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Published on: July 31, 2017
The Effect of Participation in the Let's Play Program on Autistic Children's Engagement and Caregiver Well-Being: A
Ashley E Hinten1, Philip Schluter1,2, Cathy Andrew1
1Te Kaupeka Oranga | Faculty of Health, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, 8140, New Zealand.
Purpose:
In Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), families face persistent barriers to accessing evidence-based early support for Autistic children. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluated the effectiveness of Let's Play; a bespoke, caregiver-mediated early support program for Autistic children and their caregivers.
Methods:
This single-blind (rater) RCT included 91 parent-child dyads, randomly assigned to the Let's Play program (active support; AS [n = 45]) or a waitlist control (WLC; n = 46). Participants were caregivers of children aged 0 to 5 years with a formal diagnosis or characteristics of autism. Let's Play was delivered over 9 weeks via group workshops and in-home coaching. Primary child and caregiver outcomes, assessed at baseline, post-support, and 6-month follow-up, included parent-child engagement and parental stress, respectively.
Results:
Children showed descriptive evidence of improvement in caregiver-child engagement, health-related quality of life and behaviour from baseline to post-support. Improvement in parental stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, and self-perceived parenting competence were also evident, across timepoints. However, there were no significant Group x Ttime effects for caregiver-child engagement, number of utterances or number of different words. A Group x Time effect was evident for all other child and caregiver outcome variables, underscoring the benefits of Let's Play.
Conclusions:
This research provides preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of a low-intensity, community-based, caregiver-mediated early support program for Autistic children's health-related quality of life and behavior and caregiver well-being. However, more targeted or sustained approaches to supporting caregiver-child engagement and vocal communication may be needed for improvement to be observed.
Clinical Trial Registration:
The research protocol was prospectively registered on the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12622001139763).
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