Preschoolers with autism given a multi-component communication intervention used more social communicative utterances with their caregivers than comparison children 4 months after it ended, a small difference that was not significant immediately after intervention¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3 · i1 small
Currency · newest study 2020 · checked against its sources 2026-11-02 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i1 At the 4-month follow-up, intervention-group children used significantly more social communicative utterances with their caregivers (SCU-CCX) than comparison children (β = 0.84, p = 0.049; d = 0.259, small), primarily in spoken language; immediately after intervention the same difference was not significant (p = 0.076), and SCU in the examiner language sample did not differ at either point. → Hampton et al. 2020

Evidence¶

Hampton et al. 2020¶

Lauren H Hampton, Ann P Kaiser and Elizabeth A Fuller. (2020). Multi-component communication intervention for children with autism: A randomized controlled trial. Autism, 24(8), 2104–2116. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361320934558

q3 · i1 · causal · r2

Randomized controlled trial of a 36-session multi-component intervention (caregiver training, Discrete Trial Teaching, JASP + EMT + SGD) for 3- to 5-year-olds with autism against a community comparison group. 73 children were randomized (37 intervention, 36 comparison); 5 dropped out before baseline assessment, so 68 were analysed intent-to-treat with multiple imputation, in regressions controlling for autism severity and pretest. SCU-CCX did not differ significantly at posttest (β = 0.63, p = 0.076) and did at follow-up (β = 0.84, p = 0.049). The discussion reports 'Although this difference was small (d = 0.259), the improvement was observed primarily in spoken language'.

"There was a significant difference between groups in SCU-CCX (p = 0.049) but no significant between-group differences on SCU-NLS (p = 0.460)"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Oral Language — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Caregivers trained via workshops and coaching acquire language facilitation strategies and maintain most of them at follow-up — related
• The joint attention advantage of the intervention group does not maintain at 4-month follow-up — related
• The intervention does not produce significant immediate or follow-up gains on generalized social communication or standardized language measures — related
• Non-verbal communication gains persisted at a two-month follow-up, with no statistically significant decline from post-test — related
• Word recognition gains from phonological awareness training were maintained at one-month follow-up with no significant decline from post-test — related
• Onsite training skill effects are larger at immediate post‐intervention than at follow‐up, while hybrid skill effects do not differ by assessment point — related