Parents' Growth Through a Behavior Support Mentoring Program for Their Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

• In Event: 64.086 - MTCC Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: 64.086-9 - Perspectives and Partnerships: Listening to Families of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Despite the empirical evidence of parent training programs in supporting children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the Western societies, there is a scarcity of intervention studies in Chinese contexts such as Hong Kong. This paper presented the preliminary results of a study designed to investigate how individualized mentoring supported parents in Hong Kong to build up positive behaviors of their children with ASD. Qualitative analysis from a group parent interview indicated some positive program effects, including improvement in parent’s use of behavioral management strategies, decrease in parental stress, and more compliance and motivation of children. Parents also recognized some challenges in relation to limited time and recourses, and inconsistency among family members. Implications for program dissemination were discussed.

Authors

• Qing Liu, The University of Hong Kong

• Wu-Ying Hsieh, University of Northern Iowa

• Kit Chan, The University of Hong Kong

• Jie Zhu, The University of Hong Kong