Effectiveness of home-based responsive teaching (RT) early intervention program on children with autism spectrum disorder and their mothers

Studies on child development shows that parent behavior has very significant influences on child development. Especially during the early years of childhood, the positive effects of sensitive and responsive parents on children's cognitive, communicative and social-emotional development are six times more than non-sensitive and non-responsive parents. These positive effects are true for children with normal development as well as premature or children at-risk for disabilities. Therefore, researchers suggest the development and implementation of programs to improve the quality of the interactions between children and mothers who are usually the principal caregivers. One of the programs that aim to improve the quality of parent-child interaction by teaching the parents how to use the responsive interaction strategies is called "Responsive Teaching (RT)" program. Although there are studies that demonstrate that RT has positive effects on children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their mothers, they are numerous clauses. Thus, this study aims to scrutinize the effects of RT on children diagnosed with ASD and their mothers. In addition, views of the participant mothers were recorded. The study was conducted as individual sessions with six children diagnosed with ASD aged between 3 and 5, and their mothers in their own residences where the child, the mother and a practitioner were present. A weekly session was organized with the mother-child couple and the study was completed within an average of 12 weeks. In the study designed using mixed research method, both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques were utilized. The interaction behaviors of mothers and children were evaluated according to single group pretest-posttest design and using Turkish Versions of MBRS and CBRS scales and the existence of a significant difference between the pretest and posttest was scrutinized. Furthermore, the effects of the program on mothers and their children were studied using qualitative data collection techniques such as video analysis, observation, field notes, diaries and interviews. Both quantitative and qualitative findings of the study demonstrated that RT program had positive effects on interactional behaviors of the participating six children with autism spectrum disorder and their mothers. Furthermore qualitative findings showed that certain changes took place in developmental behavior of the participating children. In semi-structured interviews with mothers, they expressed positive views on their interaction with their children and about the RT program. Keywords: Parent-child interaction, RT, autism spectrum disorder, responsive interaction