Abstract: The temperature and the size dependences of the self-trapping energy of a polaron in a GaAs parabolic quantum dot are investigated by the second order Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation method using the framework of the effective mass approximation. The numerical results show that the self-trapping energies of polaron in GaAs parabolic quantum dots shrink with the enhancement of temperature and the size of the quantum dot. The results also indicate that the temperature effect becomes obvious in small quantum dots