Adapting parent -child interaction therapy to train Head Start teachers in behavior management

Efforts toward greater inclusion of children with a range of presenting problems have resulted in increasingly more children with difficult behavior in non-specialized classrooms. Unfortunately, teachers report that they have not been trained adequately to work with children who exhibit extreme behaviors. It is important, therefore, that effective methods of training teachers are empirically investigated. In clinical settings, strategies for training parents of young children with disruptive behavior disorders have substantial empirical support. Therefore, using these techniques to train teachers is a logical step. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy is one empirically validated parent training approach that uses coaching as a means of training behavior management skills. In this study, we examined whether a 2-hour training of the skills taught in this parent training program could be used to train teachers in Head Start classrooms, and whether direct coaching resulted in greater teacher skill acquisition and child behavior change than didactic instruction alone. A multiple baseline design across classrooms was used to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing an adapted version of PCIT and the additive benefit of coaching over didactic instruction. Overall, the findings of this study did not support the effectiveness of a 2-hour training in either didactic or coaching formats for either teacher skill acquisition or child behavior change. Directions for future research are suggested