2025 Theses Doctoral

Examining Parent Strategy Use within a Randomized Controlled Trial of The Incredible Years® Autism Spectrum Language Delays Program

Pattammady, Juliya

This dissertation uses a mixed methods approach to examine parent strategy use during the Incredible Years® Autism Spectrum Language Delays (IY-ASLD) program, an intervention designed to support parents of preschool-aged children with autism and language delays. The IY-ASLD program was implemented via telehealth in three waves by developer-trained group leaders across 12 groups, each running for 14 weekly sessions, with a total of 59 parents participating.

This study examined three aims to understand parent strategy use. First, parental use of IY-ASLD strategies from the curriculum was measured using video coded observations of zoom-recorded parent-child interactions at baseline and post-intervention timepoints. Three IY-ASLD strategies, descriptive commenting, emotion coaching, and persistence coaching, showed a significant increase in uptake by parents between the baseline and post intervention timepoints. Second, parent conversations around strategy uptake were examined using qualitative analysis of the IY-ASLD group intervention session transcripts.

The identified themes from the analysis focused on strategy utilization, parents’ cognition, child development, and the family context. Findings indicated that parents’ conceptualization of strategies and contextual factors, such as daily demands, routine settings and child responsiveness, were perceived by parents to have played an important role in strategy uptake. Third, associations were examined between self-reports of parental self-efficacy (baseline) with changes in use of strategies from baseline to post interventions as well as with self-reports of confidence (post intervention) and perceived usefulness of the strategies (post intervention).

Findings indicated that parental self-efficacy was not associated with changes in observed strategy use. Positive associations were found between parental self-efficacy and self-reports of confidence and perceived usefulness of strategies. The integration of quantitative and qualitative data highlighted the importance of tailoring interventions to family-specific needs to support the generalization of the program beyond structured sessions. This study contributes to the literature on autism interventions for parents by identifying factors that influence the uptake of IY-ASLD strategies in naturalistic parenting contexts.