NCT05154981

Partners in School: Promoting Continuity Across Home and School

Partners in School: Promoting Continuity Across Home and School for Children with Autism by Improving Parent-Teacher Communication During the Transition to School

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 48 (actual)
• Sponsor: New York State Psychiatric Institute · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Partners in School is a collection of implementation strategies (e.g., communication training, problem-solving consultation) to help parents/primary caregivers and teachers of children with autism spectrum disorder implement the same practices across home and school.

Detailed description

We recruited a total of 48 participants (N=22 parent-teacher dyads) from urban and suburban public schools in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Teachers were matched on years of teaching experience (0-2 years, 3-5 years, 5-10 years, or 11+ years), and then randomized to the experimental condition or the control condition. The experimental condition had 13 parent-teacher dyads (N=26 participants) and the control condition had 11 parent-teacher dyads (N=22 participants). The experimental condition included the five steps of Partners in School including the pre-consultation phone interview, web-based communication skills training for the parent or teacher through School Talk, in-person parent-teacher conference, three weeks of implementing the same intervention with the student at home (by parents) and school (by the teacher), and a post-consultation phone interview. Parents and teachers also completed surveys at the beginning and end of Partners in School. The control condition had the same experiences but the parents/teachers in that condition did not receive communication skills training through School Talk. One of the key outcomes is that recruitment, randomization, condition protocols, retention, and assessment of Partners in School with School Talk is feasible and acceptable. These findings are significant to the scientific field because they suggest that researchers can partner with public schools and train parents and teachers to communicate and collaborate effectively in order to double the dosage, intensity, and impact of evidenced-based practices for young children on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Conditions

• Autism Spectrum Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Education communication skills (ECS) training	Education communication skills (ECS) training videos were developed from LEAPS (Listen, Educate, Assess, Partner and Support), a set of 10- to 20- sec videos that help patients and physicians communicate health concerns and treatment plans to each other. ECS training videos target parent-teacher communication during the transition to school for children with autism.
BEHAVIORAL	Partners in School	Partners in School is a problem-solving consultation that encourages parents and teachers to implement the same evidence-based interventions across home and school

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-09-15
• Primary completion: 2024-06-23
• Completion: 2024-08-18
• First posted: 2021-12-13
• Last updated: 2024-09-23

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States