, 210-221). It would appear that the pre-training of parents in dealing with autism augments the hands-on training that the children receive. While there is need for more research, it appears that this relationship has been demonstrated to be significant.

Dawson, G., et. al. (2009). Randomized, controlled trial of an intervention for toddlers with autism:

The early start denver model. Pediatrics, 125, 17-23.

In the journal Pediatrics, a study...

The population studied consisting of 48 children with ASD 18 to 30 months that were randomly put in to 1 of 2 groups. The first of these was an intervention group that was run by trained therapists and parents for 2 two years. The second of these involved referrals to community special education providers for intervention. Compared with the children who received community-interventions, those who received ESDM showed improvements in IQ, autism diagnosis and adaptive behavior. Two years after beginning the intervention, the ESDM group on improved some 17.6 standard points compared to 7.0 points in the comparison group as opposed to base-
line scores. The ESDM group maintained growth in adaptive behaviors compared to a sample of typical children. Over the 2-year span of the study, the comparison group displayed significantly greater delays in the area of adaptive behaviors. Adolescents who got ESDM were also more prone to experience a diagnosis change from autism to pervasive