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Webinar: Coaching Families of Young Children with ASD Using the Early Social Interaction (ESI) Model

Who should attend?

This free webinar is for early intervention providers, interdisciplinary healthcare providers, home visitors, and other team members working with young children and their families in early intervention systems or early childhood education. This webinar series is a companion to our  Autism Navigator online early intervention courses at the Knowledge & Skills Level.

What will we cover?

The Autism Navigator team will share information about the evidence-based Early Social Interaction (ESI) Model that coaches parents to support their child’s learning in everyday activities. We will cover the lens of Active Engagement, the layer cake of Transactional Supports and our coaching model. Participants will see video illustrations of active ingredients of the model with families of infants and toddlers with ASD or early signs of autism.

Coaching can provide families the guidance they need to support their child’s learning right from their own home in activities that they do every day. The ESI model can be done through mobile coaching (a.k.a. working remotely, telepractice, or video conferencing), which saves travel time for providers, keeps services going when face-to-face coaching sessions may not be possible, and provides services in the natural environment.

This 6-week series will cover the following agenda:

  • Week 1: Everything Grows out of Productive Roles in Everyday Activities
  • Week 2: ESI Collaborative Coaching—From Building Consensus to Caregiver Independence
  • Week 3: Steps of Active Engagement & Layers of Transactional Supports
  • Week 4: Challenging Behavior: Using Positive Behavior Supports within the ESI Model
  • Week 5: Intensity Needed to Improve Child Outcomes: Gaining Momentum and Knowing When to Move Ahead
  • Week 6: Mobile Coaching in Action with the ESI Model


The ESI model uses early intervention providers to coach parents of young children with ASD (or other DD) how to embed evidence-based strategies to support social communication, language, play, and adaptive behaviors in everyday activities to achieve the intensity of intervention needed to improve outcomes for children with ASD. ESI is a naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention (NDBI) that has demonstrated efficacy in a multisite randomized controlled trial (RCT) for children diagnosed with ASD by 18 months. Children showed improved outcomes after 9 months of treatment based on standardized measures of social communication, developmental functioning, and adaptive behavior. ESI was designed to incorporate the National Research Council recommendations within the context of a family-centered, natural-environments approach, which is considered recommended practice for delivery of IDEA Part C services. We will watch video clips together from face-to-face and mobile coaching intervention sessions to illustrate the ESI model and sharpen your observation skills.

When is this scheduled?

This six-week webinar series is scheduled four times a year. Join anytime and attend when you can.

Fall Session 2023 begins on September 13, 2023

  • Day: Each Wednesday for 6 weeks
  • Time: 12:00 to 1:30pm (Eastern Time)

How do I register?

Register for the Fall Series

You must register to participate. We cannot record our webinars because we show photos and videos of our families, so make sure to register. You will receive an attendance certificate within two weeks of each webinar date.

Where are the Resources for this webinar?

Make sure to visit the Coaching Families of Young Children with ASD Using the Early Social Interaction (ESI) Model Resources page we created for you. You will find related research articles and other resources. After you attend the webinar, please give us feedback by using the Feedback Survey on the Resources page.

Coaching with ESI Resources

Hosts for this Webinar from the Florida State University (FSU) Autism Institute

  • Amy M Wetherby, PhD, CCC-SLP • Distinguished Research Professor, College of Medicine, Florida State University; Director, FSU Autism Institute
  • Renee Daly Holland, MS, CCC-SLP • Assistant Director of Early Intervention Services Research, FSU Autism Institute
  • Joy Moore, MS, CCC-SLP • Autism Navigator Master Coach and Global Trainer, FSU Autism Institute
  • Patricia Armstrong, MSW • Autism Navigator Master Coach and Global Trainer, FSU Autism Institute

Not sure where to go? We’re here to help: [email protected].