Effectiveness of Parental Collaboration on Compliance with a Home Program

The effectiveness of parental collaboration in developing a home program for children with disabilities was examined. Eighteen children with visual and motor deficits (aged 3–1 3 years) and their families were randomly assigned to two groups. Ten families in the parental collaboration group (PC) collaborated with the investigator in the family's home to formulate a home program. Eight families in the comparison group (NPC) received a “therapist-prescribed” home program, taught to one parent at the child's school. Compliance with the 6-week home program was measured using a daily log kept by the parents. In examining the results it was indicated that the mean compliance was 80.3% for the PC group and 77.5% for the NPC group, a difference that was not significant. In both groups, compliance levels decreased over time, however, the trend was not significant for either group. Correlation statistics indicated a significant positive relationship between compliance and both Family Resource Scale scores and levels of gross motor goal attainment. The correlation between age of the child and compliance was not significant. The similarities in home program activities for each group and the difficulty some families had with the collaboration process may have influenced the results. Relatively high compliance scores may be attributed to the families' interest in doing a home program as well as the method used to report compliance. (Pediatr Phys Ther 1995;7:59–64)