ArticleJournal of autism and developmental disorders2026
The Effect of Participation in the Let's Play Program on Autistic Children's Engagement and Caregiver Well-Being: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Article in Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
purposeIn Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), families face persistent barriers to accessing evidence-based early support for Autistic children. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluated the effectiveness of Let's Play; a bespoke, caregiver-mediated early support program for Autistic children and their caregivers.
methodsThis single-blind (rater) RCT included 91 parent-child dyads, randomly assigned to the Let's Play program (active support; AS [n = 45]) or a waitlist control (WLC; n = 46). Participants were caregivers of children aged 0 to 5 years with a formal diagnosis or characteristics of autism. Let's Play was delivered over 9 weeks via group workshops and in-home coaching. Primary child and caregiver outcomes, assessed at baseline, post-support, and 6-month follow-up, included parent-child engagement and parental stress, respectively.
resultsChildren showed descriptive evidence of improvement in caregiver-child engagement, health-related quality of life and behaviour from baseline to post-support. Improvement in parental stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, and self-perceived parenting competence were also evident, across timepoints. However, there were no significant Group x Ttime effects for caregiver-child engagement, number of utterances or number of different words. A Group x Time effect was evident for all other child and caregiver outcome variables, underscoring the benefits of Let's Play.
conclusionsThis research provides preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of a low-intensity, community-based, caregiver-mediated early support program for Autistic children's health-related quality of life and behavior and caregiver well-being. However, more targeted or sustained approaches to supporting caregiver-child engagement and vocal communication may be needed for improvement to be observed. CLINICAL
trial registrationThe research protocol was prospectively registered on the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12622001139763).
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