Supporting Parents of Children with ADHD During COVID-19 School Closures: A Multiple-Baseline Trial of Behavioral Parent Training for Home Learning.
Live Zoom parent training keeps kids with ADHD engaged in home school work.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Merrill et al. (2023) worked with three families during COVID-19 school closures.
Parents got six telehealth sessions of behavioral parent training.
The team taught parents to use praise, points, and clear rules while kids did school work at home.
They tracked each child’s on-task behavior across several weeks using a multiple-baseline design.
What they found
Two of the three children started staying on task longer during home lessons.
Parents said the Zoom coaching felt doable and helpful.
The third child showed little change, reminding us that one size does not fit all.
How this fits with other research
Lee et al. (2012) already showed that parent training helps kids with ADHD.
Their big review found moderate child gains and large parent skill boosts.
Merrill’s study extends that work to telehealth and home learning.
Martin et al. (2023) ran a similar Zoom program for autistic children.
Both studies found parents could run the plan with high fidelity, hinting the model travels well across diagnoses.
Breider et al. (2024) looked like a contradiction at first glance.
Their RCT found blended online parent training added nothing for kids with ASD.
The key difference: Merrill used full live coaching each session, while Breider mixed short videos with sparse contact.
Live Zoom hours, not just online content, seem to matter.
Why it matters
If schools close again, you can roll out brief telehealth BPT and expect most families to see better homework focus.
Schedule live coach-led sessions, not just emailed lessons.
Track on-task behavior with parents using simple 5-minute timing.
Start with two families, refine, then grow your caseload.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools rapidly changed from in-class instruction to remote learning. Parent involvement and management of the home learning situation was greatly emphasized, and this presented challenges and opportunities for parents of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). There was an urgent need for effective parent support in the home learning situation, particularly for parents of youth with ADHD. The current study implemented a behavioral parent training (BPT) program, an evidence-based intervention for childhood ADHD, modified to target home learning and be delivered via telehealth. The intervention was evaluated in a multiple baseline trial across families of youth with ADHD (n = 3). The primary outcome was daily, parent-reported academic engagement during home learning. Parents also completed daily ratings of their child’s respectful and disruptive behavior, and remote, home observations of academic tasks were recorded at baseline and post-treatment. Based on visual analysis of baseline, treatment and post-treatment daily ratings, two of the three participants had a positive response to treatment indicated by improved academic engagement. These findings provide preliminary support for the home-learning, telehealth-delivered BPT program in supporting families during the COVID pandemic. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12310-023-09569-y.
School Mental Health, 2023 · doi:10.1007/s12310-023-09569-y