Efficacy of the ASAP Intervention for Preschoolers with ASD: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Brian A. Boyd, Linda R. Watson, Stephanie S. Reszka, John Sideris, Michael Alessandri, Grace T. Baranek, Elizabeth R. Crais, Amy Donaldson, Anibal Gutierrez, Le Anne Johnson, Katie Belardi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

The advancing social-communication and play (ASAP) intervention was designed as a classroom-based intervention, in which the educational teams serving preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder are trained to implement the intervention in order to improve these children’s social-communication and play skills. In this 4-year, multi-site efficacy trial, classrooms were randomly assigned to ASAP or a business-as-usual control condition. A total of 78 classrooms, including 161 children, enrolled in this study. No significant group differences were found for the primary outcomes of children’s social-communication and play. However, children in the ASAP group showed increased classroom engagement. Additionally, participation in ASAP seemed to have a protective effect for one indicator of teacher burnout. Implications for future research are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3144-3162
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Volume48
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

  • ASAP
  • Autism spectrum disorder
  • Engagement
  • Randomized controlled trial
  • School interventions
  • Social-communication

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