The Effectiveness of Parent-mediationcommunication- focused Method on Improving Receptive and Expressive Language in Autism Spectrum Disorders Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

One of the core symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is social communication deficits. Joint attention (JA) is broadly used as a main component in receptive and expressive language. Parent-mediated communication-focused treatment ( PACT) i s a JA t reatment for c hildren w ith A SD. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the effectiveness of the PACT method on improving receptive and expressive language in ASDs symptoms.

A comprehensive search of databases was performed to find relevant studies published from 1990 to September 26, 2023. The researchers included only English randomized controlled trials of PACT for children with ASD (≥18 years old). Studies were excluded if they reported only qualified information and results on the efficacy or inefficacy of the intervention and did not include a control group.

The results of the Hedges g study showed that PACT had a very large effect (Hedges g=0.846 95%CI: 0.075, 1.616, P=0.031) on synchronous parent act, a small effect (Hedges g=0.186 95%CI: -0.082, 0.455, P=0.174) on adaptive behavior, a medium effect (Hedges g=0.505 95%CI: 0.288, 0.722, P<0.001) on child’s initiations,,a small effect (Hedges g=0.091 95%CI:- 0.097, 0.279, P=0.343) on expressive language and finally a small effect (Hedges g=0.079 P=0.410) on receptive language.

These findings may lead clinicians to use PACT along with other intervention methods, which show promising impacts on the improvement of language. This approach may help children with ASD to develop a more efficient interaction with their parents and simultaneously a better language development.