Content area
Full text
Keywords
autism spectrum disorders,
intensive behavioural
intervention,
perception of progress,
parents
Abstract
Parents' perceptions of their child's progress in Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) are important because they may affect parental involvement and selection of intervention. A previous study by our team found that the vast majority of parents have a positive perception of progress in IBI and that parents are seeing changes across a range of domains. The current study explored parents' perceptions about their child's progress in IBI and compared these perceptions to the child's actual progress on standardized measures. The participants included 27 children enrolled in the Toronto Partnership for Autism Services (TPAS) IBI program. We found that most parents had positive feelings about their child's progress in IBI. However, these perceptions were not significantly related to children's actual progress.
Currently, Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) is the most empirically supported form of therapy for young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) (Perry et al., 2008). Standardized measures are typically used in research to track children's progress (e.g., increased IQ scores). Although little information is available in the current literature regarding parents' perceptions of child progress, our previous research suggests that parents have a range of beliefs regarding how their child is progressing through the IBI program (Weiss, Blacklock, Perry, & Freeman, 2010). For example, they may see great improvements in the child that they attribute to IBI; they may perceive small improvements that are not apparent on standardized tests; or they may perceive the child to be unchanged and not value skills that may have been mastered in IBI. Clinical experience suggests that these perceptions may not necessarily correspond well to measureable changes in standardized measures of progress.
Parents' perceptions of progress are important in their own right because they may affect the selection and implementation of interventions (Schreibman, 2000), and parental involvement (Solish & Perry, 2008). If parents attribute major progress in their child to a particular therapy, they are more likely to obtain that therapy for their child, have it implemented as well as possible, and be involved in their child's treatment. Conversely, if parents perceive their child's progress to be minimal, they may...