Table 2

- Outcome measures of included studies.

StudiesInterventionsControlsOutcomes
Bordini et al14The intervention group received parent training over 22 sessions of video modelingThe control group received the standard community treatment.
  • - ABC: non-statistically significant improvement (p=0.211).

  • - IQ: statistically significant improvement (p<0.001).

  • - Vineland standardized score (communication): statistically significant improvement (p=0.053).

  • - Vineland standardized score (socialization): non statistically significant improvement (p=0.252).

Carlisle et al15The treatment group adopted a catThe control group did not adopt a cat
  • - SSiSRS instrument: mean scores were lower over time for total problem behaviors, but this did not reach statistical significance.

  • - SCARED instrument: I) during the treatment phase, there was a statistically significant time effect for separation anxiety in the predicted direction (p=0.015); II) mean values were lower compared to baseline with week 18, but there was no statistically significant time effect for the subscales panic disorder, school avoidance, social anxiety, or generalized anxiety.

  • - LAPS and CABS: there were no statistically significant changes in either the LAPS or CABS bonding scores over time.

Chien et al16PEERS manualWithout PEERS manual
  • - SRS revealed a significant interaction on the social communication subscale score, but not SRS total scores, suggesting that those in the PEERS condition improved to a greater extent than controls.

  • - The ADOS subscale scores also had significant interactions in social reciprocity, communication, and restricted/repetitive behaviors, consistently showing that the PEERS group demonstrated greater improvement than controls.

Clifford et al17Parental psychoeducation sessions and anger control treatmentParental psychoeducation sessions only
  • - Aggressive behavior problems: I) the intervention did not significantly affect the aggressive behavior problems scale, as reported by the parent (p=0.036); II) the aggressive behavior problems subscales showed a significant reduction in temper tantrums (p=0.004).

  • - Anger coping strategies: the intervention had a significant effect on the use of adaptive anger coping strategies as reported by the parents (p=0.001).

Corbett et al18SENSE theatreNEPSY theory of mind (verbal) subtest
  • - Social cognition: I) the experiment group showed a better performance on the TOM-V (p=0.04); II) TOM-C differences did not reach statistical significance, (p=0.09); and III) significant group differences were present in the ERP markers of incidental face memory between the experiment and the WLC groups at post-treatment, (p=0.01).

  • - Social behavior: The experiment group engaged in more cooperative play during solicited play (p=0.02).

Grahame et al19Immediate interventionDelayed intervention
  • - Clinical global impressions: improvement scale; there was a significant difference between the IG and the DG on the blind rating of CGI-I (p=0.05).

  • - Measurement of RRB: target behavior vignette; the immediate impact of the intervention characterized by the difference between the groups at the first outcome assessment visit was -0.45 (95 % CI: [-1.23, 0.33]). Then subsequently, the difference in the average change between visits was -0.13 (95 % CI: [-0.55, 0.29]).

Ko et al20START treatmentWaitlist group
  • - Participants in the treatment group significantly increased the percentage of questions asked from pre- to post-intervention (p=0.035), whereas the percentage of questions asked by the waitlist group remained relatively unchanged.

  • - The treatment group demonstrated significant improvements (p=0.009) in the percentage of directed positive facial expressions during social conversations compared to the waitlist group.

  • - Mutual engagement did not reach statistical significance (p=0.576).

LaGasse21Music therapy groupNo-music social skills group
  • - A significant effect was found for the interaction of time and group for SRS scores (p=0.032).

  • - There were no significant between-group differences for joint attention with adults, initiation of communication with another child, initiation with an adult, response to communication, or social withdraw/behaviors.

Levin et al22Foster care ever institutionalized group
  • - Usual care ever institutionalized group

  • - Never institutionalized group

  • - Caregivers of children with a history of institutionalization reported that these children had significantly more deviant behavior than never institutionalized children on all subdomains of the SCQ (all p<0.001).

  • - Children in the placed in FCG had significantly lower scores on the SCQ than children in the CAUG (p<0.001).

