Using School-Home Communication to Reduce Problem Behaviors in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Parent-school communication is a highly valued type of involvement for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but parents continue to report poor communication as a barrier to working with the schools on behalf of their children. Although sometimes informally addressed using school-home notes, no research has examined the effects of such home-school communication interventions for children with ASD. Using a multiple-baseline design, I evaluated the effectiveness of a school-home note and home-based contingent reinforcement in decreasing the off-task behavior of students with ASD at school. I also evaluated secondary effects on parent involvement and compared teacher-reported and researcher-reported data on changes in student behavior. Finally, I evaluated social validity to consider the feasibility and acceptability of this teacher- and parent-implemented intervention. With two demonstrations of effects based on both researcher-collected and teacher-collected data, I was unable to demonstrate a functional relation between the school-home note intervention and reductions in students’ off-task behavior. Parents and teachers also did not report quantitative changes in involvement. However, parents and teachers reported high social validity for the school-home note and home-based contingent reinforcement. Implications for practice and future research, as well as limitations are discussed.