PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
27-Oct-2014
Contact: Erin Digitale digitale@stanford.edu 650-724-9175 Stanford University Medical Center @sumedicine
Parents can learn to use a scientifically validated autism therapy with their own children by taking a short series of group classes, a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford has found.
The therapy helped children improve their language skills, an area of deficiency in autism, according to the study, which will be published Oct. 27 in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. The study is the first randomized, controlled trial to test whether group classes are a good way to train parents on using an autism therapy.
"We're teaching parents to become more than parents," said the study's lead author, Antonio Hardan, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, who directs the hospital's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic. "What we're most excited about is that parents are able to learn this intervention and implement it with their kids."
The treatment is not intended to replace autism therapies administered by professionals, but rather to improve parents' ability to help their children learn from everyday interactions.
"There are two benefits: The child can make progress, and the parents leave the treatment program better equipped to facilitate the child's development over the course of their daily routines," said study co-author Grace Gengoux, PhD, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a psychologist specializing in autism treatment at the hospital. "The ways that parents instinctually interact with children to guide language development may not work for a child with autism, which can frustrate parents. Other studies have shown that learning this treatment reduces parents' stress and improves their happiness. Parents benefit from knowing how to help their children learn."
Rewarding the Child
The therapy used in the 12-week study, called pivotal response training, has been shown in previous studies to help children with autism. To use the treatment for building language skills, parents identify something the child wants and systematically reward the child for trying to talk about it. For instance, if the child reaches for a ball, the parent says, "Do you want the ball? Say 'ball.'"
The rest is here:
Group classes teach parents effective autism therapy, Stanford/Packard study finds