A Preliminary Study of Telepractice Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Background: autism spectrum disorder (asd) is a developmental neurological disorder characterized by impaired social interactions. the aim of study was to examine the telepractice prelinguistic milieu teaching (pmt) for asd children. methods: this study followed a pretest–posttest design. 11 mothers of children with asd aged 26-71 months (mean=47.09 months, sd=14) were included. mothers were given the necessary training on the pmt for 12 one-hour weekly sessions, through the whatsapp software. the self-reported mcarthur-bates communication development inventories (cdis) was the main outcome measure. the data were analyzed using wilcoxon test. results: mean scores of expressive and perceptive words significantly improved after treatment with large effects sizes (cohen’s d >0.8). the activity and gestures section scores showed significant improvements after treatment in the areas of communication gestures, play and routines, working with objects and imitation of adult activities (cohen’s d >0.8). conclusion: this study provides preliminary evidence that the telepractice of pmt is effective for children with autism spectrum disorder. further study with a rigours design is warranted.