Technology-Enhanced Behavioral Parent Training: The Relationship Between Technology Use and Efficiency of Service Delivery
Daily app use shortens parent-training time for low-income families.
01Research in Context
What this study did
MSáez-Suanes et al. (2023) added a free phone app to the classic Helping the Noncompliant Child program.
Low-income families got the app plus normal clinic coaching.
The team tracked how often parents opened the app and how many weeks it took to master the skills.
What they found
Families who tapped the app more reached skill mastery faster.
No extra staff time was needed—just parents using their phones.
How this fits with other research
Dahiya et al. (2025) tested a stand-alone app called Treks. Their families also saw faster gains, even without clinic visits.
Scudder et al. (2026) sent paraprofessionals into homes and got the same large parent-skill jumps—no app, just boots on the ground.
Fisher et al. (2020) went fully virtual with VPN role-plays and still produced big ABA skill gains.
Together the picture is clear: whether you add an app, send a parapro, or go fully online, home-based parent training keeps getting faster and cheaper.
Why it matters
You can shave weeks off parent training tomorrow by asking families to log into the TE-HNC app each day. No new staff, no new cost—just a prompt at session end and a quick check of their screen time.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Behavior disorders (BDs) are common and, without treatment, can have long-term impacts on child and family health. Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) is the standard of care intervention for early-onset BDs; however, structural socioeconomic barriers hinder treatment outcomes for low-income families. While digital technologies have been proposed as a mechanism to improve engagement in BPT, research exploring the relationship between technology use and outcomes is lacking. Thus, this study with 34 low-income families examined the impact of parents' use of adjunctive mobile app components on treatment efficiency in one technology-enhanced (TE-) BPT program, <i>Helping the Noncompliant Child</i> (HNC). While parent use of the TE-HNC app and its impact on the efficiency of service delivery varied across specific components, increased app use significantly reduced the number of weeks required for families to achieve skill mastery. Implications for the design and development of behavior intervention technologies in general, as well as for BPT in particular, are discussed.
, 2023 · doi:10.1177/01454455231165937