Project AFECT (Autism Family Empowerment Coaching and Training Program)

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the journey of families after their child's diagnosis of autism and to help parents understand autism and get the right treatments for their child. This study is for parents of children just diagnosed with autism who are:

• Age greater than 1 and up to 5 years old;

• Hispanic/Latino OR Black/African-American OR have Medi-Cal as primary health insurance; AND

• Live in one of the following counties in California (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, or Sonoma).

The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Whether parent coaching through Project AFECT leads to decreased parental stress and increased parental confidence;

• Whether family navigation through Project AFECT leads to increased number of referrals to early intervention and educational services and reduced wait times to autism treatments;

• Whether children whose parents receive Project AFECT intervention show increased language skills compared to children whose parents did not receive intervention.

Participants will be asked to:

• Complete surveys at enrollment and 3 and 6 months later.

• Work with Project AFECT Coach.

Researchers will compare control and intervention groups to see if Project AFECT leads to improved parent and child outcomes.