The World Health Organization (WHO), in partnership with Autism Speaks, has developed a Parent Skills Training (PST) for caregivers of 2-9 year old children with developmental disorders (DD) in low resource settings. The evidence-based PST teaches strategies to engage children in communication and play and promote adaptive behaviors and learning. This project will test PST in the low income country of Ethiopia by exploring the perspectives of Ethiopian caregivers and professionals on the PST program, developing a culturally and contextually appropriately adapted and translated version of the PST program for Ethiopia, assessing the acceptability and feasibility of the PST in urban and rural Ethiopian settings, and pre-testing outcome measures and providing a preliminary indication of the potential impact of the PST as groundwork for a future randomized controlled trial. This study is expected to generate evidence on how to best adapt and implement a scalable sustainable training program for caregivers of children with DD in a context of very low resources, low awareness and high stigma. The lessons learned can be applied when implementing the PST in similar settings around the world.
Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)
Autism Research Database (AFD)
