Program Goals

The goals of Project ImPACT (Improving Parents As Communication Teachers) are:

For parents:

• Increase responsiveness to their child.
• Increase use of prompting and reinforcement during daily routines with their child.
• Increase feelings of empowerment and engagement in the treatment process.

For children:

• Improve social communication skills
• Improve social engagement
• Improve communication (receptive and expressive language)
• Improve imitation
• Improve play skills

Logic Model

View the Logic Model for Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers).

Essential Components

The essential components of Project ImPACT (Improving Parents As Communication Teachers) include:

• Coach works with the parent to develop social communication goals using a defined collaborative goal setting process:
• Parent- and provider-completed social communication skills checklist
• Observation of a parent-child interaction
• Observation of a coach-child interaction
• The coach then teaches the parent one to two techniques per session which include:
• Setting up the home for success
• Following the child's lead
• Imitating the child
• Adjusting their communication
• Modeling and expanding communication
• Playful obstruction
• Balanced turns
• Communicative temptations
• Prompting and reinforcement – applied to teaching communication (expressive and receptive), imitation, and play
• Shaping the interaction
• The coach uses adult learning strategies to coach the parent which include:
• Setting the agenda
• Reviewing the practice plan
• Introducing the technique
• Demonstrating the technique
• Giving parent feedback while they practice the technique
• Reflecting on the experience
• Setting up a plan to practice the technique

Program Delivery

Child/Adolescent Services

Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers) directly provides services to children/adolescents and addresses the following:

• Diagnosed on the autism spectrum, possesses undeveloped communication skills, poor social engagement, poor imitation skills, poor play skills

Services Involve Family/Support Structures:

This program involves the family or other support systems in the individual's treatment: Although not required, the program can include other family members, including siblings who would also receive coaching.

Parent/Caregiver Services

Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers) directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:

• Caring for a child on the autism spectrum, with undeveloped communication skills, and/or poor social skills; experiencing parental/caregiver stress

Recommended Intensity:

The program is designed to be implemented as an individual coaching model or a group coaching model. In the individual coaching model, the parent and child attend 60- to 90-minute coaching sessions twice a week though it can be adapted to once weekly. In the group coaching model, the parent attends either a 2-hour group session (parents only) or a 60-minute coaching session (parent and child) every other week.

Recommended Duration:

The intervention is 3 months for either group or individual sessions.

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Birth Family Home
• Outpatient Clinic
• Community-based Agency / Organization / Provider
• School Setting (Including: Day Care, Day Treatment Programs, etc.)

Homework

Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers) includes a homework component:

The coach works with the parent to complete a practice plan at the end of every session which describes the child's goal that the parent will target, an activity for practice, and the techniques that the parent will use. Parents are asked to practice and record what went well and what was hard on the practice plan.

Languages

Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers) has materials available in languages other than English:

Chinese, Dutch, Korean, Spanish, Turkish

For information on which materials are available in these languages, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed at the bottom of this page).

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

Coach and parent manuals. Age-appropriate play materials (if providing coaching outside the home or there is a lack of them in the home). For the group coaching model, a computer and projector to show slides and video examples.

Manuals and Training

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

Coaches ideally have a Master's level degree, but a Bachelor's level degree plus significant experience and training is acceptable. Coaches can come a variety of disciplinary backgrounds as long as they have a background in child development and behavior management and experience with young children with social communication delays. These backgrounds can include employment as special educators, early intervention providers, speech-language pathologists, psychologists, and behavioral specialists (e.g., BCBA).

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Program Manual(s)

Ingersoll, B. & Dvortcsak, A. (2010). Teaching social-communication to children with autism: A practitioner's guide to parent training and a manual for parents (2 book set). Guilford Press.

Ingersoll, B. & Dvortcsak, A. (2019). Teaching social communication to children with autism and other developmental delays: The Project ImPACT guide to coaching parents and the Project ImPACT manual for parents (2 book set; 2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

They can be purchased from the publisher or on Amazon.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contacts:

• Brooke Ingersoll
  ingers19@msu.edu
  phone: (517) 930-2275
• Anna Dvortcsak
  anna@dslsi.com
  phone: (503) 887-1130

Training Type/Location:

Open workshops (in person and virtual) are offered periodically throughout the year. In-person workshops are usually offered in Portland, OR, and East Lansing, MI, USA. Closed workshops can be provided on-site or virtually to community organizations based on trainer availability.

