Parent coaching to enhance community participation in young children with developmental disabilities: A pilot randomized controlled trial

Background: Parent coaching emerges as a preferred approach for enhancing performance and participation of children with developmental disabilities (DD), but limited clinical trials examine its effects on community participation. Aim: To evaluate whether parent coaching, specifically using Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC), enhances community participation among young children with DD. Method and procedures: A pilot double-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted. Parents of 50 children with DD (31 male, 19 female, mean age 4 years 10 months) were randomly assigned to the OPC group (n = 25) or parent consultation group (n = 25). Each parent received a maximum of eight coaching sessions or consultations. The primary outcome was children's community participation as assessed through parent-report measures at baseline, pre-intervention, post-intervention, and an 8-week follow-up. Outcomes and results: Both groups showed significant improvements in parent-identified, goal-specific community participation after the intervention (mean difference [MD]=2.26–2.56), and these improvements were sustained during the follow-up. Despite a trend favoring parent coaching, the group difference in the improvements was not evident (MD=0.18–0.28). Both groups displayed positive improvements in children's overall community involvement post-intervention (MD=0.32); however, the time effects were not statistically significant. Conclusions and implications: OPC, by coaching parents, could enhance goal-specific community participation in children with DD, producing effects similar to those achieved through parent consultation.