Parent Training Interventions for Young Children with Developmental Delay

In the parent training interventions for children with developmental delay, parents are taught scientific methods for developmental stimulation to be practiced in order to improve cognition, language skills, gross motor & fine motor skills, social competence, as well as self-care ability of children. They are also taught programs for behavior modification. It is very important that parents should practice these skills at home.

The parent training interventions lead to positive effects on all areas of child development. There are several advantages of these interventions.

• Parents achieve higher levels of knowledge about child development and provide more stimulation for their children.
• Effective in improving children’s cognitive and linguistic development.
• Beneficial in developing social skills of children.
• Enhance the school readiness of children.
• Useful in increasing children’s motor abilities.
• Can make these children smarter than their siblings, if early interventions are given from infancy to school age.

If the parents do the home programs correctly in parent training interventions, parental stress decreases and positive parenting skills will increase[1]. Parent training programs are highly effective in increasing parent-child interactions[2]. In the randomized controlled trial which was done to evaluate parent training intervention for caregivers of preschool-age kids having developmental disabilities, it was found that parent training intervention was more effective than usual care for improving parent-child interactions and reducing child behavior problems. The parents and caregivers were highly satisfied with the program[3]. Early parenting intervention leads to greater increases in language development in infants[4]. In the study examining the effect of parent-training intervention on child language production, involving 46 children having behavior problems, with or at risk for developmental delay, it was found that mothers’ use of child-directed skills, had an important role in improving the language skills of the child[5].

Early parent mediated developmental interventions will improve the developmental abilities in resuscitated children. Randomized trial conducted by Carlo et al of home-based, parent provided early developmental interventions in children after birth asphyxia, provides evidence of treatment benefits on cognitive and psycho-motor development of these children[6].

Studies conducted in different countries across the globe have proved that parent mediated early developmental interventions are highly effective in
improving child development.

It is very important to give scientific information to the parents about child development and involve them in the interventions of children with developmental delay from infancy.

Thus we can significantly improve the intellectual, linguistic, social and physical development of these children and make them, healthy and smart.

References:

1.Rosmary Ros, Jennifer Hernandez, Paulo A. Graziano, Daniel M. Bagner. Parent Training for Children With or at Risk for Developmental Delay: The Role of Parental Homework Completion. Behav Ther. 2016 Jan; 47(1): 1–13.

2. Kaminski JW, Valle LA, Filene JH, Boyle CL. A meta-analytic review of components associated with parent training program effectiveness. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2008 May;36(4):567-89.

3. McIntyre LL. Parent Training for Young Children With Developmental Disabilities: Randomized Controlled Trial. Am J Ment Retard. 2008 Sep; 113(5): 356–368.[3].

4. Garcia D, Rodriquez GM, Hill RM, Lorenzo NE, Bagner DM. Infant Language Production and Parenting Skills: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Behav Ther. 2019 May;50(3):544-557.

5. Garcia D, Bagner DM, Pruden SM, Nichols-Lopez K. Language Production in Children With and At Risk for Delay: Mediating Role of Parenting Skills. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2015;44(5):814-25.

6. Carlo WA, Goudar SS, Pasha O, Chomba E, Wallander JL, Biasini FJ, McClure EM, Thorsten V, Chakraborty H, Wallace D, Shearer DL, Wright LL; Brain Research to Ameliorate Impaired Neurodevelopment-Home-Based Intervention Trial Committee and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Health Research Investigators. Randomized trial of early developmental intervention on outcomes in children after birth asphyxia in developing countries. J Pediatr. 2013 Apr;162(4):705-712.e3.