Since 2001, the Ministries of Education and Health have co-purchased autism spectrum disorder (ASD) parent education programmes for parents and whānau of young children (from 0 to starting school age) with ASD. Over this time, two programmes have been purchased:
- EarlyBird – a group parent education programme designed and owned by the National Autistic Society in the UK, and delivered by Autism New Zealand in most of the North Island.
- ASD Plus – family and whānau education designed and delivered by Idea Services that can be offered face-to-face or via distance with technology, and is suitable for individual families/whānau or group delivery. Idea Services delivers ASD Plus in the South Island and Northland.
ASD parent education aims to improve parent and whānau knowledge of the impact of ASD, and increase family and whānau members’ ability and confidence to enhance their child’s communication, self-management and social interaction skills. The Ministries of Education and Health commissioned an evaluation of government-funded ASD parent education services to investigate the quality and impact of these programmes. Litmus undertook these evaluations concurrently between 6 August 2010 and 10 November 2010. Evaluation findings are presented in this report.