Using video feedback as a tool in training parent coaches: promising results from a single-subject design

The Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) parenting program focuses on three intervention targets: increasing parental nurturance, increasing parental synchrony, and decreasing parental frightening behavior. Parent coaches are expected to comment “in the moment” when behaviors relevant to these three targets are observed in sessions. Making in the moment comments is a challenging aspect of intervention, and parent coaches have struggled with their fidelity to this critical intervention component. Thus, we developed a system for coding the frequency and quality of comments from video-recorded session clips on a statement-by-statement level. To help parent coaches refine and maintain their skills in making such comments, they are taught to code segments of their own video-recorded sessions, with the expectation that gains would be seen in comments after learning to code. In this paper, we describe the fidelity coding system and present initial results from a year-long, single-subject design examining the effects of video feedback coding for a parent coach who was learning the intervention. We observed an increase in frequency of in the moment comments during the period of video feedback coding, consistent with a training effect.