Improving Caregiver Engagement in Early Interventions
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: FANS-EI, Early Intervention.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Autism. Basic parameters: from 12 months · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
Improving Caregiver Engagement in Early Interventions for Autistic Children Using a Mobile Health Approach
Overview
The goal of this study is to test the effectiveness of the FANS-EI program in supporting caregiver engagement in caregiver-mediated early interventions for young children with autism. This study also examines caregiver-perceived social support and self-efficacy and FANS-EI implementation outcomes (feasibility, acceptability, appropriateness).
Detailed description
Caregiver involvement in early intervention (EI) goal setting and intervention delivery aligns with Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guidelines. Active participation from caregivers significantly influences intervention adherence and ultimately affects child outcomes. When caregivers struggle with obtaining a diagnosis and early intervention services, low caregiver engagement can further exacerbate these challenges. In fact, the attrition rate for parent-mediated early interventions for autism ranges from 35% to 62%. Therefore, it is crucial to develop effective strategies for supporting caregiver engagement in autism early intervention. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of a social-support enhancement program, called Family/Friend Network Support for Early Intervention (FANS-EI), designed to improve caregiver engagement in community-based autism EI. This program has been adapted in collaboration with community partners from a text-based program that has successfully increased engagement and patient outcomes in diabetes treatment. Families of toddlers diagnosed with autism or a high likelihood of autism, will either receive EI as usual or FANS-EI plus EI. FANS-EI utilizes a strengths-based approach, leveraging existing family and friend support networks. Supporters, alongside caregivers, will receive information about autism or social communication development, along with text messages from the research team. These messages are designed to foster interactions between supporters and caregivers, providing emotional, informational, and educational support. The project will examine caregiver-perceived social support, self-efficacy, and implementation outcomes. Ultimately, the goal is to enhance caregiver engagement, maximizing the benefits of early interventions for both caregivers and their autistic children. This project would help further the knowledge of improving caregiver engagement in community-partnered research while addressing the persistent challenges in service utilization and child outcomes.
Interventions
- Behavioral FANS-EI
Social support related text messages delivered to supporters and caregivers; asynchronized educational materials for supporters. - Behavioral Early Intervention
Treatment as usual provided by community-based autism early intervention agencies
Primary outcome measures
- Parent Participatory Engagement Measure [Time frame: Weekly for 6 months]
Secondary outcome measures (6)
- Caregiver Buy-In to EI [Time frame: baseline, 6 months]
- Parenting Sense of Competence Scale [Time frame: Baseline, 6 months]
- Social Support Index [Time frame: Baseline, 6 months]
- Acceptability of Intervention Measure [Time frame: 6 months]
- Intervention Appropriateness Measure [Time frame: 6 months]
- Feasibility of Intervention Measure [Time frame: 6 months]
Eligibility criteria
Providers' eligibility criteria
- currently providing early intervention services, including a caregiver-coaching component
- having at least 1 child in the autism service classification on their caseload.
Caregiver/Child Dyads eligibility criteria
- child is 12-60 months of age at the time of enrollment
- child has a diagnosis or high likelihood of autism
- a family/friend supporter of the caregiver is willing to be part of the study
- caregivers and supporters speak English
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Single blind
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
Study locations
United States · 1 center
- University of California, Davis MIND Institute — Sacramento
Identifiers
NCT: NCT07500363 · K23MH141316 · K23MH141316