This paper has discussed briefly the reactions of families to caring for a developmentally disabled child. We have stressed the need for assistance to the parents in working with the child's developmental problems, primarily in the areas of home adjustment, discipline, communication, play, and other adaptive components of the child's life. The advantages of teaching parents behavioral methods of helping their children learn alternative behavior are stressed. A program designed to prepare nurses to function as group leaders of parent behavior management classes is described, with further emphasis on the establishment and teaching of the parent groups. Increasing the number of well-prepared personnel in the area of teaching groups of parents behavioral techniques contributes to alleviating the present lack of manpower in the field. Nurses, working in the community, can be most instrumental in providing direct and indirect care to the developmentally disabled child and his family. The skills acquired by those professionals can also be utilized in additional areas. Child-rearing parent classes could be established in well-child clinics, child guidance clinics, preschool settings, and community housing projects, with prevention of future, complex behavioral problems as one possible outcome. By training parents in these areas, the parents’ competence and confidence to deal effectively with present and future problems are increased. The ultimate outcome of training parents to function as therapeutic agents is that they learn what creates, maintains, and eliminates adaptive and maladaptive behavior. The thrust of the described program is that by teaching and developing nurses as parent group leaders, they share these same objectives. The nurses function in many community settings where the possibilities of utilizing group and behavioral skills are limited only by imagination and endeavor.