Association for Behavior Analysis International

With the dissemination of knowledge on autism and applied behavior analysis (ABA) in French-speaking areas, individualized and intensive ABA programs are being developed. However, these programs are not offered fairly to everyone. That induces additional stress to parents and families. Parents are also requesting tools to cope with the disorder of their child and sustain its development. The objective of the symposium is to present three programs adapted or developed in France and in French Canada. These programs are evidence based and respond to specific needs of the parents in a context of lack of access to services. The program "Beyond ASD: Parental skills within my reach" is a support program, focusing on stress and coping strategies at the time of diagnosis. The parent training program "ABC of the behavior of children with ASD: parents in action!" is founded on ABA strategies, especially on pivotal responses training in order to promote the use of efficient strategies at home. Those two programs are implemented in health public services in France and French Canada. The last program is a parenting program for Latino-American families who immigrated to Montreal, in a French context. The communications will underline quantitative results, but also the social validity of the parenting programs, as they aim for the empowerment of families of children with ASD.

In France, psycho-educative programs intended for parents of a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are developing, but their effectiveness is not always assessed. This study aimed to assess the effects of a psycho-educative support program for parents of a child with ASD. "Beyond ASD: Parental skills within my reach" is a program designed to improve parents' knowledge, adaptive skills and quality of life. Several self-assessment measures were used before (pre-), just after (post-) and 6 months after (follow-up) the program, to investigatethe effects on parents' knowledge, transactional processes (e.g., stress), and quality of life. So far, 24 parents have benefited from the program in 3 hospital services. Preliminary results show that the program allowed an immediate and long lasting decrease in the parents' stress levels, as well as a significant improvement of their quality of life. The French Government, through a set of measures ("Plan Autisme") has clearly identified the major societal need to implement effective support interventions, to help parents of a child with ASD adapt to this disability.

Parent training programs (PTs) in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are known to reduce parenting stress, to improve a child's behavior, and to facilitate parent-child interactions. Few PTs are available to French speaking families. In order to provide them with this type of intervention, a French PT program based on applied behavior analysis (ABA) was developed. It is designed for parents who have a child with ASD and developmental delay. It is constituted of twelve bimonthly sessions and three individual home visits. The program was proposed in two French speaking areas, France and Qubec (French Canada). The social validity and efficacy of this new PT has been evaluated with forty parents (18 in France and 22 in Qubec). The program has high social validity, with no statistical difference between the two contexts on the specific measures (e.g. Therapy Attitude Inventory). The main efficacy results are better knowledge of ASD and behavioral intervention strategies for parents, an increase in communication skills for children, and a decrease of parental stress. This new French PT program seems to be a promising intervention as it has been successfully implemented in two French areas, with cultural differences and different service delivery Models.

Families with a child that has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), experience high level of stress (Rivard, Terroux, Parent-Boursier et Mercier, 2014; Ombudsman 2009). Families from ethnocultural minority have more barriers in the access, utilization and adherence to services (International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities, Special Interest Research Group, 2012). The aim of this presentation is to share the results of a project to evaluate the effects of a parenting program for Latino-American families who immigrated to Montreal (French implementation context). This research is conducted with two cohorts of families for a total of 15 participants. To evaluate the effect of the program, measurements are taken three times (pre and post-intervention, and follow up measure). The first part of this presentation will explore the importance of offering support programs for these families. Then we will explain the Positive Family Intervention program (Durand, Hieneman, 2008). Finally, we present the results of this program regarding families stress, child behavior and the social validity of the program.