Parent Training in ABA Therapy: Why Parent Role Matters

When your child starts Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, you’re probably excited and eager to see your child’s progress during ABA sessions. You might not realize that your lead therapist, usually a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst—an expert trained to design and oversee ABA programs), will also offer parent training as part of your child’s treatment since ABA therapy works best as a team effort.

Your child’s ABA therapy team consists of your child, you as the parent, your child’s BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst, who leads the program), the RBTs (Registered Behavior Technicians, staff who deliver one-on-one therapy), and other members of your family and community. When everyone on the team knows the role they’re playing, everyone wins, especially your child. You might wonder, then, what exactly your role is, and what’s expected of you.

Without putting too much pressure on you, I’d like to suggest that parents are kind of like the head coaches of their ABA teams. You have the incredible insight and agency to guide the team where it needs to go. You’re not doing it alone, though, and you can pull in your assistant coaches (BCBA, teachers, therapists, and other family members) any time for a huddle to ensure everyone is working towards the same goal.

In this article, we’ll explore what parent training looks like, why it’s important, and how to make the most of your child’s ABA therapy. Lasting practical changes require active and coordinated effort from everyone on your team. Parent training strengthens consistency and empowers your family.

What Is Parent Training in ABA Therapy?

Parent training is referred to by different names, including parent coaching, parent guidance, or similar terms, but they all serve the same basic purpose. Parent training has three main goals:

1. Education – Parents learn about the principles of ABA, technical terms, and why certain skills matter. Some ABA techniques may not be intuitive, as they are based on the science of behavior. Your child’s BCBA or ABA supervisor should explain the science or strategies so you understand the reasons behind the methods.
2. Collaboration – Your ABA team also needs to learn from you, since you are the expert on your child. They need to know your child’s likes and dislikes, favorite activities and toys, and which situations could trigger behavioral concerns. Your team should be aware of how your child performs outside of sessions and whether they can apply new skills in their daily routines. If you don’t see progress, your feedback can inform changes to ABA goals.
3. Generalization – It’s great if your child does well during ABA therapy, but your ABA therapists can’t always be there to support your child. For example, if your child learns to ask for what they want in ABA sessions but not elsewhere, that’s a concern. Ideally, skills should carry over into daily life—this is called generalization, meaning your child can use learned skills in new situations or environments. ABA sessions teach practical skills so your child can use them at home, school, and in the community.

Why Parent Training Matters

Generalization is vital to your child’s long-term success. For this to happen, key players must consistently respond to your child and create opportunities to practice new skills outside of ABA sessions.

Suppose there’s a 5-year-old named Troy who recently learned to use his iPad to make requests during ABA sessions. He does not yet speak verbally. Troy still needs reminders to carry his iPad and often needs prompting to make a request. Currently, his ABA team only uses gestural and verbal prompts. For example, an adult points to the iPad screen and asks, “What do you want?” Troy can then press the icon for food, drink, toy, or bathroom.

At school, Troy’s teacher is unaware of what the ABA team does at home. Troy forgets to carry his iPad during the day, and then he starts crying when he needs to communicate. His teacher finds his iPad, but she doesn’t know Troy needs someone to prompt him before he can make a request. His teacher later tells his mom that he doesn’t use the iPad to communicate at school.

This is where parent training can make all the difference. Troy’s mom uses the iPad with Troy outside of sessions because the BCBA taught her the approach used in ABA sessions. She knows Troy needs reminders to carry the iPad and prompts, such as pointing to the screen and asking, “What do you want/need?” Troy’s mom describes to the teacher exactly what she does at home so the teacher can follow the same steps at school. A few weeks later, Troy’s teacher reports that he uses the iPad at school and cries less often. His mother feels proud and excited, knowing she applied what she learned in parent training to help her son generalize his skills at school.

Although this is a fictional example, it illustrates how small successes can help parents gain confidence and advocate for meaningful changes on behalf of their child.

As a clinician, I’ve seen the best outcomes when families are deeply involved in their child’s ABA therapy. Families who attend sessions, participate in parent training, and seek support at school experience the most success. These parents were open to learning, asked for clarification, and actively sought help in areas where they and their child struggled.

What Parents Learn During Training

During parent training, you’ll learn different ABA skills and concepts, based on your progress. Early on, you’ll likely explore common basic ABA concepts. Here are just a few examples:

1. Reinforcement – Often called a “reward,” reinforcement is something presented to your child to encourage desired behavior. For example, if your child reaches toward a favorite toy and you give it to her, you’ve reinforced the reaching behavior. Your child will likely continue to reach for things they want in the future.
   
   Another example is potty training. When your child sits on the potty for the first time, you might say, “Good job!” or “Yay, you’re sitting on the potty!” If your child enjoys praise, you’ve reinforced the behavior of sitting on the potty. However, if they don’t care about praise, then a different type of reinforcer might be needed (giving her favorite toys or iPad while sitting on the potty).
   
   Reinforcement plays a major role in ABA therapy because it’s what motivates your child to learn new skills. Your parent training sessions will also address the concept of reinforcement, so you can learn how to recognize and create motivation for your child to learn.
   
2. Prompting – We’ve already encountered prompting in Troy’s example above. You can think of prompts as cues that direct your child’s attention to focus on a task. Common prompts include physical, gestural, and verbal prompts. Physical prompts use touch, like guiding a hand. Gestural prompts use gestures, such as pointing or tapping. Verbal prompts involve spoken instructions or questions, like “Which one do you want?”
   
   During parent training, you’ll learn about the different types of prompting your ABA team uses during sessions, so you can apply the same prompts at home to teach skills such as brushing teeth, washing hands, and other important tasks. Over time, your ABA team will fade prompts until your child can complete the task independently.
   
