Use of Consultation Tools in a Collaborative Approach to Supporting the Mother of a Child With a Developmental Disability

Abstract

In the present study, a collaborative approach involving consultation tools (Okamoto & Isawa, 2013; in Japanese) was used with a boy with a developmental disability and behavior problems. The boy was a 6th grader in an elementary school for children with special needs. Teachers at the school and his mother were included in the collaboration. One purpose of the present study was to investigate whether supplying effective support for his family through the collaborative approach using 4 types of consultation tools and related documents would be followed by reduction in the boy's behavior problems. Another purpose was to investigate whether his mother would continue to support him after the collaborative approach ended. Tool #1 was used to select 2 behavior problems, and tools #2, #3, and #4 were used to determine the procedures. The collaborative approach period lasted for approximately 8 months; information was obtained from the mother for 2 months after that. The results were as follows: According to each procedure, the boy's behavior problems decreased when effective support was provided in the family context. Even though his mother stopped recording his behavior problems after the collaborative approach ended, she continued to support her son. These results suggest that the conference tools contributed to designing supports that fit the boy's family context, and that the collaborative approach supported the mother's behavior and her exchange with the boy's teachers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)