An interventional study of Incredible Years® "Helping Preschool Children with Autism" program (IY-HPCA) in Autism Spectrum Disorder, Teacher Training and Teacher Skills in Addressing Child Mental Health Problem, sponsored by Fundació Sant Joan de Déu. Completed at 1 site in Spain. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-04-23.
Sponsored by Fundació Sant Joan de Déu · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
The Incredible Years® "Helping Preschool Children with Autism" (IY-HPCA) program is designed for teachers of children aged 2 to 5 years who have students with autism in their classrooms. The program provides tools to support children with autism.
The primary aim of this pilot study is to examine the feasibility of implementing the IY-HPCA intervention among teachers of preschool children (typically aged 2 to 5 years) working in mainstream schools. Specifically, the study aims to assess teachers' engagement, acceptability, and satisfaction with the program. Secondarily, it aims to gather preliminary evidence on the program's effectiveness in improving teachers' use of strategies, teacher self-efficacy, and in reducing burnout.
An exploratory randomized controlled pilot trial will be conducted. Approximately 40 teachers will be recruited, and they will be randomly assigned to either an intervention or control group.
The intervention consists of six weekly sessions lasting 3 hours each, delivered by clinical psychologists and child psychiatrists specialized in developmental disorders at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, in Barcelona. Two intervention face-to-face groups will be conducted at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu.
Feasibility outcomes include program attendance, acceptability, and satisfaction (assessed using the Incredible Years Teacher Workshop Evaluations and the Teacher Satisfaction Questionnaire), as well as fidelity to the intervention delivery (measured with the Leader Checklist). After the intervention, individual interviews with teachers and group leaders will qualitatively assess satisfaction and experiences with the program.
Secondary (effectiveness) outcomes include teachers' use of strategies (Teacher Strategies Questionnaire for Children with Autism), self-efficacy (Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale), and burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey).
This study will provide pioneering insights into the implementation of this program within the public mental health and education systems in Spain. This will allow the potential implementation of a wider randomized controlled trial in the future at a larger scale.
1,727 studies on the registry are indexed under Autism Spectrum Disorder; 504 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 40 is below the median of 52 across 1,371 interventional studies indexed under Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Browse Autism Spectrum Disorder studies →Fundació Sant Joan de Déu is the lead sponsor of 68 studies on the registry; 19 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
- Teachers working at special education centers instead of mainstream schools.
Teachers in the intervention group will receive the Incredible Years-Helping Preschool Children with Autism program (IY-HPCA). They will participate in a 6-session group-based face-to-face intervention. Sessions will last 3 hours, will be delivered weekly at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, and will be led by two trained co-leaders. The following main topics will be covered: (1) language development, (2) social interactions, and (3) emotion literacy and self-regulation. Two groups will be conducted, and each of them will include around 10 teachers.
Behavioral: Incredible Years® "Helping Preschool Children with Autism" program (IY-HPCA)
The control group will not receive the intervention. Teachers who are assigned to the control group will continue their usual teaching practice. No restrictions will be placed on schools regarding access to other training and support services during the course of the study, but this information will be monitored as a potential confounder. Teachers who are assigned to the intervention group will be asked not to share the intervention contents with other teachers who are in the control group before the end of the study.
The IY-HPCA® program is a face-to-face 6-session group-based intervention for preschool teachers of children aged 2-5 with ASD or language and communication difficulties. Sessions last 3 hours, are delivered weekly, and are led by two trained co-leaders who have experience working with children on the autism spectrum. The program covers three main topics: (1) language development, (2) social interactions, and (3) emotion literacy and self-regulation. Teachers learn about coaching language, imitation, sensory routines, social communication, use of pretend and puppet play, and self-regulation skills. Visual supports such as picture schedules, choice cards, command and feelings cards are used, and practices are tailored to children's communication and play level stages. The intervention is structured and includes role-playing techniques and video visualization.
