Parent and child outcomes of JumpStart™, an education and training program for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Highlights • Parents who completed JumpStart showed significant increases in self-efficacy, knowledge, and fidelity of implementation. • Children whose parents completed JumpStart demonstrated significant increases in responsivity. • Exploratory analyses suggest that parent self-efficacy, parent knowledge, and child responsivity gains were maintained at 3-month follow-up. • Additional research with a larger sample is necessary for replication. Abstract Background This pilot study examined the effectiveness of JumpStart^™, a 4-week education program including a Behavioral Skills Training model for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). JumpStart aims to teach parents to begin implementing evidence-based behavioral intervention while learning to navigate service systems in order to establish a comprehensive intervention program. Method Change in parent self-efficacy, knowledge, stress, depressive symptoms, ability to implement intervention, and child responsivity were compared in treatment (n = 18) and waitlist control (n = 18) groups. Additionally, exploratory analyses examined 3-month follow-up data in a subset of participants (n = 12). Results Findings indicated significantly larger increases in parent outcome expectations, parent competence, parent knowledge, fidelity of implementation, and child responsivity in the treatment group compared to the waitlist control group. Three-month follow-up data indicated maintenance of parent outcome expectations, knowledge, and child responsivity. Conclusions Findings provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of JumpStart. Given the growing number of children with ASD and finite resources, short-term programs like JumpStart may be an effective method by which parents are able to begin intervening with their child's development while they arrange for comprehensive services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]