Decision-Making Regarding Early Intervention by Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Seventy-five parents of preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) completed surveys designed to identify factors considered when selecting an intervention approach for their child and to elucidate the relative importance of those factors in the decision-making process. For decisions to use interventions, the most important factor related to the individual needs of the child. This factor and several others; including staff attributes, whether the intervention was ASD-specific, and intuition/gut feelings, were weighted more highly than research evidence in both decisions to use and to reject interventions. When the individual factors were grouped pragmatically, the category representing service characteristics, including staff attributes and whether the intervention was ASD-specific, was ranked significantly higher in importance than all other categories. Advice/recommendations from others have been reported in previous research as being frequently considered in parental decision-making. However, in the present study, advice and recommendations from others was rated significantly lower in importance than all other categories regardless of whether participants were considering using or rejecting an intervention.