Thompson et al23In-home FCMT in addition to their early intervention programEarly intervention programs only
  • - Intention-to-treat analysis for the Vineland social emotional early childhood scale indicated a significant effect in favor of FCMT.

  • - Thematic qualitative analysis of the parent interviews showed that the parent-child relationship grew stronger.

StudiesInterventionsControlsOutcomes
Fletcher-Watson et al24Intervention group received 2 months of app access at the same time as all usual treatmentsTreatment as usual
  • - Change scores for BOSCC total and social communication sub-score showed no significant differences between intervention and control groups (both p>0.28).

  • - No statistically significant differences in change scores were observed between baseline and outcome or baseline and follow-up for the MCDI, CSBS-DP, and ADOS-2 (all p>0.06).

Wood et al25CBTTAU
  • - Statistically significant group difference observed in most behavioral observation codes (solitary, any peer interaction, positive interaction with peers, positive response to child by peers; p<0.05).

  • - CBT group doubled their rate of social interactions, reducing solitary behavior by over half from pre- to post-treatment.

  • - TAU group showed slightly worse scores posttreatment.

Wood et al26CBTESCT
  • CBT outperformed ESCT on the primary outcome measure (p<0.001; 95% CI: [0.06-0.93]) and the secondary outcome measure (p=0.003; 95% CI: [0.45-1.27]).

Yoder et al27ImPACTBusiness-as-usual control group
  • - The sole significant total effect of ImPACT teaching was a notably large effect on parents’ utilization of ImPACT strategies (p<0.001), favoring the ImPACT group.

  • - Significant serially mediated effects were found, such as ImPACT’s impact on children’s expressive ability and social communication at Time 4, mediated sequentially by parents’ use of ImPACT strategies at Time 2 and HR-Sibs’ motor imitation at Time 3.

  • - All other serially mediated effects involving different proximal skills were nonsignificant (confidence intervals around indirect effect coefficients inclusive of zero).

Young et al28Comprehensive autism programBusiness as usual programs
  • - Positive impacts were observed in students’ receptive language and teacher-rated social skills.

  • - Treatment effects moderated by the severity of ASD.

Zheng et al29Immediate robotic interventionWaitlist control
  • - Minimal and statistically insignificant group distinctions were noted in terms of enhancements in response to joint attention skills during and after the intervention.

  • - The sample displayed significant individual variability in their response to the system.

Zhou et al30ESDMCOM group
  • - BLH and children from MLH, both language groups exhibited significant language growth, and the home language environment did not have a moderating effect.

  • - The BLH group showed an increase in gesture use during the intervention compared to the MLH group.

  • - Initial data suggest no evidence of negative effects from a bilingual home environment on language or social development in young children with ASD.

ABC: autism behavioural checklist, IQ: intelligent quotient, SRS: social responsive scale, SSiSRS: subtle social skills inventory (second edition) rating scale, SCARED: screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders, LAPS: Lincoln Alien psychopathology scale, CABS: coder adaptation of the bonding scale, PEERS: program for the education and enrichment of relational skills, ADOS: autism diagnostic observation schedule, TOM-V: theory of mind - verbal, TOM-C: theory of mind - contextual, ERP: event-related potentials, CGI-I: clinical global impressions - improvement scale, RRB: repetitive and restricted behaviors, START: social tools and rules for teens, SRS: social responsiveness scale, FCMT: family-centered, trauma-informed mindfulness training, BOSCC: brief observation of social communication change, MCDI: MacArthur communicative development inventory, CSBS-DP: communication and symbolic behavior scale - developmental profile, TAU: treatment-as-usual, CBT: cognitive behavioral therapy, ESCT: enhanced standard community treatment, ImPACT: improving parents as communication teachers, HR-Sibs: high risk siblings, ASD: autism spectrum disorder, ESDM: early start Denver model, COM: community group, BLH: bilingual homes, MLH: monolingual homes, SCQ: social communication questionnaire, CAUG: care-as-usual group, WLC: waitlist control, IG: immediate intervention group, DG: delayed intervention group, FCG: family-centered foster care