Managing behaviour and sleep problems in disabled children: An investigation into the effectiveness and costs of parent-training interventions

The research reported here is the second, and larger, element of a project on behavioural

interventions for parents of disabled children regarding their child’s sleep or day-time

behaviour.

The first element of this project comprised two rapid, systematic reviews of the evidence on

the effectiveness of behavioural interventions to help parents of disabled children manage

their child’s sleep or day-time behaviour problems (McDaid and Sloper, 2008; Beresford,

2009). The reports of these two reviews can be found in Appendix A. Both reviews

concluded that there was evidence to suggest that parent-training interventions based on

behaviour theory and behaviour modification principles may, for at least some parents of

disabled children, be effective.

The conclusions drawn regarding the state of existing evidence by these two reports are also

similar: the current evidence base is weak, and particularly compared to the very substantial

evidence-base regarding the parenting interventions for parents of non-disabled children. In

particular, there is a lack of studies with a control or comparison group, and which have

sought to measure longer-term intervention effects. The report also called for studies to test

the clinical, as well as statistical, significance of their findings. Finally, they note the absence

of qualitative evidence on parents’ experiences of receiving such interventions.

The second element of this project, and the focus of this report, was informed by the findings

of these reviews. The following aims were identified for this second element:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of four different parent-training interventions for parents of

disabled children with sleep problems.

• To evaluate the effectiveness of four different parent-training interventions for parents of

disabled children (learning difficulties and/or autistic spectrum disorders) with behaviour

problems.

• To identify the costs of these interventions and explore their cost effectiveness.

• To explore the factors which hinder or support the effectiveness of these interventions.

• To describe parents’ experiences of receiving these interventions.

• To describe professionals’ experiences of delivering these interventions