The PLAY Project was created to learn about the role that playful interaction has in the emotional and social development of children with autism.
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To evaluate the program’s effectiveness, the PLAY Project completed a three-year, large-scale, randomized control trial, which focused on the impact of the parent-mediated play and a relationship-based program.
The study is one of the largest and most rigorous clinical studies of its kind ever conducted. The PLAY Project study followed 128 families of three- to six-year-old children with ASD in five U.S. cities.
Families were randomly assigned to one of two groups: either the PLAY Project plus usual community services for autism or usual community services alone. Usual community services consisted of special education pre-school, speech-language therapy, and occupational therapy services.