Parent Training Program with a Child Component Helps Preschoolers

Barbara Geller, MD

An 8-week program has multiple positive effects, for both parents and children, including reduced parental stress and increased child cognitive skills.

In imaging studies, early parental nurturance was associated with larger hippocampal size (Neuroimage 2010; 49:1144). Based on these findings, investigators hypothesized that a training program with components for parents and children (P&C) that focused on selective attention would significantly improve preschoolers' cognition. They conducted a randomized, controlled, 8-week, three-arm study in 141 children, all enrolled in a standard Head Start program (HS), who were of lower socioeconomic status, predominantly white, and aged 3 to 5 years.

Study arms were HS only, add-on P&C, or add-on Attention Boost for Children (ABC). The weekly, 2-hour P&C sessions trained parents and children separately; topics for parent sessions included stress reduction and parental responsiveness. ABC, a child-oriented skills training program with a small parent component, involved sessions at school that lasted 40 minutes per day, four days per week.

The P&C group showed significantly greater improvement than ABC or HS groups on the main outcome measures of change in event-related potential (a measure of early selective attention), nonverbal IQ, and receptive language (but not preliteracy skills). Regarding secondary outcomes, P&C children's problem behaviors and social skills improved, but only on parent (not teacher) ratings. Post-intervention, P&C parents rated themselves as less stressed than HS-only parents. Study observers of parent-child dyads found significantly better turn-taking in P&C parents.

Citation(s):

Neville HJ et al. Family-based training program improves brain function, cognition, and behavior in lower socioeconomic status preschoolers. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2013 Jul 18; 110:12138.