Japanese Parents’ Experiences with Home-Based Interventions of Applied Behavior Analysis for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

This study involved qualitative analyses of the benefits and difficulties of providing home-based Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for Japanese parents of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). An open-ended questionnaire survey was administered to 35 parents of children with autism who were implementing home-based ABA. The mean age of the parents was 38.7 years old (SD = 3.80), and the time since initiation of home-based ABA was 25.5 months (SD = 19.58). The mean age of the children with ASD was 64.5 months old (SD = 37.7). Data were analyzed using the KJ method of qualitative analysis. The benefits of implementing home-based ABA were related to growth of the parents themselves and child development. Identified difficulties included balancing work and household responsibilities and psychological problems. These findings were then compared with similar previous studies to discuss support for families implementing in-home ABA programs.