Parent/Caregiver Education Training for ASD – What Is the Best Model for Delivery, and How Do We Best Evaluate Outcomes?

There is consensus that parent education training, often referred to as ‘psycho-education’, is an essential part of post-diagnostic intervention. However, there is not consensus on the best models to provide these trainings (e.g. duration, frequency, location and providers), or what key ‘active ingredients’ of parent education training might be. Furthermore, evaluation of parent education training programmes have been limited, and have typically consisted of ‘pre-post’ satisfaction questionnaires. There is therefore no broad-based evaluation framework to compare programmes, or to determine whether a programme had a positive outcome. In this panel, we present 5 very different parent education programmes to address these issues. In the first presentation, we examine an ultra-brief (1 hour) parent education training performed in a community setting in Tanzania. In the second and third presentations, we explore two programmes from India – a two-week inpatient and a 12-15 week non-residential group programme. Finally, we present an implementation science approach to two programmes evaluated in South Africa, one a 12-week widely-used, highly manualized programme from the UK (Early Bird/Early Bird plus), the other a locally-developed, one-week, non-residential outpatient programme. We aim to have a critical discussion to guide the development, evaluation and sustainable implementation of parent education training across the globe.
Friday, May 12, 2017: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM
Yerba Buena 3-6 (Marriott Marquis Hotel)
Panel Chair:
P. J. de Vries