Including Parent Training in the Early Childhood Special Education Curriculum for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Parent training has been shown to be a very effective method for promoting generalization and maintenance of skills in children with autism. However, despite its wellestablished benefits, few public school programs include parent training as part of the early childhood special education (ECSE) curriculum. Barriers to the provision of parent training include the need for parent education models that can be easily implemented in ECSE programs and the need for preparation of special educators in parent education strategies. This article describes a parent training model for children with autism developed for use in ECSE programs. The implementation of the program, teacher preparation, and preliminary outcomes and challenges will be discussed. Brooke Ingersoll Lewis & Clark College Hearing & Speech Institute Anna DvortcsakHearing & Speech Institute 79The importance of training parents as intervention providers for their child with autism was first emphasized by Lovaas and colleagues when they noted that, following intensive treatment, children whose parents were trained to carry on the intervention continued to make gains, whereas children who were returned to an institutional setting lost their previously acquired skills (Lovaas, Koegel, Simmons, & Long, 1973). Since then, parents of children with autism have been successfully taught a variety of intervention techniques to improve the parent-child relationship (e.g., Koegel, Bimbela, & Schreibman, 1996, Mahoney & Perales, 2003, increase communication skills (e.g., Harris, 1986), and decrease inappropriate behavior (e.g., Marcus, Lansing, Andrews, & Schopler, 1978). Teaching parents to provide the intervention has been shown to increase generalization and maintenance of skills over time (e.g., Koegel, Schreibman, Britten, Burke, & O'Neill, 1982). Parent training also improves the quality of life for the family by reducing parental stress and increasing parental leisure and recreation time (Koegel et al., 1982). In addition, parents who participate in parent training programs report more optimism about their ability to influence their child's development (Koegel et al., 1982), which may help parents sustain their efforts with their child over time.Even though parent training is now considered an essential component of successful intervention programs for children with autism (National Research Council, 2001), it is rarely included in publicly funded early childhood special education (ECSE) programs (Mahoney et al., 1999;McCollum, 1999). Obstacles to providing parent training mainly relate to issues of dissemination and training. Most evidence-based parent training models are not accessible to teachers, who may not read empirical journals that do not target practitioners. In addition, teachers are rarely trained in how to use parent education strategies. Most special educators, especially those who work with children ages 3 and older, have been trained to work with children, not adults. They lack the knowledge of how adults learn and the techniques for teac...

Preliminary Effectiveness of Project ImPACT: A Parent-Mediated Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Delivered in a Community Program

“…These methods use behavioral strategies (e.g., direct prompting, contingency reinforcement) to teach specific social-communication skills along with emphasizing strategies derived from developmental science designed to facilitate reciprocity, social engagement, and shared affect during adult-child interactions. Child progress across several domains has been documented in two randomized trials (Rogers, & Dawson, 2009; Yoder & Stone, 2006) and controlled single-subject and quasi-experimental studies of systematic blending of behavioral/developmental methods (Ingersoll & Dvortcsak, 2010; Ingersoll, Dvortcsak, Whalen, & Sikora, 2005; Ingersoll & Wainer, 2013;). Given this empirical support, parent-mediated NDBIs are increasingly recommended as state-of-the-art treatment options for children at risk for developing ASD (Dawson et al, 2010; Ingersoll, 2009; Rogers et al, 2012; Stahmer, Schreibman, & Cunningham, 2011).…”

Stakeholders’ Voices: Defining Needs of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Transitioning between School Settings

“…Unfortunately, implementing such methods and interventions in school settings is challenging. For example, teachers often lack the training or the time to be adequately trained (Elliott & Mihalic, 2004; Ingersoll & Dvortcsak, 2006; Kern et al, 2008). In addition, tensions arise because parents often feel excluded from care (Crawford & Simonoff, 2003; Park et al, 2011).…”

A Review of Parent Training in Child Interventions: Applications to Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy for Children with High-Functioning Autism

“…Having parents model new skills in vivo during therapy sessions has been shown to have larger treatment effects than interventions that did not emphasize practice during the session, when controlling for content and delivery approach (Kaminski et al 2008). Kaminski and colleagues, as well as others (Ingersoll and Dvortcsak 2006;Kaiser and Hancock 2003), have suggested that clinician feedback is a crucial piece of insession practice; feedback that was concise, mostly positive, frequent, and immediate was most successful. The actual practice itself has also been found to be more helpful than merely modeling a skill (Ingersoll and Dvortcsak 2006).…”

“…Kaminski and colleagues, as well as others (Ingersoll and Dvortcsak 2006;Kaiser and Hancock 2003), have suggested that clinician feedback is a crucial piece of insession practice; feedback that was concise, mostly positive, frequent, and immediate was most successful. The actual practice itself has also been found to be more helpful than merely modeling a skill (Ingersoll and Dvortcsak 2006).…”

“…Although not proven, a number of variables have been suggested for further investigation, including a responsive and cooperative teaching format, firm knowledge of the treatment protocol, ability to provide immediate feedback, personalization of the protocol to each family, acknowledging parent feelings as valid, and listening to parent feedback and concerns (Kaiser and Hancock 2003;Ingersoll and Dvortcsak 2006). When building rapport, it also might be important that the therapist not align him-/herself with one specific parent in the family, at the cost of possibly alienating the other parent (Ingersoll and Dvortcsak 2006).…”