King's College London, UK.
Aston University, UK.
Autism. 2020 Jan;24(1):147-159. doi: 10.1177/1362361319851422. Epub 2019 Jun 5.
The EarlyBird programme is a group-based psychoeducation intervention for parents of young children with autism. Although it is widely used in the United Kingdom, the evidence base for the programme is very limited. Using a mixed method, non-randomised research design, we aimed to test (1) the acceptability of the research procedures (recruitment, retention, suitability of measures), (2) the parental acceptability of EarlyBird (attendance, views of the programme, perceived changes) and (3) the facilitator acceptability of EarlyBird (fidelity, views of the programme, perceived changes). Seventeen families with a 2- to 5-year-old autistic child and 10 EarlyBird facilitators took part. Pre- and post-intervention assessment included measures of the child's autism characteristics, cognitive ability, adaptive behaviour, emotional and behavioural problems and parent-reported autism knowledge, parenting competence, stress and wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews were completed at post-intervention with parents and facilitators. For those involved in the study, the research procedures were generally acceptable, retention rates were high and the research protocol was administered as planned. Generally, positive views of the intervention were expressed by parents and facilitators. Although the uncontrolled, within-participant design does not allow us to test for efficacy, change in several outcome measures from pre- to post-intervention was in the expected direction. Difficulties were encountered with recruitment (opt-in to the groups was ~56% and opt-in to the research was 63%), and strategies to enhance recruitment need to be built into any future trial. These findings should be used to inform protocols for pragmatic, controlled trials of EarlyBird and other group-based interventions for parents with young autistic children.
早期鸟类计划是一个基于小组的心理教育干预计划，适用于有幼儿自闭症的家长。虽然它在英国被广泛应用，但该计划的证据基础非常有限。我们采用混合方法、非随机研究设计，旨在测试：（1）研究程序（招募、保留、措施适宜性）的可接受性；（2）家长对早期鸟类的可接受性（出勤率、对计划的看法、感知变化）；（3）早期鸟类的促进者可接受性（保真度、对计划的看法、感知变化）。共有 17 个家庭的 2 至 5 岁自闭症儿童和 10 名早期鸟类促进者参与了研究。干预前和干预后评估包括儿童自闭症特征、认知能力、适应行为、情绪和行为问题以及家长报告的自闭症知识、育儿能力、压力和幸福感的测量。在干预后，家长和促进者完成了半结构化访谈。对于参与研究的人来说，研究程序总体上是可以接受的，保留率很高，研究方案按计划进行。家长和促进者普遍对干预表示积极看法。虽然非控制、参与者内设计不允许我们测试疗效，但几个从干预前到干预后的结果测量的变化方向是预期的。在招募方面遇到了困难（参加小组的意向约为 56%，参加研究的意向为 63%），需要在未来的试验中制定提高招募的策略。这些发现应被用于为早期鸟类和其他针对年轻自闭症儿童家长的基于小组的干预措施的实用、对照试验提供信息。
