Assessing Parent Implementation of Behavior Support Strategies and Self-Monitoring to Enhance Maintenance

Abstract

Teaching parents to serve as interventionists for their children is a common approach to enhance child learning. Research demonstrates that parents are able to implement evidence-based interventions with high integrity; however, there is limited research indicating the extent to which parents are able to maintain skills. We taught parents of two children, age 10 and 11, to implement three positive behavior support skills: praise, choice making, and setting expectations. Using a multiple baseline across skills design, parents demonstrated criterion level use of all three skills; however, only one skill for one parent maintained. We then taught parents to self-monitor the use of skills that did not maintain. Following self-monitoring, parents demonstrated immediate increases in strategy implementation. In addition, both children demonstrated significant increases in engagement and decreases in problem behavior. Social validity results indicated high acceptability by both parents.