Parent coaching to enhance community participation in young children with developmental disabilities: A pilot randomized controlled trial

Background

Parent coaching emerges as a preferred approach for enhancing performance and participation of children with developmental disabilities (DD), but limited clinical trials examine its effects on community participation.

Aim

To evaluate whether parent coaching, specifically using Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC), enhances community participation among young children with DD.

Method and procedures

A pilot double-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted. Parents of 50 children with DD (31 male, 19 female, mean age 4 years 10 months) were randomly assigned to the OPC group (n = 25) or parent consultation group (n = 25). Each parent received a maximum of eight coaching sessions or consultations. The primary outcome was children’s community participation as assessed through parent-report measures at baseline, pre-intervention, post-intervention, and an 8-week follow-up.

Outcomes and results

Both groups showed significant improvements in parent-identified, goal-specific community participation after the intervention (mean difference [MD]=2.26–2.56), and these improvements were sustained during the follow-up. Despite a trend favoring parent coaching, the group difference in the improvements was not evident (MD=0.18–0.28). Both groups displayed positive improvements in children’s overall community involvement post-intervention (MD=0.32); however, the time effects were not statistically significant.

Conclusions and implications

OPC, by coaching parents, could enhance goal-specific community participation in children with DD, producing effects similar to those achieved through parent consultation.