Parent-Teacher Collaboration for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Role of Teacher Training

Over twenty years of research has demonstrated that collaborative relationships between parents and teachers are invaluable in enhancing the educational success of all students and are especially meaningful when students have ASD (e.g., Ruble & Dalrymple, 2002). However, collaborative relationships are often difficult to develop because many educators remain uninformed about ASD (Helps, Newsom-Davis, & Callias, 1999) and untrained in working with parents (Lazar & Slostad, 1999). The present study evaluated the ability of an intervention to (a) encourage more positive attitudes toward parent-teacher collaboration, (b) increase general knowledge about ASD, and (c) boost comfort, competence, and confidence levels with regard to working with parents of children with ASD. The study followed an experimental design, with 30 college students randomly assigned to either the experimental Collaboration Training intervention or the alternative treatment Autism Information intervention. Analyses of pre-and post-intervention measures revealed that participants reported significantly more positive attitudes toward parent-teacher collaboration, more knowledge about ASD, and more confidence in their abilities to work with parents of children with ASD after training than they did before training. Additionally, the experimental Collaboration Training condition yielded significantly higher increases in confidence across time than did the control Autism Information condition