Parents as cotherapists: their perceptions of a home-based behavioral treatment for autistic children.
Parents like being cotherapists in home ABA, but half drop the skills—build maintenance and generalization supports from day one.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Singh et al. (1982) asked parents to rate a home ABA program where they acted as cotherapists. The team mailed surveys to families who had finished the program.
Parents answered questions about how much they liked the model and whether their child improved.
What they found
Most parents liked the cotherapist model better than clinic-only help. They said their kids made gains.
But half had already dropped the techniques or felt stuck when new problems popped up.
How this fits with other research
Breider et al. (2024) ran a stronger test. Their RCT showed face-to-face parent training cut disruptive behavior and the gains lasted six months. The 1982 survey simply asked parents if they liked the idea.
Jurek et al. (2023) pooled parent voices across 23 studies. Parents still report stress and want more support, echoing the 1982 finding that many quit without extra help.
Kurzrok et al. (2021) adds a twist. They found that parents who feel more involved and satisfied gain confidence. The 1982 paper showed satisfaction, but not the link to self-efficacy.
Why it matters
Parent buy-in is only step one. Plan booster sessions and troubleshooting calls before you close the case. Add brief check-ins at 1, 3, and 6 months so families keep skills alive when new behaviors appear.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Parents' views about acting as cotherapists in a home-based behavioral treatment for their autistic child were investigated. Three areas were studied: (1) the demands involved in being a cotherapist, (2) whether parents felt more able to cope with their child after treatment, and (3) whether they had the same conception of the treatment's aims as did the therapists involved. Parents viewed their treatment more favorably than a comparison group of parents receiving more usual forms of treatment. Most had an accurate impression of treatment but half found it hard to use the methods suggested. Although parents felt that their child improved as a result of treatment, several had stopped using the techniques or felt unable to apply them to new problems.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1982 · doi:10.1007/BF01538321