Associations Between Parenting Behaviors and Behavioral Problems in Young Children With Developmental Delays.
Harsh, frequent commands fuel non-compliance in preschoolers with developmental delays, yet brief parent coaching can reverse the cycle.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched preschoolers with developmental delays at home.
They counted how often parents gave commands and showed harsh or coercive acts.
Then they tracked each child’s challenging behavior and non-compliance.
What they found
More commands and harsher tone linked to more defiance and problem behavior.
Kids whose parents often snapped or yelled were the least likely to follow directions.
How this fits with other research
Emerson et al. (2007) saw the same pattern years earlier. Moms who brushed off or punished distress had kids with bigger behavior problems.
Marsack et al. (2017) flipped the coin: warm, sensitive parenting cut later emotion outbursts in the same population.
Halstead (2002) proved the link can be broken. When three boys with ADHD were taught "do it fast, earn points," commands stopped triggering defiance.
Together the four papers tell one story: high-rate, harsh commands invite trouble, but changing command style and adding praise can undo the damage.
Why it matters
You can’t write a behavior plan for parents, but you can model a better way.
Teach caregivers to give fewer, clearer directives and to pair each one with labeled praise when the child complies.
One minute of rehearsal at pick-up can drop defiance for the whole evening.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Count how many commands a parent gives in five minutes, then show them how to replace every third command with a labeled praise for compliance.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with developmental delays (DD) are at heightened risk for developing behavior problems, which contribute to parenting stress and caregiving burden. There is an established relation between parenting behaviors and child developmental outcomes with less known about parent-child interactions in young children with DD. The present study examined the associations between parenting behaviors and child behavior in a sample of 180 families with preschool-aged children with DD. Results indicated that caregivers' harsh and coercive behaviors were associated with observed challenging behavior in children. Child age, as well as the number of commands issued by caregivers were associated with noncompliance in children. The significance and limitations of these findings are discussed, as well as recommendations for interventions and future research.
American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2023 · doi:10.1352/1944-7558-128.6.481