Listening to Build Rapport: Developing and Evaluating a Virtual Training Package to Teach Community Practitioners Active Listening Skills

Abstract

Transition-aged autistic youth experience unique challenges (e.g., developing and maintaining social relationships) during the transition to adulthood, and their parents do too (e.g., significant physical and emotional health stressors). Transitioning Together (TT) is an effective family-focused 8-week group psychoeducational program that supports autistic youth and their parents during this transition. While TT facilitators participate in TT Clinical Implementation Training, additional practitioner-targeted training opportunities may further enhance their TT delivery. In Study 1, the researchers interviewed previously trained TT facilitators to inform the development of an online training to complement the current TT training. Study 1 results indicated that establishing and maintaining rapport were important for TT delivery and that there are many strategies, including active listening, that we might teach facilitators to support the development and maintenance of rapport. In consultation with the TT program developers, the researchers developed an online active listening training that incorporated a behavioural skills training framework. In Study 2, the researchers used a concurrent multiple probe across participants design to assess the effectiveness of the online active listening training across three participants. In-vivo recorded observations were conducted to understand how effective the online training was at increasing the participants’ performance of active listening skills based on a predetermined criterion. All participants demonstrated an increase in performance accuracy following training. High acceptability was reported, and participants noted that they would use the active listening skills in their future practice. The clinical implications, strengths, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.