TY - JOUR

T1 - Parenting for Autism, Language, And Communication Evaluation Study (PALACES): protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial

AU - Williams, Margiad

AU - Hastings, Richard

AU - Charles, Joanna

AU - Evans, Sue

AU - Hutchings, Judith

N1 - Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarship PhD project to run alongside the study has also been obtained (application number BUK288) in partnership with Early Intervention Wales Training and Bangor University.

PY - 2017/2/16

Y1 - 2017/2/16

N2 - Introduction: Children with autistic spectrum disorder(ASD) often have associated behavioural difficulties thatcan present a challenge for parents and parenting.There are several effective social learning theory-basedparenting programmes for dealing with behaviouraldifficulties, including the Incredible Years (IY) parentprogrammes. However, these programmes typically donot specifically target parents of children with ASD.Recently, a new addition to the IY suite of programmesknown as the IY Autistic Spectrum and LanguageDelays (IY-ASLD) parent programme was developed.The main aims of the present study are to examine thefeasibility of delivering this programme within childhealth services and to provide initial evidence foreffectiveness and economic costs.Methods and analysis: The Parenting for Autism,Language, And Communication Evaluation Study(PALACES) trial is a pragmatic, multicentre, pilotrandomised controlled trial comparing the IY-ASLDprogramme with a wait-list control condition. 72 parentsof children with ASD (aged 3–8 years) will be randomlyallocated to either the intervention or control condition.Data will be collected prior to randomisation and6 months postrandomisation for all families. Families inthe intervention condition only will also be followed upat 12 and 18 months postrandomisation. This study willprovide initial evidence of effectiveness for the newlydeveloped IY-ASLD parenting programme. It will alsoadd to the limited economic evidence for an interventiontargeting parents of children with ASD and providelonger term data, an important component forevaluations of parenting programmes.Ethics and dissemination: Approval for the studywas granted by the Research Ethics Committee at theSchool of Psychology, Bangor University (referencenumber: 2016–15768) and the North Wales ResearchEthics Committee, UK (reference number: 16/WA/0224).The findings will be disseminated through researchconferences and peer-reviewed journals.Trial registration number: ISRCTN57070414;Pre-results.

AB - Introduction: Children with autistic spectrum disorder(ASD) often have associated behavioural difficulties thatcan present a challenge for parents and parenting.There are several effective social learning theory-basedparenting programmes for dealing with behaviouraldifficulties, including the Incredible Years (IY) parentprogrammes. However, these programmes typically donot specifically target parents of children with ASD.Recently, a new addition to the IY suite of programmesknown as the IY Autistic Spectrum and LanguageDelays (IY-ASLD) parent programme was developed.The main aims of the present study are to examine thefeasibility of delivering this programme within childhealth services and to provide initial evidence foreffectiveness and economic costs.Methods and analysis: The Parenting for Autism,Language, And Communication Evaluation Study(PALACES) trial is a pragmatic, multicentre, pilotrandomised controlled trial comparing the IY-ASLDprogramme with a wait-list control condition. 72 parentsof children with ASD (aged 3–8 years) will be randomlyallocated to either the intervention or control condition.Data will be collected prior to randomisation and6 months postrandomisation for all families. Families inthe intervention condition only will also be followed upat 12 and 18 months postrandomisation. This study willprovide initial evidence of effectiveness for the newlydeveloped IY-ASLD parenting programme. It will alsoadd to the limited economic evidence for an interventiontargeting parents of children with ASD and providelonger term data, an important component forevaluations of parenting programmes.Ethics and dissemination: Approval for the studywas granted by the Research Ethics Committee at theSchool of Psychology, Bangor University (referencenumber: 2016–15768) and the North Wales ResearchEthics Committee, UK (reference number: 16/WA/0224).The findings will be disseminated through researchconferences and peer-reviewed journals.Trial registration number: ISRCTN57070414;Pre-results.

U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014524

DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014524

M3 - Article

VL - 7

JO - BMJ Open

JF - BMJ Open

SN - 2044-6055

IS - 2

M1 - e014524

ER -