Training parents develops language in autistic children

Training parents to communicate better with their autistic preschoolers can spur children's language development. Though parental training courses are a growing part of managing autism spectrum disorders, there has been little evidence from clinical trials that the approach aids children's language, behaviour and social skills. Researchers from the University of Newcastle in the UK found that a program known as More Than Words helped parents build their 2, 3 and 4-year-old children's vocabularies. The program, which was developed by Canadian doctors, teaches parents how to interact with their autistic children in a playful way of using fun words, games, musical speech and other tactics to aid their language development. Autism spectrum disorders refer to a group of developmental impairments that includes autism and a milder disorder called Asperger syndrome. All of the disorders involve varying degrees of impairment in communication, social interaction and behaviour. In more severe cases, children may speak very little and use single words rather than sentences. They also often have trouble reading other people's non-verbal cues, like facial expressions, body language and tone of voice. Parents in the study attended a weekly, 20-hour training course that taught them to interact with their preschoolers in particular ways designed to spur language development. Parents trained together in small groups, which allowed them to give each other support and share experiences. The researchers compared 26 parents who went through the course with another group of 25 parents who had not yet attended. Seven months later, children in the program had a larger vocabulary overall than those whose parents had not gone through the course. The researchers observed the parents and found that those who went through training were more likely to use language-building strategies, such as simple language, attention-grabbing words, praise and games. Hence it is more likely that their parents' training sparked off children's language gains.