Effects and Social Validation of Remote Parent Training and Implementation of the Cool Versus Not Cool Behavior Intervention

Abstract

Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience challenges with social skill interactions that may affect their quality of life. Given that parents are often the most frequent and constant presence in their child’s life, parents serve a vital role in their child’s social and behavioral development. For this reason, children may substantially benefit from effective and efficient parent-implemented behavior intervention to teach social skills. Using a multiple-baseline design, the Cool versus Not Cool (CNC) behavior intervention was taught via telehealth to three parents of adolescent-aged males with ASD. Parents then subsequently implemented the CNC intervention to teach parent-selected social skills to their children. For all three parent–adolescent dyads, the CNC behavior intervention was implemented with fidelity by parents, and adolescents showed intervention gains. Findings maintained and generalized during probes and social validity outcomes reported by both parents and adolescents were favorable.