The topic of the three chapters of this dissertation is empowering caregivers of children with or at high likelihood for autism to implement interventions in home settings with high fidelity to promote their child's social communication development. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the previous studies focused on caregiver-implemented early intervention targeted to enhance the social communication development of infants and toddlers with or at high likelihood for autism. Results from Chapter 1, the systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on caregiver-implemented social communication intervention, indicate the positive and significant effects on social communication developmental outcomes for infants and toddlers with or at high likelihood for autism. Chapter 2 provides caregivers' perspectives on the caregiver-implemented intervention approach through caregiver interviews. Themes and subthemes focused on components and contextual factors that are perceived as barriers or facilitators to caregiver-implemented EI for caregivers were identified. Results from Chapters 1 and 2 informed the intervention that was tested in Chapter 3, a single-case design examining the effectiveness of coaching on caregiver implementation of responding to joint attention (JA) intervention for toddlers with autism. The caregivers' implementation accuracy and the child's responding to JA behavior data were observed and reported as the outcome. The overall conclusion includes results and a discussion of final findings across three studies in each chapter and provides future directions for research and practice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]