Randomized Controlled Caregiver Mediated Joint Engagement Intervention for Toddlers with Autism

This study aimed to determine if a joint attention intervention would result in greater joint engagement between caregivers and toddlers with autism. The intervention consisted of 24 caregiver-mediated sessions with follow-up 1 year later. Compared to caregivers and toddlers randomized to the waitlist control group the immediate treatment (IT) group made significant improvements in targeted areas of joint engagement. The IT group demonstrated significant improvements with medium to large effect sizes in their responsiveness to joint attention and their diversity of functional play acts after the intervention with maintenance of these skills 1 year post-intervention. These are among the first randomized controlled data to suggest that short-term parent-mediated interventions can have important effects on core impairments in toddlers with autism. Clinical Trials #: NCT00065910

A Randomized Controlled Study of Parent-assisted Children’s Friendship Training with Children having Autism Spectrum Disorders

This study evaluated Children’s Friendship Training (CFT), a manualized parent-assisted intervention to improve social skills among second to fifth grade children with autism spectrum disorders. Comparison was made with a delayed treatment control group (DTC). Targeted skills included conversational skills, peer entry skills, developing friendship networks, good sportsmanship, good host behavior during play dates, and handling teasing. At post-testing, the CFT group was superior to the DTC group on parent measures of social skill and play date behavior, and child measures of popularity and loneliness, At 3-month follow-up, parent measures showed significant improvement from baseline. Post-hoc analysis indicated more than 87% of children receiving CFT showed reliable change on at least one measure at post-test and 66.7% after 3 months follow-up

Protocol for assessing feasibility, acceptability and fidelity of screening for antenatal depression (FAFSAD) by midwives in Blantyre District, Malawi

Depression is often underdiagnosed by treating health professionals. This is a situation in Malawi where there is no routine screening of depression at antenatal clinics. Recently, a Screening Protocol for Antenatal Depression (SPADe) that can be used by midwives to screen for antenatal depression was developed in Blantyre District. SPADe proposes multistage screening of antenatal depression by midwives which may enable early detection and treatment of pregnant women with depression. Proper treatment of antenatal depression can assist in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, utilisation of SPADe in clinical practice to screening for depression in antenatal clinics has not been established yet. Therefore, the primary aim of this study is to assess feasibility of screening for depression by midwives using SPADe in antenatal clinics in Blantyre District. The secondary aim was to assess acceptability and fidelity of screening for depression by midwives using SPADe in antenatal clinics in Blantyre District