Table 2.
Outcome descriptive statistics
| PACT intervention | Treatment as usual | |
|---|---|---|
| Autism symptoms (ADOS CSS*) | ||
| Baseline | 8·0 (1·4) | 7·9 (1·4) |
| Post-treatment | 6·7 (1·7) | 7·3 (1·6) |
| Follow-up | 7·3 (2·0) | 7·8 (1·8) |
| Child initiations (dyadic)† | ||
| Baseline | 22·7% (18·8) | 26·1% (18·7) |
| Mid-treatment | 41·0% (21·8) | 30·1% (18·8) |
| Post-treatment | 34·0% (18·7) | 27·2% (17·6) |
| Follow-up | 30·1% (17·5) | 26·7% (17·0) |
| Language composite‡ | ||
| Follow-up | 84·8 (38·6) | 80·0 (40·0) |
| Parent synchrony (dyadic)§ | ||
| Baseline | 30·7% (14·2) | 31·1% (16·0) |
| Mid-treatment | 53·8% (20·2) | 33·8% (14·5) |
| Post-treatment | 53·0% (20·9) | 33·4% (14·4) |
| Follow-up | 44·4% (16·1) | 43·1% (15·7) |
| Conversation turns (dyadic)¶ | ||
| Follow-up | 28·3 (24·4) | 26·2 (19·4) |
| Teacher-rated adaptive behaviour‖ | ||
| Follow-up | 66·3 (21·3) | 60·4 (16·6) |
| Parent-rated adaptive behaviour‖ | ||
| Baseline | 65·3 (8·1) | 65·5 (9·0) |
| Post-treatment | 67·5 (13·0) | 65·2 (12·2) |
| Follow-up | 63·2 (14·8) | 60·7 (11·3) |
| Social communication (SCQ score**) | ||
| Follow-up total | 27·4 (5·8) | 29·0 (5·1) |
| Repetitive behaviour (RBQ score††) | ||
| Sensory-motor (follow-up) | 4·8 (3·4) | 8·3 (4·2) |
| Sameness (follow-up) | 7·1 (4·3) | 11·6 (6·3) |
| Strength and difficulties (SDQ score‡‡) | ||
| Peer problems (follow-up) | 5·0 (2·4) | 5·7 (1·7) |
| Prosocial (follow-up) | 4·7 (2·9) | 3·7 (2·7) |
| Co-occuring disorder at follow-up (DAWBA§§) | ||
| Depression | 2/50 (4%) | 3/44 (7%) |
| Conduct/oppositional disorder | 17/50 (34%) | 17/44 (39%) |
| Hyperkinesis | 6/50 (12%) | 7/44 (16%) |
| Anxiety/OCD | 12/50 (24%) | 16/46 (35%) |
Data are mean (SD) unless noted otherwise. PACT=preschool autism communication trial. ADOS CSS=Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Comparative Severity Score. DCMA=Dyadic Communication Measure for Autism. SCQ=Social Communication Questionnaire. RBQ=Repetitive Behaviour Questionnaire. SDQ=Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. DAWBA=Development and Well-Being Assessment. ICD-10=International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision. OCD=obsessive compulsive disorder.
Low ADOS CSS represents less severe autism symptoms.
Untransformed proportion of child behaviours that were initiations in dyadic interaction with parent (DCMA).
Language composite of six subscales.
Untransformed proportion of parent behaviours synchronous with child in dyadic interaction with child (DCMA).
Untransformed number of conversational turns in dyadic interaction (DCMA).
Teacher and parent Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Composite V scores.
Parent-rated SCQ total score.
Parent-rated RBQ score, with scoring based on a factor analysis reported previously.26
Parent-rated SDQ, where a low peer problems score represents less peer difficulties, and a high prosocial represents more prosocial behaviour.
In the DAWBA, ICD-10 disorders were grouped into four categories: depression, conduct or oppositional disorders, hyperkinesis, and any anxiety or OCD; in cases of multiple disorders categories, the disorder with the highest likelihood level was used; data are presented as binary, with the cutpoint of greater than or equal to 50% for presence of disorder.