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Friday, May 8, 2009
Northwest Hall (Chicago Hilton)
1:30 PM
Background: Public schools are facing increasing pressure to serve a growing number of students with autism using research supported practices. One research supported practice that has promise as a feasible and sustainable intervention is conjoint consultation. Consultants, who have both expertise in autism and skills in consultation, may play a critical role in addressing the unmet needs of children with autism through supporting their parents/caregivers and teachers. Research is lacking on caregiver involvement during conjoint consultation for students with autism. Also lacking is information on what types of caregiver verbal interactions predict child outcomes. This information can inform the processes of consultation important for child outcomes.
Objectives: To characterize caregiver verbal interactions during conjoint parent-teacher consultation. To prospectively examine the influence of caregiver verbal interactions on child outcomes (i.e., attainment of IEP objectives).
Methods: A randomized controlled study of parent-teacher consultation and outcomes was conducted. The experimental group consisted of 18 children between the ages of 3 and 8 years, their teachers, and their caregivers. The teacher and caregiver participated in a 2.5 hour COMPASS consultation (Ruble & Dalrymple, 2002). Consultations were audiotaped and transcribed. The functional purpose of the speech acts used by caregivers during the consultation will be coded using the Psychosocial Processes Coding Scheme (PPCS; Leaper, 1991). Items include quality of involvement (distancing vs affiliative) and type of influence (direct vs indirect). Reliability of the segmenting (using percent agreement) and coding (using kappa) will be determined. The predictive variables will be the types of verbalizations of caregivers. The dependent variable will be child goal attainment of IEP objectives using Goal Attainment Scaling rated by an observer who was unaware of the child’s group assignment, IEP, and teaching plans. Standard multiple regression analysis will be applied.
Results: The results will be determined following data analysis and be available for the upcoming IMFAR meeting.g
Conclusions: Parent and teacher consultation is a realistic and feasible approach for improving the outcomes of children with autism. Very little research, however, is available on the effectiveness of consultation and even less on the process of consultation. Understanding what caregiver behaviors are important for consultation outcomes will help inform models of consultation that encourage those parent behaviors.
Objectives: To characterize caregiver verbal interactions during conjoint parent-teacher consultation. To prospectively examine the influence of caregiver verbal interactions on child outcomes (i.e., attainment of IEP objectives).
Methods: A randomized controlled study of parent-teacher consultation and outcomes was conducted. The experimental group consisted of 18 children between the ages of 3 and 8 years, their teachers, and their caregivers. The teacher and caregiver participated in a 2.5 hour COMPASS consultation (Ruble & Dalrymple, 2002). Consultations were audiotaped and transcribed. The functional purpose of the speech acts used by caregivers during the consultation will be coded using the Psychosocial Processes Coding Scheme (PPCS; Leaper, 1991). Items include quality of involvement (distancing vs affiliative) and type of influence (direct vs indirect). Reliability of the segmenting (using percent agreement) and coding (using kappa) will be determined. The predictive variables will be the types of verbalizations of caregivers. The dependent variable will be child goal attainment of IEP objectives using Goal Attainment Scaling rated by an observer who was unaware of the child’s group assignment, IEP, and teaching plans. Standard multiple regression analysis will be applied.
Results: The results will be determined following data analysis and be available for the upcoming IMFAR meeting.g
Conclusions: Parent and teacher consultation is a realistic and feasible approach for improving the outcomes of children with autism. Very little research, however, is available on the effectiveness of consultation and even less on the process of consultation. Understanding what caregiver behaviors are important for consultation outcomes will help inform models of consultation that encourage those parent behaviors.