Parents' Voices: 3-Month Follow-up After 12-Week Unity Parent ABA Training Program

Background: Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is considered one of the primary evidence-based interventions for teaching young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).  Increasingly, parents are seeking early intervention for their children, only to find long wait lists for treatment. Training parents to implement ABA at home is one way to access earlier treatment for their children. Parent input on follow-up is invaluable to gain their perspectives over time, and what ABA strategies they continue to use independently.

Objectives: To explore parents’ views on; their concerns about the end of training, implementing ABA independently, how worthwhile the training was, and the effectiveness of a 12-week Unity ABA training program, 3 months after completing the training.

Methods: Fifteen parents of preschool children with ASD were selected to participate in Unity parent training (80% mothers, M_age = 32.3 years). Children (80% boys) ranged in age from 18 to 72 months (M_age = 39.7 months) at the beginning of the Unity program. Fourteen children had a diagnosis of Autistic Disorder and 1 had a diagnosis of PDD-NOS. Parents learned to apply ABA with their children during 180 hours of centre-based ABA training across 12 weeks. As part of a larger study, parents gave their views during a semi-structured interview three months post-training. Parents were asked questions about continuing ABA programming at home, changes in their concerns, how worthwhile they found the training, other training the parents wanted, and any additional comments.

Results: Preliminary thematic analysis of parent interviews indicated that the Unity parent training program was helpful in teaching parents how to implement ABA programs at home with their children. Many parents reported continuing to use ABA techniques. However, they used mainly incidental teaching at home, and few parents continued to collect data or use discrete trial training. Many parents also noted significant gains in their children’s skills.  Parents’ main concerns at the end of training were how to continue the programming on their own without staff support and how to adjust to the lack of a structured environment and routine.  Most parents wanted the ABA training to be longer.  However, parents also reported that they felt comfortable knowing that they could continue to seek help and follow-up consultation from staff involved in the Unity training.

Conclusions: Parents voiced their accomplishments and concerns 3 months after completing a 180 hour ABA training program. The more parents learned how to implement ABA, the more it became a way of life rather than a temporary treatment. Implications for modifying the training program in future and increasing follow-up consultation are discussed. The opportunity to take into account parent perspectives is appreciated. Data collection is ongoing.