The effectiveness of the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) in a community setting
Relation with maternal sensitivity, child social responsiveness and the moderating role of maternal insightfulness
Since social communication impairments are a hallmark of ASD, promoting children's responsiveness to- and involvement of social partners are the focus of many early interventions for children with ASD. Children's responsiveness and involvement of their parents are essential to eliciting and maintaining parental synchrony, responsiveness, and sensitivity to the child. Although the benefits of early interventions that include a parent training component on later outcomes of children with ASD have been reported, studies have primarily focused on child outcomes and intervention efficacy, and did not focus on parent-child interactions, the putative mechanism supporting children’s gains. Specifically, changes in children’s responsiveness and involvement of their parents and in parental sensitivity have rarely been examined and will therefore be the focus of this study. In addition, since parental insightfulness, the ability to see things from child point of view, helps parents adjust their behavior based on accurate reading of the child's signals, the study will examine the moderating effects of insightfulness.