Background and purpose: Children with autism disorder from early childhood are often confronting with cognitive and behavioral problems such as problems with eating, dressing, linguistic relation, and motor activity. The purpose of this study is determining the effectiveness of training applied behavior analysis to the parents of children with autism in increasing self-help of children with autism.

Method: Design of present study is experimental with pretest, posttest and control group.  The population includes all parents of pre-school and primary school children with autism in Tehran in 1394 year. Sampling was done through simple random sampling and 30 Participants (15 in experimental group and 15 in the control group) were assigned randomly. Participants before and after training responded to Vineland Social Maturity Scale (1953) and Garz list (1994). Applied Behavior Analysis was taught to parents of children to use this method to increase self-help skills of their children. The intervention program was held for 10 half-hour sessions on experimental group. Univariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data.

Results: The results of covariance analysis showed there is significant difference in experimental group comparing to control group in self-help in children after intervention of applied behavior analysis to parents. (p<0.001)

Conclusion: Due to high stress parents of children with autism and low self-help of children with autism, training of applied behavior analysis program and strengthen communication skills is necessary. Results’ implications are discussed.