participant, goals are developed based on areas in which th

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Online Parent Training in Early Behavioral Intervention (OPT-In-Early)

Study Locations (1)