Incidental teaching for infants and toddlers where ASD is suspected : program for caregivers

Abstract

In recent years, there has been increased emphasis on developing better methods to find early indicators to diagnose Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Early signs of ASD include difficulties with starting and maintaining social interaction, such as pointing, answering names, and social smiling. Incidental teaching (IT) is a widely known form of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI). Teaching parents to implement IT can maximize their child's developmental progress. However, such parenting programs are scarce, especially for parents of undiagnosed infants and toddlers. This study aimed to teach parents to implement IT for their young child suspected of having ASD using Behavior Skill Training (BST). Participants included six parents and four children. For each child, three social-related targets were selected based on the M-CHAT-R/F screening tool and parents' preferences. Parents were taught to create learning opportunities based on those targets. Multiple baseline across behaviors was used to assess the effects of BST on learning opportunities the parents created for their children. None of the parents identified enough learning opportunities for their children prior to the training. Not all participants went through the whole program, but learning opportunities increased for those who turned in videos after BST. These results indicate that these caregivers would benefit from receiving more instruction on IT and the subsequent learning advantages for their children.Keywords: Early signs of ASD, naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention, incidental teaching, learning opportunities, parent training, behavior skills training