Clinicianless Training in Autism Treatment: An Adaptive Online Parent Education Program
Condition: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Parents
MeSH terms: Autistic Disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This project will examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of using a
      smartphone app-based parent training program focused on early autism intervention strategies.
    

Detailed description: 
      Despite scientific advances in treatment for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), most families
      across the United States do not have access to high quality autism services, let alone the
      best autism treatment models available. There are a number of reasons for this concerning
      reality, including the limited number of trained autism clinicians around the country, the
      rising cost of services, geographic distance from autism service providers, and difficulties
      in being able to effectively and efficiently train a large number of people in the latest
      treatment models.

      This proposed project focuses on the Department of Defense Autism Research Program - Clinical
      Translational Research Award Area of Interests focused on Dissemination/Implementation of
      Clinically Validated Interventions and Behavioral Therapies for ASD Core Symptoms. These
      areas focus on effective strategies for taking what works (in this case, highly effective
      autism treatments shown to improve social communication and motivation in children with
      autism) and spreading or distributing these treatments so that they can benefit a much larger
      portion of the population. This is important, because a highly effective treatment is of
      little use if only people in a few areas can benefit from its effect, while the rest of the
      nation continues to use outdated, less effective strategies.

      To accomplish the goal of distributing a highly effective intervention to the general public,
      this proposed study will take advantage of the wide-spread use of smartphones nationwide.
      This study proposes to develop and evaluate smartphone apps as a way to train parents of
      young children with ASD in an autism treatment model known as Pivotal Response Treatment
      (PRT). Families will be recruited nationwide to participate in this trial.

      Pivotal Response Treatment is a well-known, scientifically supported treatment that focuses
      on using child motivation, play-based lessons, and parent involvement to target the language
      skills and social engagement of children with ASD. The core smartphone app will offer eight
      interactive lessons in PRT, consisting of video examples, slides, and brief quizzes. After
      each lesson, parents will be asked to record a brief video of themselves using PRT with their
      child, which is submitted within the app to the research team so that they can monitor their
      mastery of the strategies over time. The investigators will also ask parents to complete
      autism-related and developmental surveys before and after participation so that the research
      team can monitor how their child is improving.

      Ultimately, the objective of this trial is to develop and test smartphone apps to deliver a
      highly effective autism intervention to families nationwide. The use of this technology will
      ensure that families can access gold standard autism treatment regardless of their geographic
      location, work schedules, or financial background. If successful, the investigators plan to
      conduct an even larger nationwide study and ultimately make the app available in smartphone
      app stores so that families everywhere can train themselves in this treatment approach.
    

Intervention name(s): Smartphone-App Parent Training in Pivotal Response Treatment
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Parents are trained in Pivotal Response Treatment, Pivotal Response Treatment is a well-known, scientifically supported treatment that focuses on using child motivation, play-based lessons, and parent involvement to target the language skills and social engagement of children with autism. The core smartphone app will offer eight interactive lessons in PRT, consisting of video examples, slides, and brief quizzes.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Randomized Clinical Trial with two arms.
Masking: Triple (Participant, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Autism; Treatment; Intervention