Examination of Parent Understanding of YETI Evidence Based Practices

Parent Training for the Understanding of YETI Evidence Based Practices Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is defined as “persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts…” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The most effective treatment to teaching children with ASD is using evidence based practices (EBP’s), which are….this includes the best available research in the field along with practitioners personal experiences of what is most effective (Stoltenberg & Pace, 2008). Youth Engagement Through Intervention (YETI) is a group-based treatment that integrates EBP’s in practices and strategies to enhance social skills for children with ASD. In a previous study, parents whose children participated in YETI were surveyed post treatment and it was found that they have a limited understanding of EBP’s and were unsure as to how to implement EBP’s within the home (Shindorf, 2016). Studies show parent training has been found more effective than parent education as training implements specific strategies to be applied in practice by parents whereas education only provides basic information about the topic (Bearss et al,. 2015). Thus, further research is needed to understand how best to prepare parents in using EBPs in the home setting. There were two primary goals of this study: 1) to examine parent’s understanding of EBP’s using existing data collected from Shindorf, 2016 and 2) based on these data, propose a parent program in which parents would be trained in using EBP’s for their child with ASD in the home setting. In the study conducted by Shindorf data was collected using self-report surveys from the parents whose children were enrolled in YETI. These surveys explored barriers to treatment for these specific children engaged in YETI. Through this study we hope YETI will be more beneficial with parents being able to continue the implementation of EBP’s in the home. References American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Autism Spectrum Disorder. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC:Author.http://dsm.psychiatryonline.org.weblib.lib.umt.edu:8080/doi/full/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.dsm01#x98808.2728600 Bearss, K., Johnson, C., Smith, T., Lecavalier, L., Swiezy, N., Aman, M., Scahill, L. (2015). Effect of parent training vs parent education on behavioral problems in children with autism spectrum disorder: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 313(15), 1524-1533. Shindorf, Z. (2016) Exploring barriers to the generalization of social skills interventions for children diagnosed with ASD: a qualitative analysis of ‘youth engagement through intervention.’ University of Montana. Stoltenberg, C. D., & Pace, T. M. (2008). Science and practice in supervision: An evidence-based practice in psychology approach. In W. B. Walsh (Ed.), Biennial review of counseling psychology: Volume 1, 2008 (pp. 71-95, Chapter xiv, 337 Pages