Elsevier

Behavior Therapy

Volume 51, Issue 4, July 2020, Pages 588-600
Behavior Therapy

The Role of Professional Training Experiences and Manualized Programs in ABA Providers’ Use of Parent Training With Children With Autism

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2019.09.004Get rights and content

Highlights

  • ABA providers receive a variety of types of training experiences in parent training.

  • Training and manualized program use predicted providers’ parent training use.

  • Several types of training experiences were unique predictors of parent training use.

  • Training and manuals influence providers’ use by reducing perceived barriers.

Abstract

Parent training, in which providers teach parents intervention strategies to promote their children’s skill acquisition and/or behavior management, is considered a best practice in the treatment for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and yet is underutilized in community settings. The present study examined the role of training experiences and manual use in promoting the use of parent training by community providers who serve children with ASD. Applied behavior analysis (ABA) providers (N = 1,089) from across the United States completed self-report questionnaires online. The total number of professional training experiences related to parent training significantly predicted the extensiveness of providers’ use of parent training. Receiving supervision in parent training, being trained in a specific parent training approach, taking a course related to parent training, and participating in self-guided learning (e.g., webinar) were unique predictors of parent training extensiveness. While only 15% of ABA providers used manualized parent training programs, using a manual was also a unique predictor of parent training extensiveness. Parallel multiple mediator analyses demonstrated that family-, provider-, and organization-level barriers all partially mediated the relationship between number of training experiences and parent training extensiveness; only provider- and organization-level barriers mediated the relationship between manual use and parent training extensiveness. Recommendations for training and supporting providers at the pre-service and in-service levels are discussed as a means of increasing access to parent training for children with ASD in community settings.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were recruited through the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) Registry, the national credentialing organization for ABA providers. A recruitment email was sent through the BACB mass email service to providers at the BCBA-D (doctoral), BCBA (master’s), and BCaBA (bachelor’s) levels across the United States, asking whether they would participate in an online study examining providers’ perspectives on parent training for clients with ASD. A second recruitment email was sent

Parent Training Extensiveness

Providers reported wide variation in their parent training use. The majority of providers reported that they had provided parent training to most (25%) or all (39%) of their clients with ASD at least once in the last 6 months. The majority of providers (53.2%) also reported providing one to two parent training sessions per month for an average client with ASD. Providers’ average rating for how frequently they used evidence-based strategies when providing parent training was 3.8 (SD = 0.74),

Discussion

ABA providers receive a number of different training experiences related to parent training for children with ASD, with in-service workshops, observation of colleagues, self-guided study, and supervision being the most common. The overall number of these training experiences was a significant predictor of the extensiveness of their parent training use. This result is consistent with the finding by Christon et al. (2015) that providers’ self-reported training in ASD-specific EBPs was related to

Conclusions

In sum, our data suggest that the amount of training that ABA providers receive related to parent training influences their use of this approach with their clients with ASD. In particular, providing coursework on evidence-based parent training strategies at the pre-service level, providing supervision regarding parent training, training providers in a specific parent training approach, and encouraging the use of manualized programs are likely to have the greatest impact on ABA providers’ use of

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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    This work was supported by a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation Student Award Program (003701.SAP) to the second author and a BP-ENDURE scholarship to the third author. We would like to thank the ABA providers who participated in this study.

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