Project ImPACT is a community-based, parent-mediated intervention program for young children with social communication delays, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The program blends together developmental and naturalistic behavioral intervention techniques to teach social-communication skills including cognition, social engagement, language, social imitation, and play.

Findings from research studies on early intervention locate parent-mediated interventions as sources of great improvements in cognitive ability, social functioning, behavior, and adaptive skills for children with ASD. Project ImPACT parallels these studies, utilizing evidence-based strategies and caregiver coaching to study outcomes and improvements in children’s social-communication behaviors. The program includes two outcome measures in its trial–Parent Empowerment and Coaching in Early Intervention (PEACE) and the Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes (PICCOLO)–that are used to assess recorded provider- and parent-mediated sessions. PEACE measures a provider’s increased use of caregiver coaching based on six categories–General, Collaboration, Daily Routines, Demonstration, In-Vivo Feedback, and Reflection and Problem Solving. Items from each category are scored on a 1-5 Likert scale, where 1 indicates the provider did not use that strategy/element or did so poorly, and 5 indicates that the provider used that strategy/element competently and at an appropriate intensity. The higher the score, the more adherence to the Project ImPACT intervention.

The outcome of a provider’s coaching is monitored through PICCOLO, a checklist of positive parenting behaviors and intervention strategies in four domains–Affection, Responsiveness, Encouragement, and Teaching. Items from each category are scored on a scale of 0-2, where 0 indicates the caregiver did not perform a behavior, and 2 indicates “definite, strong, or frequent behavior” on the caregiver’s behalf. 

The data collected from recording sessions through PEACE and PICCOLO is then put into the Brief Observation of Social Communication Change (BOSCC), an outcome measure used to assess treatment-response for social-communication behaviors. 

A likewise community-based project, Keep Calm, is an interactive data collection app concocted to support emotion regulation in students with ASD. It uses wearable heart rate tracking technology to notify teachers of their students’ intensified stress levels and remind them of evidence-based strategies that can lessen stress and prevent challenging behaviors. The strategies noticeably align with those of Project ImPACT, as teachers and parents alike are taught to engage in practices like modeling, feedback or role play to encourage children’s social skills and development in daily routines and community settings. 

Project ImPACT embraces many mechanisms of change in early intervention for toddlers with autism by: (1) Including caregivers in their children’s intervention with caregiver coaching, (2) Creating tools to support caregiver coaching that can be applied to other interventions and improve their broad implementation, and (3) Partnering with community representatives to make sure strategies are aligned with the community’s needs and priorities.