Teaching Social Communication to Children with Autism and Other Developmental Delays: The Project ImPACT Manual for Parents

My nephew has autism and I wanted to get a better understanding of his behavior and learning processes. This book shares the tips and tools needed to understand and teach your child or relative of some sort. I enjoyed getting through the work book and exercises as well as feeling more confident navigating the situations and scenarios this brings.

My Son’s nonprofit ABA clinic follows this workbook. They use a newer ABA approach which is child-centric. This book helps me engage better with my child, and it gives me simple steps to smaller goals to reach a maximum outcome. So far so good, my kiddo focuses more on me and playtime because playtime is how early communication begins. I highly recommend this workbook to help any parent struggling with social communication with their child, specifically a child that’s delayed in Speech or has any developed delay (and Autism).

I loved the first edition when my daughter went through ImPACT, so I knew this would be a great addition to our home. I love the extra behavior portion in the back. I cannot speak highly enough of how this technique served as the catalyst to my daughter communicating in a functional way!

Super helpful book for Impact Class.

Okay for parent activities

Lots of charts and worksheets that are useful to use as handouts with families. Material is similar to that in the ESDM parents' guide or the Hanen book More Than Words, but more concise, which I like. Nice clear explanations as well as some sweet line drawings. This is a good place to start with families. Very well organized and explained. (There's also a therapists' manual that you can buy bundled together with the parent manual. The therapists' manual is thick and I've only skimmed through it, but it seemed to me that unless you're leading a structured group program following the Project Impact model exactly, you don't really need it. It just walks you through exactly what to say and do for each session of the program. The therapists' manual did contain some useful troubleshooting charts which are nice - like suggestions for what to do if parents are having trouble following their kids' lead, etc.) Bottom line, buy the parents' manual and use it for giving handouts in therapy sessions to help parents plan and structure their home carryover activities, but no need to purchase the therapists' manual unless you want to lead formal Project Impact group programs.

I got the first edition when I took the Project ImPACT training a few years ago. As a speech-language pathologist, I've used the materials quite successfully with families. I'm glad they adjusted the title because these methods work well with any children who are developing communication skills.

I've a Kindle Signature Paperwhite and looks like I can't read this book on it. Annoying. Returned.