Table 3.

The themes and subthemes reported as outcomes of the project by parents.

Main Themes	Subthemes	Supporting Quotes
Impact on the children	Social Interaction	N is an only child and his social skills were lacking. But whenever she would have taken him out and interacted him with other children as well, we could see a very big change in the social skills (Mother S).
	Improved behaviour	He was very frustrated, would have lashed out a lot, he would have cried and screamed a lot. So over time, she built up taking him out for like for a half an hour at one of the wee local centres … where anybody could come in with their children. And he actually started interacting with the kids. (Mother TR)
	Acquisition of new skills	The project helped my child to understand a lot of topics including personal safety, peer pressure, and safe strangers (Mother TA)
Impact on families	New learning for parents	The project was a massive help to my son and our whole family, to help us understand his condition and work together as a family to help him. (Mother DH)
	Increased confidence	They give us the confidence to think that you’re not doing a bad job … you’re doing your best. They were able to make people feel more confident in themselves that ‘I can do this’. (Mother H).
	Free time	I have a little six-year-old too. It’s very difficult for her when you have a little autistic child so, it gave me a bit of time with her. And she also went out too with the Cedar person at times, which also gave me a bit of time to do things about the house or go and do a bit of shopping and stuff like that. (Father).
	Meeting other parents	There was a family day and then a thing at Halloween and … you’re meeting other parents there as well with children who are similar, you know, so that’s quite good so it is. (Mother JO).