Online Independent Intervention Program Training for Parents of Children with Autism: An Evaluation

Independent Intervention Program (IIP) Training or Pelatihan Program Intervensi Mandiri (PIM©©) is an Indonesian training model designed to develop parents’ ability in intervening the social skill of their children with autism. The offline training, however, came with some limitations; it had limited number of participants—all coming locally and were only accessible on certain time slots. As a response to these limitations, the IIP training is held online. The research began with spreading of the information regarding the training, analyzing the registered individuals, and appointing them participants when the main criterion is fulfilled: the participant must be a parent of a child with autism. Out of 84 registered individuals, 11 participants were selected, all agreeing to follow through all the training steps. The effectivity of the training was measured using a self-evaluation questionnaire for the participants, as well as evaluation given by instructors. Based on the findings, the online IIP training comes with several advantages: 1) improving parents’ knowledge and ability regarding the intervention on the social skill of their children with autism; 2) having a wider target of participants compared to its offline counterpart; 3) in terms of time and place, offering greater flexibility for participants to access materials for the training. As an implication of the evaluation result, a new strategy is needed to ease online interaction process between instructors and parents in planning the intervention program and implementing it on their children.