Family-centered care represents a collaborative partnership between caregivers and service providers, and is associated with positive caregiver and child outcomes. This approach may be especially important for caregivers with early concerns about autism, as service providers are often the gateway to appropriately-specialized intervention.…

School psychologists familiar with the autism evaluation process have an awareness of the complexity of this school-based process. This paper provides school clinicians with an introduction to a visual framework and descriptive language to think and talk about the complex students they evaluate in positive, nuanced, and accessible terms. This…

Auditory-visual conditional discrimination training (e.g., receptive identification training, listener responses; AVCD) is ubiquitous in early intervention and special education programs. Nevertheless, some learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) do not appear to benefit from this training despite use of empirically validated treatments. To…

Purpose: The purpose of this review article was to (a) scope the literature related to coaching caregivers of children with autism to provide an overview of current practices for assessment and intervention conducted via telepractice in collaboration with caregivers and (b) examine commonly reported challenges related to telepractice and potential…

This systematic review examined definitions of "nonverbal" or "minimally verbal" and assessment measures used to evaluate communication in intervention studies focusing on improving expressive verbal communication in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We reviewed sample size, number of participants, participant age,…

When assessed, treatment fidelity is most often evaluated by checklists of intervention steps after an observation session, though estimates can vary depending on how intervention steps are operationalized and rated. A more straightforward approach may involve the adoption of direct observation methods such as time sampling or event recording,…

The purpose of this study was to describe occupational therapy services for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and to identify continuing education needs. A self-administered questionnaire was structured with guidance from the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process, and was disseminated to 70 Jordanian occupational…

Many teachers and parents of young children with disabilities, particularly autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are familiar with young children who engage in repetitive and restrictive behaviors such as flapping, spinning, and rocking. This type of restrictive and repetitive behavior, or stereotypy, can be common, over time it can become problematic…

The rates of epilepsy among children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are higher than that of the general population. The exact prevalence and aetiology of the comorbidity of autism and epilepsy are not well understood; however, the connection is well-documented. This common comorbidity makes the treatment of epilepsy increasingly complex for…

Many speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are underprepared to serve children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), despite a growing need and increased expectation for ASD expertise. To understand this practice gap, 60 SLPs and 26 parents of children with ASDs were surveyed regarding SLP knowledge and competency. Of concern was that only about…

Increasing rates of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and younger age at diagnosis pose a challenge to preschool intervention systems. In Sweden, most young autistic children receive intervention service in community-based preschool programs, but no tool is yet available to assess the quality of the preschool learning environment. This study adapted…

The social and ecological validity of a body of research may impact the degree to which interventions will be used outside of research contexts. The purpose of this review was to determine the extent to which social and ecological validity were demonstrated for interventions designed to increase social skills for young children with autism…

Including animals in autism intervention is growing in both research and practice. A systematic literature review was conducted to collate and synthesize all empirical research on animal-assisted intervention (AAI) for autism published from 2012 to 2015. Findings from 28 included studies revealed that AAI programs generally include one animal per…

The provision of reinforcement to increase desired behaviors is a crucial element of behavior analytic intervention for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Formal preference assessments, like the multiple stimulus without replacement procedure (MSWO), are often used to determine reinforcers used during intervention. While…

This study aims to understand the difficulties and the problems which are shown up in usage of evaluation in persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We focused on the Pedagogical Evaluation of all sectors of Kindergarten's Curriculum by preschool early intervention programmes. The method used and the data collected are referred to a case…