The social validity of autism behavioral intervention has been questioned. Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs) attempt to address some concerns, but it is unclear whether autistic people consider NDBIs socially valid. Social validity of an NDBI, Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT), was investigated through autistic adults…

Behavioral skills training (BST) is a performance- and competency-based training package composed of instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. Previous reviews have demonstrated that BST is an effective training package to teach interventionists to implement behavior analytic interventions (Kirkpatrick et al. in "Journal of Behavioral…

Many in the autistic community have expressed concerns regarding the use of behavioral interventions with autistic children, suggesting that these interventions may not be socially valid. Though behavioral interventions have evolved to be more naturalistic and child-centered, little structured research has been done to explicitly seek autistic…

Individuals with deaf-blindness and co-occurring diagnoses, such as intellectual and developmental disabilities, may experience difficulty with independence, specifically with communication. One behavior-analytic procedure that may be useful for increasing independence and teaching communication to this population is the behavior-chain…

Purpose: This quality improvement (QI) project evaluated the effectiveness of an educational intervention to enhance adult ADHD patients' understanding and acceptance of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) as an augmentative treatment. The goal was to encourage participants to pursue an MBCT referral from their provider. This initiative was…

Background: Almost no research has been published reporting on evaluations of the effectiveness of psychological interventions for people with severe to profound intellectual disabilities and depression. This paper describes the development and initial feasibility testing of an adapted Behavioural Activation therapy (BeatIt2) for this population.…

Background: Adults with mild-moderate intellectual disabilities have difficulties in accessing traditional evidence-based health promotion initiatives despite experiencing health disparities; yet there are few studies with this group and their carers exploring how their needs can be met. Method: This study adapted a behaviour change theory-based…

We used real world data to summarize comorbidities and interventions among patients newly diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Data were derived from two claims-based US healthcare databases; Medicaid and Optum to construct a retrospective cohort of 36,000 patients. Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder (ADHD) was the most common…

Restricted and repetitive behaviours (RRBs) are observed in many children presenting with characteristics of autism and are frequently the targets of psychological interventions. This study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to identify positive and negative interpretations from four young adults who received behavioural…

The present study aims to examine the effects of the MindfulTEA program, an Mindfulness-based Interventions (MBIs) specifically designed for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disability, to reduce behavioural problems. MBIs are effective in improving well-being in people with high-functioning ASD, but little is known…

In 2020 the Centers for Disease Control provided the public with recommendations to slow the spread of COVID-19 by wearing a mask in the community. In the current study, experimenters coached group home staff via telehealth to implement synchronous schedules of reinforcement to increase mask wearing for 5 adults with intellectual and developmental…

Over recent years, the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) has trended toward increased focus on improving the ethics and social validity of behavior analytic interventions. As part of this shift, ABA researchers and practitioners have begun to call long-held practices into question and seek alternative options. Despite their evidence base,…

Most anger management group programmes utilise Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness Based Treatments (MBTs) in their interventions. This study uses Transactional Analysis (TA) and mindfulness to help promote behavioural change. We explored participants' phenomenological change throughout a 10-week anger management programme. The…

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) may engage in challenging behavior. These behaviors present challenges to support staff who often lack training in effective behavior management procedures. Behavioral skills training (BST) is an empirically supported method of staff training and has been used to teach support staff a…

Background: As part of their care, adults with intellectual disabilities are often subject to restrictive interventions including restraint. Method: A review examining the prevalence of restraint use with people with intellectual disabilities and the characteristics associated with its use. Results: The seven papers identified used quantitative…