3. Functional Communication Training (FCT) – All behavior is functional, meaning that it serves a purpose. When a child engages in concerning behaviors, such as self-injury, aggression towards others, or prolonged tantrums, it’s typically (though not always) due to a lack of communication skills. Put simply, FCT teaches a communication response that your child can use instead of the concerning behavior, allowing them to access what they want. For example, if a child engages in a tantrum when they’re finished eating dinner and want to leave the table, teaching them to ask appropriately to leave instead of engaging in a tantrum would be considered functional communication.

Of course, each of these skills introduced during parent training will shift depending on your child’s age, skill level, and identified goals. For example, reinforcement will look very different for an advanced learner than it does for an early learner. The more advanced learner may have a token system that they use to earn reinforcers throughout the week, or they may even have a behavioral contract that outlines what is expected of them and the reinforcers that they can earn if they uphold their end of the contract. In contrast, earlier learners require immediate access to reinforcers in the moment to ensure that the connection between their behavior and the reinforcer is crystal clear.

In parent training sessions, your BCBA or ABA supervisor will tailor parent training goals to your child’s specific level and your current skillset.

How Parent Training Sessions Work

You may be wondering what to expect for your first parent training session and what parent training looks like. Parent training takes several forms – some of it may be formal meetings to review specific ABA principles and to review your child’s data to track progress and troubleshoot issues you’re having outside of sessions. You may also be asked to provide input to guide goal-setting and program changes.

Part of parent training involves learning how to support your child’s learning. To this end, your BCBA may demonstrate the skill they want to teach you and then offer you a chance to practice it with your child, allowing your BCBA to provide feedback. Alternatively, your BCBA may provide coaching in the moment when behavior concerns arise spontaneously during sessions. They may also offer suggestions on how to create opportunities for your child to practice a specific skill.

One of the best things about ABA parent training is that it’s designed to teach you specific behaviors – so you should receive hands-on training. Behavioral Skills Training (BST) is a valuable tool used in ABA to teach caregivers and staff specific skills. BST has several components: modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. During modeling, the BCBA will demonstrate the skill by performing it themselves. During rehearsal, you’ll have a chance to practice it with the BCBA before you implement the skill with your child. Then, the BCBA can provide feedback so you know if you did it correctly or if you need more practice. From there, the BCBA can then observe you implement the skill in real life with your child to ensure you know how to use it when you’re on your own at home.

Overcoming Common Concerns

You might be feeling somewhat anxious or hesitant about starting parent training, and that’s understandable. It’s new, it can be a lot of work, and you might not feel confident about your ability to commit due to lack of time or uncertainty about your own skills. You may even feel fear of judgment, or that you’re not a good parent if you don’t know how to use the ABA techniques that you’ll be learning in parent training. If this is you, then you can rest assured that most parents come into ABA not knowing anything about it, and it’s also your therapist’s job to teach you and reassure you along the way.

Again, ABA is not always intuitive, so there’s no way you or any parent would or should know everything you’ll learn about it in parent training. A good BCBA will sit down and discuss these concerns with you in a compassionate and understanding manner. If you have concerns about the time commitment, discuss this with your BCBA so you can both troubleshoot and create a plan for parent training that focuses on the most important skills.

Remember, a little goes a long way over time. Even if you’re only working on applying one or two skills outside of ABA sessions, over time, that will add up. It’s more important to learn to do one or two things well rather than being overloaded with information that you can’t possibly implement all at once. Both you and your BCBA should be aware of and set realistic expectations for parent training from the beginning.

Applying Strategies at Home

Let’s use some of the basic concepts mentioned above to talk about how you can embed some strategies into everyday activities – reinforcement, prompting, and FCT.

• Catch your child being good – During mealtimes, play, or during transitions that are typically difficult for them, see if you can notice when your child is behaving well, whether that’s using a fork to eat food instead of throwing it to the ground, playing peacefully alongside siblings, or following instructions to get ready for school. Verbally praise them and note specifically what you like to see them doing. If you know your kiddo doesn’t care for verbal affirmations, then you could use some other type of reinforcer – whether that’s physical touch, undivided attention, or even offering them their favorite foods. The goal is to reward the behavior you want to see in the moment it’s happening.
• Prompt functional communication – During challenging times of the day, help your child by prompting functional communication that has worked in ABA sessions. I’d recommend sticking with familiar prompt phrases rather than unfamiliar ones. For example, if your child is able to ask for ‘more time’ before transitioning from a preferred activity (like screentime) to a non-preferred activity (like homework) during ABA sessions, then you can prompt a similar response during bedtime transitions. If your child refuses to get ready for bed or starts showing signs of escalation, prompt them to ask for ‘more time’ before getting ready for bed, and honor the request if your child asks for it appropriately. Using timers to limit the amount of time can also be helpful, along with countdown warnings, so your child knows when to expect the transition to begin.

Key Takeaways for Parents

Parent training isn’t about learning everything about the science of ABA. It’s also not about being a perfect parent, but it is about learning the specific things you need to know in order to help your child grow.

• ABA is a team effort. Everyone on your team shares the same goal: helping your child succeed.
• Showing up consistently is more important than doing everything perfectly. Remember the parable of the tortoise and the hare – the tortoise wins every time.
• Feedback isn’t criticism, it’s how we all learn. If something isn’t working, let your team know and try an alternative approach.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, participation, curiosity, and a willingness to try new approaches will carry you far along the road of your ABA journey. Practicing what you learn outside of parent training sessions is one of the best ways to support your child’s long-term progress. Remember that you’re not alone, and parent training isn’t just a professional telling you what to do; it’s an evolving dialogue with your BCBA that’s built on trust, collaboration, and teamwork.

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