What is Child-Directed Interaction? Evaluating the use of Jeopardy to Increase Child-Directed Interaction Knowledge Retention

Abstract

In recent years Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) has continued to grow and evolve as an empirically supported treatment for children with disruptive behavior disorders. As a result of this growth, PCIT International has set forth a training protocol for mental health providers to learn PCIT techniques. However, there is a relative lack of research demonstrating how and why these training protocols work, or how they could be improved. The present studies seek to investigate the utility of using the game Jeopardy to review Child-Directed Interaction (CDI) information given during a didactic lecture. Study 1 addressed the effect of using Jeopardy in an upper level undergraduate classroom following a live lecture. In an extension of this method, Study 2 explored the utility of Jeopardy in small groups of undergraduates following a recorded lecture. Results of both Study 1 and Study 2 demonstrate that participants who reviewed CDI information using Jeopardy did not significantly differ from participants assigned to the review as usual (RAU) groups. Implications for the format of PCIT training workshops and future directions are discussed.