Discrete trial training is a popular teaching method for individuals with autism, but is not easily implemented with fidelity due to its complexity. This is the first meta-analysis of single-case experimental design studies to quantify the impact of behavioral skills training on individuals' ability to implement discrete trials with fidelity.…

Discrete trial training is a popular teaching method for individuals with autism, but it is not easily implemented with fidelity due to its complexity. This is the first meta-analysis of single-case experimental design studies to quantify the impact of behavioral skills training on individuals' ability to implement discrete trials with fidelity.…

Given that more paraprofessionals are hired to deliver one-on-one intervention to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) under the auspices of behavioral health agencies, it is important that these paraprofessionals receive adequate supervision to support their implementation of high quality intervention while often working alone without…

This article reviews the recent empirical literature on the various parental factors that detract from the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral treatment for children with anxiety. Interventions such as treating parental anxiety and increasing parental involvement in the therapeutic process may combat these factors. Newer strategies such as…

The article reviews behavioral intervention research with the handicapped, focusing on the analysis of subject, setting, and procedural factors that influence the outcome of behavior modification. Behavior enhancement procedures (e.g., tactile and sensory reinforcement, contracting, and modeling) and behavior reduction procedures (e.g., extinction…

Compared the relative efficacy of stimulus control and imagery training with a wait-list control condition for treating 21 sleep-maintenance insomniacs. Stimulus control was more effective than either imagery training or no treatment in reducing both the frequency and duration of night-time awakenings, though training showed substantial reductions…

Assessments of consultants, clients, and consumer satisfaction were used to examine the effects of a competency-based consultation training program conducted over 4 years. Using a multiple-baseline framework to assess training effects on consultants and single-case study designs to evaluate changes in client behavior, a number of significant…

This report examines issues concerned with the use of aversive behavior modification techniques in actual treatment practices at one intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded. The review of these practices reveals how, once the philosophy of using aversives takes hold at a program (to deal with seemingly intractable behaviors), its…

An alternating treatments design was used to compare gentle teaching, visual screening, and a task-training condition in the reduction of high-level stereotypy of three persons (aged 7, 21, and 28) with mental retardation. Visual screening produced the greatest and most consistent decrease, while gentle teaching was found to have limited…

This study compared selection of a preferred reinforcing stimulus just prior to a training session by either the trainer or subject with profound developmental disabilities. Results obtained with four adult subjects indicated little or no difference in reinforcement effects when reinforcing stimuli were selected by subjects rather than trainers.…

Compared responses of Type A people who received either cognitive-behavioral or values-clarification treatment in combination with anxiety management training (AMT) with those of a control group that received AMT alone, all blocked on the variable of self-monitoring. Type A behavior was reduced in all participants wih anxiety significantly…

Two children with mental retardation were trained to emit different communication responses to request the reinforcer for destructive behavior and an alternative reinforcer. Differential reinforcement of communication reduced destructive behavior regardless of whether a functional reinforcer or an alternative reinforcer was available or whether…

Adaptive inferential feedback (AIF) partner training is a cognitive technique that teaches the friends and family members of depressed patients to respond to the patients' dysfunctional thoughts in a targeted manner. These dysfunctional attributions, which AIF addresses, are a common residual feature of depression amongst remitted patients, and…

This examination of the use of aversive techniques as a form of "therapy" for people with mental handicaps includes 12 articles by specialists who argue that the use of aversive procedures is socially, ethically, legally, and scientifically untenable as well as 3 ancedotal case studies by a patient advocate and 2 personal accounts by…

Studies assessing treatments for severe behavior problems of developmentally delayed persons were reviewed. Procedures used in the 382 studies, published from 1967-1987, were analyzed in terms of problem behaviors, side effects, and treatment methods. Also examined were number of studies reported yearly, maintenance and generalization of effects,…