Parent training in groups: Pilot study with parents of infants with developmental delay

This paper describes an innovative 8-week parent-child interaction skills t raining group for parents of infants with developmental delay. We developed the "Skill Building Group" within an attachment theory framework. Parents actively learned skills in sensitive responding to infant cues through smal l and large group discussion of video segments of common parenting challeng es, homework assignments, and peer support. We conducted a pilot study comp aring 12 participants and 5 controls on several self-report pre-test/post-t est measures. Results for the intervention group indicated decreases in dys functional parent-child interaction, parental distress, sadness/depression, and follow-up service utilization, and high levels of consumer satisfactio n. For the comparison group, pre-post differences were not significant.