A Review of Parent Training in Child Interventions: Applications to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Children with High-Functioning Autism

The number of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) diagnoses is increasing rapidly, indicating a need for multi-faceted interventions. The addition of a parent training component to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been effectively used to treat a variety of psychological disorders in children to support generalization of skills and to reduce the burden of intensive therapy by using parents as cotherapists. We review these treatments as applied to childhood anxiety, oppositional/conduct, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity problems, as well as ASD-specific treatments that combine CBT with a parent component. The Stress and Anger Management Program, a 9-week emotion regulation treatment for school-aged children with high-functioning ASD, is described here as one example of a group CBT intervention that includes parent training.