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Communication skills training for parents: experimental and social validation
M A Kohr1, J M Parrish, N A Neef
1Kennedy Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
|January 1, 1988
Summary
Effective parent-professional communication is key for child services. This study identified and validated essential communication skills for parents, leading to improved interactions in both simulated and real-world settings.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Communication Studies
- Social Work
Background:
- Effective coordination of professional services for children relies on informed parental involvement.
- Parental communication skills are crucial for successful collaboration with professionals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and validate the essential skills parents need for effective communication with professionals.
- To develop and test an instructional package for training parents in these communication skills.
Main Methods:
- Social validation ratings by judges were used to identify target skills based on parent-professional interactions and task analysis.
- A multiple baseline design across subjects and skill domains was employed to train eight parents.
- Training involved an instructional package, with assessments in simulated and actual conferences.
Main Results:
- Parents successfully acquired the targeted communication skills during training.
- Acquired skills generalized from simulated to actual professional conferences.
- Independent judges validated the training outcomes, and parents reported satisfaction.
Conclusions:
- The study successfully identified and validated key communication skills for parents interacting with professionals.
- The developed instructional package effectively trained parents in these skills.
- Enhanced parent-professional communication can improve service coordination for children.