Parent training: a review of methods for children with developmental disabilities.
Parent training is no longer just a good idea — it’s a proven labor-saving booster for ABA programs.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Matson et al. (2009) looked at every parent-training study they could find for kids with developmental disabilities.
They did not run new kids through training.
They simply mapped the field to see what methods people were using.
What they found
The review shows parent training is a well-tested helper to full ABA.
It saves staff hours because parents learn to run parts of the program at home.
No new numbers are given — the paper is a map, not a scoreboard.
How this fits with other research
Stewart et al. (2018) later pooled 19 trials and found small but real gains when parents coach kids under six with autism.
Breider et al. (2024) ran a fresh RCT and showed face-to-face parent training beats wait-list for disruptive behavior in 4-young learners with ASD.
Bello-Mojeed et al. (2016) proved a five-session group works even in a Nigerian outpatient clinic.
These newer studies turn the 2009 map into hard numbers: parent training works across ages, settings, and cultures.
Why it matters
You can stop wondering if parent training is worth the effort.
Use it as a built-in part of any ABA plan for developmental disabilities.
Start with brief, face-to-face sessions and teach parents two or three key skills first.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Great strides have been made in the development of skills and procedures to aid children with developmental disabilities to establish maximum independence and quality of life. Paramount among the treatment methods that have empirical support are treatments based on applied behavior analysis. These methods are often very labor intensive. Thus, parent involvement in treatment implementation is advisable. A substantial literature on parent training for children has therefore emerged. This article reviews recent advances and current trends with respect to this topic.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2009 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2009.01.009