Coaching

Parents on Intervention Strategies to

Increase Child Communication During Play
Erin Goodridge

Early Intervention Certificate P rogram, College of Education, H ealth, and Human Services

Methods

Introduction

Why coach parents in the home?

Conducting home visits aligns with IDEA Part C, which

states that children with disabilities should receive
services within their natural environments.
Many children with Autism have IFSP goals related to
communication.
Children spend the majority of their time with a parent
or caregiver, which is why it is important for them to be
able to implement strategies.
Intervention strategies used to increase child
communication should target child use of language in
the present time and setting, as well as their use of
language across settings and routines.
Children learn best through play which m akes it the
perfect time to use intervention strategies.
Research Questions:
Does coaching increase parent use of communication
strategies?
When parents use the communication strategies more
consistently, does the child communicate more?

Participants:

Child, age 2, Autism diagnosis

Childs mother

Results

Coaching:

10

Step 1-Share intervention strategy with parent

Step 2-Model intervention strategy for parent
through play with the child
Design:
Step 3-C oach parent through play with the child
Single subject ABCD multiple baseline design- A Step 4-O bserve parent use of strategies in order to
provide reflective feedback
new intervention strategy presented at
each session

Independent Variables:

Coaching the parent on the use of:

Environmental Arrangement
Time Delay
Modeling
Presenting a Choice

The Adult Implementa/on of Communica/on Strategies

Baseline

Interven7on

Time Delay
5

0
0

10

10

Setting:

Arranging the
Environment

Home environment, during play

0
0

10

10

Modeling
8

Dependent Variables:

Increase of parent use of strategies

Increase in child communication
- Gestures
- Vocalization

0
0

10

10

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9

Providing
Choices

0
0

Kaiser, A.P.,
et. al.
(1993).
Christensen-
Sandfort,R.,
et. al.
(2013).

Major Findings
Children who received training from a therapist as well as
parent training on strategies showed m ore improvements
than those with therapy alone.
Functional relationship between interventions and child
requesting.

Results

I m age cour t esy of J ohn Kasawaat Fr eeD

igit alPhot o
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After receiving c oaching on intervention strategies, parents

implemented more often. This also increased child initiated
interactions.
Functional relationship between interventions parents were
coached on and parent use of strategies as well as between
parent use of strategies and c hild c ommunication.
After c oaching instruction,all teachers were able to
implement intervention strategies across settings.
Children began using target communication after
intervention strategies implemented.

Initial findings indicate that as the parent increased her use of strategies, the childs communication also
increased. The intervention strategies were most effective when the parent followed the childs lead in play. This
ensured that the child was engaged in the activities and was motivated to communicate. The use of these
strategies were easily incorporated into the natural play environment in the childs home.

Discussion

10

Child Communica4on
B asel i n e Interven ti o n

13

11

Frequency

Citation
Kaiser, A.P.,
et. al.
(2013).
Mobayed,
K.L., et. al.
(2000).
Meadan, H .,
et. al.
(2014).
Roberts,
M.Y., et.al.
(2014).

15

-1

10

Sessions
Gestures

Vocaliza:ons

The findings align with the results of the existing research on the use of these strategies. As coaching was
implemented, the mother increased her use of the intervention strategies.

Limitations:

Missed data--child illness and cancelled home visits during intervention

Due to time restrictions, findings are preliminary due to l imited data points,
Limited number of participants and single case research design

Future Directions

Measure if parent use of strategies and child

communication was generalized across settings and
routines.
Study long term maintenance to see how the sustained
implementation may influence child outcomes.