Number of days/hours:

Online Tutorial: Providers complete a 6-hour, interactive online tutorial that introduces the intervention techniques and parent coaching strategies.

Introductory Training: Providers complete the 6-hour, interactive online tutorial followed by a 14-hour, multiday workshop. Workshops can be delivered over 2 full-days or 4 half-days; and may be delivered in person or virtually.

Certification. After completing Introductory Training, providers receive 6 months of consultation while using the program with families (individual OR group consultation option). Individual consultation: Provider attends 6, 1-hour consultation meetings with an ImPACT Trainer via phone or videoconferencing. Group consultation: Groups of 3 to 5 providers participate in 1-hour group consultation meetings twice a month to assist them in their implementation of Project ImPACT.

Implementation Information

Pre-Implementation Materials

There are no pre-implementation materials to measure organizational or provider readiness for Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers).

Formal Support for Implementation

There is formal support available for implementation of Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers) as listed below:

Consultation is provided to individual providers or small groups of providers within the same organization to check and help them meet fidelity (see above under certification). Consultation with organizational leaders around implementation and scaling up the program across the organization is also provided. All consultation is provided via teleconferencing.

Fidelity Measures

There are fidelity measures for Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers) as listed below:

Fidelity is assessed through trained observations based on video review of recorded sessions using a checklist. Fidelity measures for the intervention and coaching are available in the manual. More detailed scoring procedures are available upon request from the authors.

Implementation Guides or Manuals

There are implementation guides or manuals for Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers) as listed below:

The coach manual includes some details on implementation and an implementation planning form though it is not as detailed as a full implementation guide.

Implementation Cost

There are no studies of the costs of Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers).

Research on How to Implement the Program

Research has been conducted on how to implement Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers) as listed below:

Haine-Schlagel, R., Rieth, S., Dickson, K. S., Brookman-Frazee, L., & Stahmer, A. (2020). Adapting parent engagement strategies for an evidence-based parent-mediated intervention for young children at risk for autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Community Psychology, 48(4), 1215–1237. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22347

Hao, Y., Franco, J. H., Sundarrajan, M., & Chen, Y. (2021). A pilot study comparing tele-therapy and in-person therapy: Perspectives from parent-mediated intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(1), 129–143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04439-x

Ingersoll, B., & Dvortcsak, A (2006). Including parent training in the early childhood special education curriculum for children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 8(2), 79–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/10983007060080020601

Ingersoll, B., Straiton, D., Casagrande, K., & Pickard, K. (2018). Community providers' intentions to use a parent-mediated intervention for children with ASD following training: An application of the theory of planned behavior. BMC Research Notes, 11, Article 777. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-018-3879-3

Pickard, K. E., Kilgore, A., & Ingersoll, B. (2016). Using community partnerships to better understand the barriers to using an evidence-based, parent-mediated intervention for ASD in a Medicaid system. American Journal of Community Psychology, 57(3–4), 391–403. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12050

Pickard, K., Rowles, S., & Ingersoll, B. (2019). Understanding the impact of adaptations to a parent-mediated intervention on parents' ratings of perceived barriers, program attributes, and intent to use. Autism, 23(2), 338–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361317744078

Pickard, K. E., Wainer, A. L., Bailey, K., & Ingersoll, B. (2016). A mixed-method evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of a telehealth-based parent-mediated intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism, 20(7), 845–855. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361315614496

Stahmer, A. C., Brookman-Frazee, L., Rieth, S. R., Stoner, J. T., Feder, J. D., Searcy, K., & Wang, T. (2017). Parent perceptions of an adapted evidence-based practice for toddlers with autism in a community setting. Autism, 21(2), 217–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361316637580

Sengupta, K., Mahadik, S., & Kapoor, G. (2020). Glocalizing project ImPACT: Feasibility, acceptability and preliminary outcomes of a parent-mediated social communication intervention for autism adapted to the Indian context. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 76, Article 101585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2020.101585

Wainer, A., Pickard, K. E., & Ingersoll, B. (2017). Using web-based instruction, brief workshops, and remote consultation to teach community-based providers a parent-mediated intervention. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26, 1592–1602. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0671-2

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

Child Welfare Outcome: Child/Family Well-Being

Additional References

No reference materials are currently available for Project ImPACT (Improving Parents as Communication Teachers).