Percentage of teachers engaging with and finishing the program
Teachers' attendance at the sessions will be regeristered weekly with a sheet of attendance, with the aim to determine levels of compliance and engagement with the intervention. An attendance of at least 4/6 sessions is expected, with a minimum of 50% of teachers finishing the program.
Time frame: Attendance sheet completed weekly throughout the intervention (6 weeks total)
Compliance and satisfaction throughout the study (Incredible Years Teacher Weekly Evaluations)
Teachers' compliance and satisfaction with the intervention will be assessed weekly after each session with the questionnaire "Incredible Years Teacher Weekly Evaluations", which is part of the IY-HPCA® program materials. This weekly assessment asks teachers to rate their satisfaction with different aspects of the program.
Time frame: Questionnaire administered to the intervention group weekly throughout the intervention (6 weeks total)
Teachers' acceptability and satisfaction with the program (evaluated with the Final Participant Satisfaction Questionnaire)
Teachers' acceptability and satisfaction with the program will be assessed with the Final Participant Satisfaction Questionnaire-Helping Preschool Children with Autism Program (included within the IY-HPCA® program). Data will be collected after the last session of the intervention.
Time frame: Administered to the intervention group at intervention completion (approximately 6 weeks after baseline)
Teachers' overall experiences with the program (evaluated with individual interviews)
Individual interviews will be conducted after the last session of the intervention to explore from a qualitative perspective: (1) teachers' acceptability, satisfaction and overall experience and perceptions of the intervention, and (2) teachers' perceived changes in their skills after the intervention. Outcome measurements 3 and 4 will be combined to determine teachers' experiences, acceptability and satisfaction with the program.
Time frame: Interviews to the participants of the intervention group at intervention completion (approximately 6 weeks after baseline)
Group leaders' fidelity with the program (evaluated with the Leader Checklist)
Fidelity with the program will be assessed weekly after each session with the "Leader Checklist", which is part of the IY-HPCA® program materials. Group leaders (clinicians) will complete the Leader Checklist.
Time frame: Leader Checklist completed weekly throughout the intervention (6 weeks total)
Clinicians' experiences with the intervention delivered (evaluated with individual interviews)
Individual interviews will be conducted after the last session with clinicians who delivered the intervention.
Time frame: Interviews to clinicians at intervention completion (approximately 6 weeks after baseline)
Changes from baseline to post-intervention in Teacher Strategies Questionnaire for Children with Autism (TSQ-A)
The Teacher Strategies Questionnaire for Children with Autism (TSQ-A) is a 52-item teacher-report questionnaire part of the IY program materials that consists of six sections. The first section asks teachers to rate their confidence in promoting social, emotional, language and academic development of children with ASD. Sections 2-4 ask teachers to rate the frequency with which they use teaching techniques to support children's language, social and emotional development. In the last section, teachers rate the frequency of their planning and support strategies according to a five-point scale.
Time frame: Administered to the intervention and control group at baseline (prior to programme initiation) and after the intervention (approximately 6 weeks after baseline)
Changes from baseline to post-intervention in Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale-Long Version
The Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale-Long Version (Tschannen-Moran \& Hoy, 2001; Spanish version: Salas-Rodríguez et al., 2021) is a 24-item questionnaire that measures teachers' evaluations of how likely they are to be successful in teaching. Three different subscales are differentiated: efficacy for classroom management, efficacy to promote student engagement, and efficacy in using instructional strategies.
Time frame: Administered to the intervention and control group at baseline (prior to programme initiation) and after the intervention (approximately 6 weeks after baseline)
Changes from baseline to post-intervention in Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey
The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (Maslach et al., 1986) is a version of the original Maslach Burnout Inventory for use with educators, including teachers, and has three scales that examine the three core aspects of burnout: emotional exhaustion (feelings of being emotionally overextended and exhausted by one's work), depersonalization (unfeeling and impersonal response toward recipients of one's instruction) and personal accomplishment (feelings of competence and successful achievement in one's work with students).
Time frame: Administered to the intervention and control group at baseline (prior to programme initiation) and after the intervention (approximately 6 weeks after baseline)
Plan to share: No
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