Summary of lessons learned from two studies: An open clinical trial and a randomized controlled trial of PCIT and young children with autism spectrum disorders

Recently, there has been a growing interest in the use of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) among preschoolers and school-age children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this chapter, we describe two studies of PCIT and ASD: an open clinical trial and a randomized controlled trial. In both evaluations, we used the standard PCIT protocol to examine treatment efficacy with children 3-7 years of age and tested the traditional PCIT model without adaptations. However, tailoring the model to meet the unique needs of individual children was necessary. In a few cases, adapting the model was required to address persistent aggression in CDI and difficulty sitting for a length of 3 min during the discipline sequence. We discuss the considerable promise of PCIT as a treatment for children with ASD to reduce disruptive behavior severity and we highlight particular lessons learned through our clinical work with children with ASD and their families.