Dr Michelle Braithwaite

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• Dr Michelle Braithwaite
• Dr Deb Keen
• Dr Anne Jobling
• (School of Education)

• Dr Sylvia Rodger
• (School of Health
• Rehabilitation Sciences)

With support from Commonwealth Department of
Family and Community Services
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• Photo
• Strengthening the family and community networks
  of young children with ASD by increasing
  knowledge of best-practice and promoting the
  childs social, communication and behaviour
  skills within natural contexts and routines.

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Elements of Best Practice

• Family-centred practice
• Action research
• Natural contexts
• Evidence based practice
• Effective evaluation

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Family-centred practice

• Family-professional collaboration
• Family priorities/goals
• Individualising
• Family needs, strengths and resources
• Dunst, C. (2002). Family-centered practices
  Birth through high school. Journal of Special
  Education, 36, 139-148.
• Knox, M., Parmenter, T.R., Atkinson, N.
  Yazbeck, M. (2000). Family control - The views of
  families who have a child with a disability.
  Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual
  Disability 13, 17-28.

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2 day workshop
community session
home facilitation
family links
community links
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2-day workshop

• Both parents encouraged to attend
• Linking families
• Provision of information
• Positive, strengths-based approach

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Home facilitation

• Family is the expert
• Home-facilitator provides support to identify
  priorities and goals
• Suggest techniques to achieve goals
• Contribute to resilience of family system

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Identifying family priorities and goals

• Communication
• Play
• Self-care
• Behaviour

• Law, M., Baptiste, S., Carswell, A., McColl, M.,
  Polatajko, H., Pollock, N. (1998). Canadian
  Occupational Performance Measure Manual. (3rd
  ed.). Ottawa CAOT Publications.
• Rodger, S., Keen, D., Braithwaite, M. (2003).
  Modified Canadian Occupational Performance
  Measure (M-COPM). Adapted from Law et al. COPM.
  Brisbane, Australia Unpublished manuscript.

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Family links
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Community links
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Action Research Framework

• a process and method of learning and knowing
  through action and experience.
• Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R. (1988). The action
  research planner. 3rd rev.ed. Victoria Deakin
  University Press.

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Action research

• Action research has four stages which lead to
  another cycle of planning, acting, observing,
  reflecting.

Plan
Reflect
Act
Observe
Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R. (1988). The action
research planner. 3rd rev.ed. Victoria Deakin
University Press.
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Action research

• Cycle A pilot workshop (3 families)
  home-facilitation (1 family)
• Cycle B (6 families) - 2-day workshop,
  home-facilitation, community session trial
  research measures
• Cycle C (8 families) 2-day workshop,
  home-facilitation, community session, research
  measures
• Cycle D (8 families) as for Cycle C

cycle a
cycle b
cycle d
cycle c
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Research Questions - Child Outcomes

• Does the SF approach improve childs
  communication and symbolic behaviour? (Wetherby
  Prizant, 2002)
• Does SF approach achieve the goals set by parents
  for their child? (Law et al., 1998)
• Does SF approach increase childs initiations and
  responses to parent initiations? (analysis of
  video footage)
• Law, M., Baptiste, S., Carswell, A., McColl, M.,
  Polatajko, H., Pollock, N. (1998). Canadian
  Occupational Performance Measure Manual (3rd
  ed.). Ottawa CAOT Publications.
• Wetherby, A. M., Prizant, B. M. (2002).
  Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales
  Developmental Profile. Baltimore Paul H.
  Brookes.

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Research Questions - Parent Outcomes

• Does SF approach lead to an increase in parent
  knowledge about ASD?
• How family-centred do parents perceive the SF
  approach and project team to be? (King,
  Rosenbaum, King, 1995)
• Does SF approach impact on parenting sense of
  competence? (Johnston Mash, 1989)
• Does SF approach lead to improved parent
  interaction techniques?
• Johnston, C., Mash, E. J. (1989). A measure of
  parenting satisfaction and efficacy. Journal of
  Clinical Child Psychology, 18, 167-175.
• King, S., Rosenbaum, P., King, G. (1995). The
  Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC). Hamilton
  McMaster University and CanChild.

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Measure of family-centredness

• MPOC measures how family-centred parents perceive
  the services they are provided to be.
• 56 item self-report questionnaire rated on 7
  point scale.
• 5 subscales Enabling Partnership, Providing
  General Information, Providing Specific
  Information, Coordinated Comprehensive Care,
  Respectful Supportive Care.
• King, S., Rosenbaum, P., King, G. (1995). The
  Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC). Hamilton
  McMaster University and CanChild.

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Where to from here?

• Training package
• available late 2004 distributed to support
  groups and relevant organisations

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Where to from here?

• Source further funding to extend service and
  continue research
• Comparison groups
• Extend to more families and children
• Develop for older children (preschool age)

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Contact details

• Collaborative Research on Autism and Related
  Disorders and Stronger Families ASD Project
• School of Education
• The University of Queensland
• St Lucia Q 4072
• Ph. [phone]
• E-mail m.braithwaite1_at_uq.edu.au
• Web www.uq.edu.au/education/
• (click on research activities)