Table 1.
Sample characteristics.
| Family characteristics | N = 12 |
|---|---|
| Trial sites | |
| London | 3 |
| Manchester | 4 |
| Newcastle | 5 |
| Family incomea | |
| <£20k | 4 |
| £20–40k | 2 |
| £40–60k | 3 |
| Over £60k | 3 |
| Parent characteristics | N = 18 |
| Age (in years) | |
| M (SD) | 35.6 (6.14) |
| Range | 23–45 |
| Ethnicity | |
| White British | 14 |
| Other | 4 |
| Country of birth | |
| UK | 13 |
| Outside UK | 5 |
| Marital status | |
| Married/co-habiting | 16 |
| Single | 2 |
| Current/most recent occupation | |
| Professional/administrative | 10 |
| Manual/no occupation | 8 |
| Highest level of qualification | |
| Bachelor’s degree or higher | 9 |
| Below degree level/no qualifications | 9 |
| Child characteristics | N = 12 |
| Age at trial baseline (in months) | |
| M(SD) | 44.42 (7.04) |
| Range | 33–58 |
| Age at qualitative interview (in months) | |
| M (SD) | 67.17 (8.31) |
| Range | 52–82 |
| Mullens Scales of Early Learningb Age Equivalence (baseline, in months) | |
| M (SD) | 27.08 (11.30) |
| Range | 12.5–49.5 |
| ADOS-G algorithm scorec (baseline) | |
| Module 1 n | 9 |
| M (SD) | 16.89 (3.79) |
| Range | 12–22 |
| Module 2 n | 3 |
| M (SD) | 17.33 (1.53) |
| Range | 16–19 |
| Child gender | |
| Male | 11 |
| Female | 1 |
| Therapy variables | N = 12 |
| Number of completed sessionsd | |
| M (SD) | 14.08 (5.02) |
| Range | 3–18 |
| Parental therapeutic alliancee | |
| N | 11 (missing = 1) |
| M (SD) | 29.89 (8.63) |
| Range | 20.33–43.50 |
| Child response to therapyf (n) | |
| Improver | 5 |
| Intermediate | 4 |
| Non-improver | 3 |
SD: standard deviation.
Mean UK household income in 2008–2009 was £31k (Statista, 2019).
Mullen Scales of Early Learning (Mullen, 1995) mean age equivalence from the Visual Reception and Fine Motor subscales at trial baseline are provided as an indication of the range of child non-verbal developmental abilities within the sub-sample.
Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic (Lord et al., 2000) algorithm total scores provided as proxy for child autism symptom severity (possible range = 0–24; higher score = higher symptom severity; autism threshold = 12).
Maximum therapy dosage = 18 sessions.
Therapeutic alliance measured by the ‘PACT Alliance Questionnaire’ (Taylor, 2015; Taylor et al., 2017), a parent-rated questionnaire assessing the parents’ quality of engagement with the therapy and therapist (low score = high alliance; range within full trial sample: 20–44).
Child response to therapy, categorised using the Reliable Change Index (RCI) of changes between trial baseline and endpoint on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic (Lord et al., 2000) algorithm total scores; methodology detailed in Hudry et al., 2018; RCI categorization within full therapy sample: 35% improvers, 39% intermediate, 26% non-improvers (Hudry et al., 2018).