Teaching Parents of Children with Autism to Evaluate Interventions

Children with autism are participating in a variety of interventions that are believed to be effective by their parents; however, a majority of these interventions are not empirically supported. In this study, we assessed the efficacy of a parent education program to teach parents of children with autism to evaluate their child's interventions. Parents' acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of evaluation behaviors were examined. Additionally, we looked at parents' understanding of information regarding evaluating interventions and decision-making patterns regarding treatments in comparison to controls. A multiple baseline design across parent participants was used to assess parents' evaluation skills. After completion of a parent education program, parents increased in their evaluative behaviors relative to individual baseline measures. In addition, parents in the experimental group increased their understanding of information regarding evaluating interventions and empirically based decisions regarding treatments in comparison to controls.