The Inclusion of Fathers in Parent Coaching Interventions for Young Autistic Children: A Systematic Review.
Ciara Donohue, Fionnuala Tynan
PMID 40208426WHAT IT FOUND
Only 2 of 94 parent-child dyads in these home-based coaching studies were fathers.
The 5 studies all reported positive outcomes, but with so few fathers and only single-subject or medium-quality designs, this tells us almost nothing about how coaching works for dads.
Key findings
01Across 5 included studies totalling 94 parent-child dyads, only 2 were father-child dyads, while 91 participants were female.
02All 5 studies reported positive effects of home-based parent coaching on both parent strategy use and child social communication, but most used single-subject designs without effect sizes or comparison groups.
03The two studies that included fathers reported that both fathers and mothers learned coaching strategies and that children improved, but neither design could separate the coaching component from prior parent training or confirm whether tailoring to paternal play styles is necessary.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 2 of 94 dyads included a father, so the review cannot answer its own question about father-specific outcomes. 4 of 5 studies used single-subject designs with fewer than 3 participants, which the authors note may not generalise. All included studies rated only 'medium' overall Weight of Evidence, and 4 rated 'low' for design relevance. Several studies combined parent training with coaching sequentially, making it impossible to know which component drove change. All studies were conducted in the United States, limiting cultural transferability to non-Western family structures. Intervention length and dosage were inconsistently reported, preventing conclusions about what dose works.
Declared interests
The paper does not report any funding source or author conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the positive outcomes in the 2 father-inclusive studies as evidence that parent coaching is validated for fathers. With only 2 father-child dyads out of 94, no comparison group, and no test of whether tailoring to paternal styles matters, these results are anecdotal and may simply reflect the same effects seen in the 91 mother-child dyads.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →