Parents-Mediated, Play-based Interventions to Promote Social Communication among Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often struggle with social communication. This situation further leads to adulthood depression along with other health issues if it is not diagnosed and intervened at an early age. As an early intervention play-based interventions have proven to be beneficial in promoting social communication skills in preschool-aged children. Engaging parents in the implementation of early interventions for children with ASD is currently popular. Consequently, the aim of this systematic review is to identify the play-based interventions implementedby parents to enhance social communication in children with ASD, as well as the outcomes and strategies that parents might use during the mediation process. For the final analysis, six studies were considered, and six interventions were identified. The findings demonstrate that Project Improving Parents As Communication Teachers (ImPACT), Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement & Regulation (JASPER), Focused Play Intervention (FPI), Floor Time Play (FTP), and the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) can all effectively improve the social communication of preschool children with ASD. JASPER, FPI, and FTP are known to be play-based interventions, whereas Project ImPACT and PEERS use play as the main context. Various types of strategies that parents can utilize were identified. Further study will be required to investigate more play-based interventions and supportive strategies for 2–6-year-old preschool children with ASD to promote social communication that is implemented by parents.