Effect of a teaching package on the performance of caregivers in occupation training for children with ASD

Abstract

Introduction The functional limitations observed in people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may prevent independent participation in community settings. Learning everyday activities can increase the inclusive participation and quality of life of these people. Teaching strategies via professionals are described in the literature, while teaching via caregivers for these skills needs to be explored and becomes essential when considering that the increase in children with ASD is not accompanied by a proportional increase in qualified professionals, in addition to the fact that the parents deal directly with teaching these activities. Objective To elaborate and evaluate the application of a training package for caregivers of children with ASD, for teaching sandwich preparation and toothbrushing. Method Four caregivers participated. The teaching package included Instructional Video Modeling, Self-Monitoring, Delayed and Immediate Feedback. A performance accuracy criterion equal to or greater than 90% was adopted for two consecutive sessions. Results All caregivers showed an increase in performance accuracy after exposure to the training package components. One caregiver reached the accuracy criterion by going through just one component or a combination of them. Three caregivers necessarily needed to go through the combination of components and the feedback phases to reach the criterion. Conclusion Corroborating other studies, there was no significant difference in the performance of caregivers when comparing the components. As with previous studies, it is shown that the feedback phases played an important role in achieving the criterion. It is attested that the training package was satisfactory in teaching the caregivers.