MODULE: Parent-Implemented Intervention

Goals of Parent-Implemented Intervention

The literature on parent-implemented intervention for learners with ASD has steadily grown in recent years. Currently, there is convincing support for parent-implemented intervention designed to (a) increase communication and (b) reduce interfering behavior.

Examples of communication skills that were the focus of interventions in the evidence-based studies include:

• increasing social communication skills (Aldred, Green, & Adams, 2004; McConachie, Randle, Hammal, & Le Couteur, 2005; Symon, 2005),
• initiating communication (Aldred, Green, & Adams, 2004; Koegel, Symon, & Koegel, 2002),
• increasing conversation skills (McConachie, Randle, Hammal, &  Le Couteur, 2005),
• increasing spontaneous language (Charlop-Christy & Carpenter, 2000; Symon, 2005),
• increasing joint attention (Rocha, Schreibman, & Stahmer, 2007),
• increasing language in play (Gillett &  LeBlanc, 2007, and
• promoting the use of functional communication (Moes & Frea, 2002).

Examples of behavioral skills that were the focus of interventions in the evidence-based studies include:

• improving compliance (Ducharme & Drain, 2004),
• increasing on-task behavior (Ducharme  & Drain, 2004; Ozonoff & Cathcart, 1998),
• reducing aggression (Moes & Frea, 2002),
• increasing eating (Gentry & Luiselli, 2008), and
• reducing disruptive behaviors (Moes & Frea, 2002).

Parent-implemented intervention has been used to improve the adaptive functioning of parents and improve the quality of family relationships and interactions. Examples of parental or family skills that were the focus of interventions in the evidence-based studies include:

• increasing positive affect in parents (Koegel, Symon, & Koegel, 2002) and
• increasing parent-child interactions (Aldred, Green, & Adams, 2004).