Parents' and Early Childhood Educators' Perceptions after the Implementation of the Pragmatic Intervention Programme...

The presence of pragmatic language difficulties can be lifelong for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental language disorder (DLD). Implementing evidence-based practices integrates the best research evidence, the clinical expertise of the professionals delivering the intervention and the perspectives of parents/caregivers. Nevertheless, research on parents' and early childhood educators' perspectives on the perceived effectiveness of pragmatic language interventions is scarce. This study aims to analyse parents' and early childhood educators' perceptions after the implementation of the Pragmatic Intervention Programme (PICP) to preschool-age children with ASD and children with DLD. As a part of a broad research project, a survey was conducted using an adaptation of a satisfaction survey. Data from 72 participants among parents (n = 36) and early childhood educators (n = 36) were collected immediately after the implementation of the PICP. The survey includes 11 statements, individually scored between 1 (totally disagree) and 7 (totally agree). The average score obtained from the parents' perspective about the intervention impact was 6.83 ± 0.29. For early childhood educators, the average score was 6.60 ± 0.49. The results indicate that parents and early childhood educators considered this intervention appropriate and effective for improving the pragmatic language skills of preschool-age children with ASD and DLD.