Abstract
The present study assessed effects of training the mother of a sixth-grade boy with autism who was attending a school for special needs education. The target behaviors included verbal responses across settings and body-washing skills. The content of the training was delivered in various formats, such as lectures at home, role-play, and recording the target behaviors. The teacher and the child's mother jointly developed plans of action using daily school-home notes, with checklists to indicate the occurrence or non-occurrence of the target behaviors. The mother implemented the intervention procedures; the teacher provided positive feedback for the mother's implementation of the intervention and her recording of the target behaviors in daily settings. Some of the target behaviors were trained at school, in addition to the training done at the child's home. The mother selected relevant strategies from the procedures for the target behaviors in order to support her child with new challenges. The data suggested that the target behavior improved with the intervention; the new challenges that the mother worked on proactively in order to support her child also improved. The mother reported her opinion that her implementation of the intervention was highly effective for improving her child's behavior. The findings are discussed in relation to their implications for building and reinforcing relationships between parents and teachers.
