The need for research using randomized groups have been great in the field of autism intervention. And in volume 52:1 of Journal of child psychology and psychiatry Landa, Holman, O’Niell and Stuart have published a randomized study on socially synchronous engagement in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder.
In their study their randomized fifty two years old children with autism spectrum disorders. The two groups received identical treatment based on established teaching strategies such as discrete trial teaching and pivotal response treatment, but one group (interpersonal synchrony) received a supplementary curriculum on engaged imitation, joint attention and affect sharing.
The study showed a significant effect for the interpersonal synchrony group on engaged imitation (including eye contact). The study also showed positive results on joint attention and affect sharing, but not statistically significant.
It´s important that the number of randomized controlled trials in autism interventions is raised, and recently a new randomized controlled trial reached publication. Carter et al published a randomized trial of Hanen´s More Than words in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
Hanen´s More Than Words (HMTW) is described as a parent training program to teach parents with young children with ADS practical strategies to use during everyday situations and routines to increase communication. The program includes eight group sessions with parents, and three individualized sessions with parents and child. HMTW focuses on helping children with ASD to reach the following four goals: (1) improved two-way interaction, (2) more mature and conventional ways of communicating, (3) better skills in communicating for social purposes, and (4) improved understanding of language.
In this study including 62 children found differential effects on child communication. They found no main effects of the HMTW on either parental responsively or children´s communication. But they showed effects on residualized gains in parent responsively from the time before randomization to 5 and 9 months later. They also found that children with low object interest before interventions exhibited facilitated growth in communication 9 months later.
