A new study suggests that parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) should undergo training to better manage their children's behavioral problems if they want to improve them.
Autism is long associated with intellectual disability, difficulties in motor coordination, and some health issues. However, most people with autism will often display some challenging behaviors at some point in their lives, and many people don't understand any of them.
There are organizations that offer help to the parents of children diagnosed with ASD so they can better manage them while they are still in their developmental stage. For instance, Autism Speaks created a toolkit that parents can download online. Even the government has its own program designed to educate parents. But is education really enough? A new study sheds light on that question.
Researchers at Yale University involved 180 children of ages 3 to 7 who have both autism and behavioral problems and their parents for the study. They were divided into two groups: a parent training program that focuses on managing behavioral problems or an education program that provides useful information about their children's condition. Both programs ran for 24 weeks.
After the program, the researchers confirmed that the children of both groups showed behavioral improvements, but those who underwent parent training showed more improvement when it comes to disturbing and non-compliant behavior.
"Parent training has been well studied in children with disruptive behavior disorder," Denis Sukhodolsky, an assistant professor at Yale Child Study Center, said in a press release. "Our study shows that parent training is also helpful for improving behavioral problems such as irritability and non-compliance in young children with ASD."
The study was published in the April 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
