Coach to Communicate

Thank you for your interest in Coach to Communicate.
Our program is available year-round, so you are welcome to register at any time.

Enrollment Instructions / Instrucciones de inscripción

How it works

The Coach to Communicate program involves two parts:

Step 1: Webinar on Autism and Communication Instruction


Attend a free online webinar on ways to improve the communication skills of children and adolescents on the autism spectrum. Service providers may also attend this webinar.

Steps to complete: 

  1. Register today.
  2. Parents – choose the PREP Parent course. Educators – Choose the PREP course (on the left)
  3. Fill out the registration information (enter “n/a” or “none” for fields that don’t apply to parents).
  4. Confirm your email address (look for an email from Canvas Catalog) and set up your password.
  5. After logging in, complete the Parent Background Information Survey.
  6. To continue to the Coach to Communicate webinar, scroll to the bottom of the page and click next. The webinar should take 30-45 minutes.

To access the webinar in Spanish, choose the Entrenar para Comunicar link after completing the Parent Background Information.

Step 2: Intensive Parent Coaching


Parents interested in additional training can be paired with an online coach for individual sessions to learn to teach social communication skills to their children – for free!

The steps to complete this are as follows:

  1. “After completing the webinar, you will have access to the parent training consent and application form.
  2. Once we receive your application, you will receive an email from our assessment coordinator. If you do not receive this email within a few days, please email us.
  3. She will ask you to complete a couple of assessments, which will give us information about your child and their communication needs, to help us set up the most effective treatment plan for you and your child.
  4. After receiving your assessments, your parent coach will reach out to you to set up a weekly meeting schedule that best fits your availability.

Our Impact

Based upon our data, our coaching sessions are effective at improving parental knowledge of and skill in implementing behavioral techniques. What’s more, the parents have learned skills that have been effective in improving social communication skills in their children! This increase is indicative of lasting change in parents’ skills after completion of their participation in this project.