Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for Minimally Verbal Autistic Children and Their Families

Approximately 30% of autistic children are estimated to be minimally verbal or non-speaking at school age. Despite the outsized impact of the higher needs end of the spectrum, these children are often neglected in research, limiting our knowledge of how best to help them and their families. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an empirically-supported parent-mediated behavioral intervention in which parents learn evidence-based play and behavior management skills with the help of a therapist who provides live coaching during everyday parent-child interactions. A growing research base supports the efficacy of PCIT in autism for reducing disruptive behavior and decreasing parenting stress. However, these studies have rarely included autistic children with co-occurring cognitive impairments and/or limited language, leaving clinicians with little knowledge of whether and how to apply PCIT in these cases. Other common behavioral treatments in autism, such as applied behavior analysis, can vary widely in application and often lack an effective parent component. In a step toward addressing these gaps, we plan to conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an adaptation of PCIT to support parents of minimally verbal autistic children in learning strategies for improving their child’s behavior and boosting their development. This study will set the stage for a larger RCT of an adaptation of PCIT in autistic children with minimal language abilities and their families.