Parents' assessments of their child's autism-related interventions

Background: Interventions for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are typically evaluated on the basis of symptom-focused outcome measures. These measures tend to be clinician rated and derived in clinical studies, whilst broader parental experiences are often neglected. Method: Here we report a study of 585 parents of children diagnosed with ASD, focusing on their assessments of their child's ASD Interventions, and how they are perceived to impact parental stress. Results: Overall, high proportions of parents reported disengagement with treatment. The highest completion rates were evident with speech-language therapy, and the lowest with intensive applied behaviour analysis (iABA). However, parents reported the highest expectations, satisfaction and stress reduction with iABA. These paradoxical findings are perhaps due to the relative cost and lack of funding directed towards iABA. Conclusions: Our research suggests that parental expectations and the factors influencing them are worthy of further investigation, More pertinently, parental ratings of intervention effectiveness along with current intervention engagement are a vital and often overlooked component of understanding the effects of interventions on children with ASD and their families.