Objective: Scales for evaluating the teaching and behavioural skills of parents enrolled in aural and oral rehabilitation programs for children with hearing loss are lacking. This study developed and validated scales for assessing parental teaching and behavioural skills of those parents for use in guiding their child to develop language and communication skills.
Design: Scales were constructed and evaluated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The performance of parents in teaching and behavioural skills was also explored.
Study sample: The teaching and behavioural skills of 344 parents (179 for scale development and 165 for validation) were rated by their intervention therapists using parental teaching skill (PTS) and parental behavioural skill (PBS) scales.
Results: Good reliability and model fit (validity) were observed for both scales, which ultimately included 13 and 10 items, respectively. Maternal educational level was a significant indicator of their performance ratings.
Conclusions: The PTS and PBS scales were validated and can be used by early intervention professionals to evaluate the relative interaction and behavioural skills of parents of children with hearing loss, and enrolled in listening and spoken language intervention programs.
Keywords: Early intervention; behavioural skill; hearing loss; parent-child interaction; teaching skill.