Parent coaching is one of the services that many ABA providers offer. In fact, it’s one of the keys to success in ABA programs. Teaching the parents the strategies and techniques that are successful with their child is parent coaching.
Goals:
Generalization is one of the main goals of ABA. Generalization is doing behaviours in different environments, with different people and with different materials. Many children with autism have a very difficult time generalizing newly learned skills. Parent coaching helps parents learn how their child learns so they can set them up for success.
Parent coaching empowers parents and family members to not rely on clinicians to teach their children. By learning the strategies that are effective for your child you can make changes yourself.
In Ontario, there are a lack of Instructor Therapists to do direct therapy with autistic kids. Most of the ABA providers in the GTA have waitlists. When parents participate in coaching they are able to avoid some of the waiting time by teaching their children themselves. While there are some behaviours and skills that require a therapist to intervene, there are a number of techniques and principles that parents can implement with a lot of success.
What does parent coaching look like?
You’ll work with a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) or a Senior Therapist. When you begin with a new BCBA or ST they will discuss what your goals are. You can choose to work on reducing a challenging behaviour or teaching a new skill.
If you’ve decided to reduce a challenging behaviour your BCBA or ST will discuss the specifics of the behaviour to get a better idea of exactly what the behaviour is. They will ask you to take some data or keep track of the behaviour. They might want you to track the frequency or the duration of the behaviour. This is called baseline data. Baseline data is important because it helps us understand and measure if our intervention is making a difference.
Your BCBA or ST might use a protocol called Behavioural Skills Training (BST) to teach you the intervention. In BST there are 4 steps: instruction, modeling, roleplay and feedback. The therapist will use these steps to help ensure your success. Your therapist will likely give you a written description of the intervention for review later.
Conclusion
Parent coaching can be time limited or continuous. It depends on your goals.