Parental Views on Effectiveness of Early Behavioral Therapies on Social Skills of Children with Autism

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder affects early social development and abilities of children in everyday interactions. In Pakistan, research on early behavioural therapies has focused mainly on clinical outcomes, whereas perspectives of parents are underrepresented. Parents observe their children daily. They have an active role in routine therapies, which makes their views important for evaluation of real-life outcomes. This study aims to examine parental views on the effectiveness of early behavioural therapies in improvement of the social skills of children with ASD in Lahore. For this purpose, this study uses a quantitative and cross-sectional survey. The data were collected, through Google Forms via a structured questionnaire, from 43 parents of children with ASD who had received early behavioural intervention therapies which includes Applied Behavior Analysis, Discrete Trial Training, Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention, and the Early Start Denver Model. The questionnaire covers parent-reports regarding changes in eye contact, sharing, initiation of interaction, turn-taking, and comfort-level of their child in social life. The data were analysed using, a software SPSS, descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlations, and regression analysis. The results show that parents reported improvements in several social skills. Parent engagement emerged as the strongest predictor of perceived social improvement. Yet the therapy start age, weekly hours, and overall duration of it showed no clear effects. This study concludes that early behavioural therapies yield better outcomes if parents remain actively involved in the process. The findings support the idea of the need for an effective parent-focused and culturally appropriate early intervention programmes for children with ASD in Pakistan.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Early Intervention; Behavioural Therapies; Social Skills Development; Parental Perspectives; Applied Behavior Analysis.