A professional who instructs parent of mentally- and physically-handicapped children in therapy techniques and behavior modification. Responsibilities include:

• Observes and plays with child and confers with child's parents and other professionals periodically to obtain information relating to child's mental and physical development.
• Evaluates child's responses to determine levels of child's physical and mental development.
• Determines parent's ability to comprehend and apply therapeutic and behavior modification techniques and parent's social and emotional needs to formulate teaching plan.
• Develops individual teaching plan covering self-help, motor, social, cognitive, and language skills development for parents to implement in home.
• Instructs parents individually or in groups in behavior modification, physical development, language development, and conceptual learning exercises and activities.
• Revises teaching plan to correspond with child's rate of development.
• Counsels parents and organizes groups of parents in similar situations to provide social and emotional support for parents.
• Refers parents and child to social service agencies and facilities for additional services and financial assistance.
• Consults and coordinates plans with other professionals.
• Teaches preschool subjects, such as limited vocabulary sign language and color recognition, to children capable of learning such subjects.