Family perceptions and experiences of early behavioral intervention programs in the home

Thesis (M.A.)--Humboldt State University, Psychology: Academic Research, 2014Early behavioral interventions focus on learning in the natural environment, which in most cases is the family home. There is little research in the area of family perceptions and experiences of having these programs take place in the family home. The current study used objectively scored surveys to investigate parents??? perceptions and experiences with their in-home early behavioral intervention programs. The participants were 43 adult parents of children with autism who are currently receiving early behavioral intervention in-home programs provided by the Trumpet Behavioral Health agency. The online survey, designed by the researcher, obtained information on demographics, program characteristics, and the parents??? ratings of benefits, difficulties, preferences for changes, parenting confidence and stress, and satisfaction with the home program. \ud The Satisfaction items all had high mean ratings. The parents??? mean ratings for Benefits of the home program were significantly higher than their mean ratings for Difficulties with the home program, and Preferences for changes to the home program. Within the Benefits section, items with the highest ratings relating to benefits for the child were for: providing interesting learning experiences, helping the child achieve valuable goals, and increasing communication skills. The highest ratings on benefits relative to others were for: preparing their child for school, allowing the parent some free time during sessions, and fostering better relations between the parent and child. Within the Difficulties section, the highest difficulty ratings were for: staff turnover when losing favorite therapists and getting new, unfamiliar therapists. Within the Preferences for changes section, the highest rated items were for parents??? preferring: more training on how to manage challenging behaviors and teach new skills to their child, more instructional materials to use at home, more advanced notice when additional or different staff will be coming to the home, and clearer explanations of the child???s progress. \ud Parents with older children experienced higher parenting confidence, and parents with more adult caregivers in the home experienced greater benefits of the program relative to others. Parents who experienced greater parenting stress tended to spend more time talking with the therapists. Parents who had had a greater total number of therapists working with the child experienced greater benefits of the program, but also greater difficulties with sessions. Fewer parent cancelations of sessions was associated with greater parenting confidence, lower parenting stress, and less difficulties with sessions. Fewer agency cancelations of sessions was associated with greater satisfaction, less difficulties with sessions, and less preferences for changes in the program. \ud Communication between the agency and caregivers about these issues is extremely important at the beginning of services and throughout. Using checklists to explain rationale for agency procedures, and questionnaires for identifying issues of stress and confidence, and for assessing caregiver preferences, can be helpful in determining ways for agencies to provide the most beneficial services to the family