ABA Blog: Parenting stress in autism and developmental disabilities: study

2009-07-14

Parenting stress in autism and developmental disabilities: study

Yes, we already suspected; parents of children with autism were assessed as more stressed than parents of children with (other) developmental disabilities, problem behaviors are more stressful than lack of adaptive skills to deal with. Lisa Jo Rudy puts it honestly and a little funny. But we always say that we need to see the data, so it is great to see some data. I know the community might be upset, but we should try to take the data as data, even if not a representative sample, one sample, so we should not risk dismissing this group and others who may fit in it.

Parents of children with developmental disabilities, particularly autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), are at risk for high levels of distress. The factors contributing to this are unclear. This study investigated how child characteristics influence maternal parenting stress and psychological distress. Participants consisted of mothers and developmental-age matched preschool-aged children with ASD (N = 51) and developmental delay without autism (DD) ( N = 22). Evidence for higher levels of parenting stress and psychological distress was found in mothers in the ASD group compared to the DD group. Children's problem behavior was associated with increased parenting stress and psychological distress in mothers in the ASD and DD groups. This relationship was stronger in the DD group. Daily living skills were not related to parenting stress or psychological distress. Results suggest clinical services aiming to support parents should include a focus on reducing problem behaviors in children with developmental disabilities.

Parenting stress and psychological functioning among mothers of preschool children with autism and developmental delay; Universitty of Washington: Annette Estes, Jeffrey Munson, Geraldine Dawson, Elizabeth Koehler, Xiao-Hua Zhou, Robert Abbott (2009), Autism, Vol. 13, No. 4, 375-387.

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Discrete Trials Teaching with Children with Autism – A Self-Instructional Manual is the joint effort of Drs. Daniela Fazzio, PhD, BCBA-D and Garry L. Martin, PhD, to contribute to the continuously growing field of early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) for children with autism. With the growing numbers of children diagnosed and of the availability of programs and practitioners using applied behavior analysis to teach them, comes a substantial need for effective training strategies to bring interventionists and educators up to speed. Discrete Trials Teaching (DTT) is one of the main instructional strategies used in EIBI and a good DTT package will require good instructional material and qualified professionals to supervise implementation. The DTT Manual provides the instructional material and the structure for mastery of the components of this DTT package; the manual has been extensively researched with good results on accuracy of DTT implementation in the training setting and generalization with actual children with autism.