Mindfulness Training and Parent-coaching Interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder

The Parent-implemented Early Start Denver Model (P-ESDM; Rogers et al., 2012) consists of 12 consecutive sessions, each session approximately 1 hour long, that promote parental ability to support and interact with their young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Intervention sessions are conducted in the clinic setting by therapists trained to fidelity by ESDM-certified parent trainers. The manualized intervention has a detailed parent-training curriculum, a specific coaching intervention method, and a therapist fidelity measure. Therapists introduce skills through descriptions, interaction, modeling, coaching, and feedback.

The Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) protocol is derived from the work by Dykens et al. (2014), which is based on the stress reduction and relaxation program (Kabat-Zinn, 1982, 1990). In this study, it is offered as 6 weekly sessions that run concurrent with the P-ESDM intervention. Participants work one-on-one with a therapist for instruction and practice in mindfulness skills as well as discussions of stress, coping, and homework assignments.