The Efficacy of Training Parents in Groups as Teachers for their Autistic Children

Abstract

This study used a waiting list control group to examine the effects of a 10-week training program in behaviour modification skills for parents of 11 preschool-aged autistic children. Following an initial assessment, the parents were randomly assigned to two groups, with Group 1 (N=5) beginning training while Group 2 (N=6) remained in a waiting list condition. Both groups were reassessed when Group 1 completed training and then Group 2 began training. Both groups were assessed again at the end of Group 2′s training and Group 2 was assessed once more, three months later. The parents were evaluated on their ability to use several teaching skills including discriminative stimuli, prompts (need and quality), consequation, shaping, discrete trials, and recording data. These teaching skills were combined into a single measure of teaching ability. Analysis of variance revealed a significant group by time interaction which showed that Group 1 improved significantly after training, while Group 2, in the waiting list condition, did not change. There were no differences in performance between mothers and fathers. In both groups, treatment gains were maintained at the three month follow-up. The autistic children were evaluated on their performance on a 20-step hierarchy of pre-language and language skills. Change came more slowly for the children than it did for their parents. It was not until the follow-up assessment that the children as a group improved significantly over their pretreatment assessment. Such slow change is discussed as predictable for severaly handicapped children. The group training procedure appears to be an effective and relatively inexpensive way to train parents of autistic children.