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| Applying Behavior Analysis to Parent Training: Some Recent Findings |
| Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
| 1:00 PM–2:20 PM |
| Continental A (1st floor) |
| Area: AUT; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Atli F. Magnusson (New England Center for Children) |
| Discussant: Patrick C. Friman (Father Flanagan's Girls and Boys' Town) |
| CE Instructor: Atli F. Magnusson, M.A. |
| Abstract: The three papers in this symposium look at parent training and parent implementation in the acquisition of new skills, and the assessment and treatment of challenging behaviors. The first paper compares parents’ performance on teaching simple discrete trials and an activity of daily living to their young child with autism, before and after participating in group training. The training consisted of didactic presentation, role-play, and ongoing review and feedback using videotaped sample exercises assigned as homework. The second paper evaluates the effects of parents conducting functional analyses and treating of food selectivity exhibited by their children. In this study, the authors looked at procedural integrity and treatment effect, as well as generalization and maintenance of treatment. The third paper is on the development of a systematic method for assessing variables associated with parental non-adherence to a treatment protocol, after the parent and child had been discharged from a hospital, in the treatment of pediatric feeding disorders. |
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| Videotaped Assessment and Feedback in a Parent Education Group |
| SUSAN N. LANGER (New England Center for Children), William L. Holcomb (New England Center for Children), June M. Sanchez (New England Center for Children), Ellyn M. South (New England Center for Children) |
| Abstract: Videotaped samples of 20 parents were used to assess their performance on teaching simple discrete trials and an activity of daily living to their young children with autism. Prior to the class, a pretest was conducted in which the parents were videotaped implementing the two acquisition programs. The parents then participated in a 5-week group training consisting of didactic presentation, role-play, and ongoing review and feedback using videotape samples of exercises assigned as homework. A videotaped posttest was then conducted. Dependent measures included the presence/absence of targeted teaching behaviors (i.e., environmental arrangement, correct prompting strategy, and contingent delivery of reinforcement). Data indicate that parents’ teaching performance on the 2 tasks improved after the combination of didactic, role-play, and videotape feedback portions of the training. Interobserver agreement data were collected on 40% of the videotape samples and ranged from 90% to 100%. Discussion centers around the analysis of the impact of the different training components and implications for future research. |
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| Effects of Parents as Therapists During Functional Analyses |
| ADEL C. NAJDOWSKI (University of Nevada, Reno), Kara A. Reagon (Utah State University), Becky Penrod (University of Nevada, Reno), Thomas S. Higbee (Utah State University) |
| Abstract: This study evaluated the effects of parents conducting functional analyses and treatment of food selectivity exhibited by their children. Experiment 1 evaluated the effects of mothers conducting functional analyses of inappropriate mealtime behaviors. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of mothers implementing differential reinforcement and escape extinction to treat inappropriate mealtime behaviors, and whether increases in food consumption generalized to untrained foods. Results of Experiment 1 demonstrated that inappropriate mealtime behaviors were maintained by negative reinforcement, and that mothers conducted functional analyses with high percentages of procedural integrity. Results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that accepting and swallowing nonpreferred foods increased during treatment and generalization probes and that mothers conducted treatment procedures with high percentages of procedural integrity. Results were maintained at a 12-week follow-up. |
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| A Systematic Method for Assessing Parental Non-Adherence Following an Intensive Feeding Program: The Parent Adherence Checklist |
| CHARLES S. GULOTTA (Kennedy Krieger Institute), Tina Sidener (Kennedy Krieger Institute), Peter Girolami (Kennedy Krieger Institute), Kellie A. Hilker (Kennedy Krieger Institute), Ping Wang (Kennedy Krieger Institute) |
| Abstract: A number of behavioral procedures have been shown to be efficacious in treating children with pediatric feeding disorders. For those children treated intensively in a hospital setting, training parents to implement the treatment effectively is an integral part of the feeding program. In the current study parent integrity measures were examined at the end of parent training for children admitted for an intensive 8-week treatment and at several points of follow-up. Prior to discharge, parents were trained to implement procedures with 80% or higher procedural integrity. At follow-up, parents’ adherence ranged from as low as 50% to as high as 100% protocol adherence. The purpose of the current study was to develop a systematic method for assessing variables associated with parental non-adherence to a treatment protocol, after the parent and child had been discharged from the hospital. This assessment, based on Allen and Warzak’s (2000) categories of non-adherence, examines variables relevant to establishing operations, response acquisition, consequent events, and stimulus generalization. Results will be discussed in terms of identifying barriers to treatment adherence. |
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