People with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDDs) face lifelong challenges in areas such as self-care, learning and socializing abilities. Having such individuals at home brings family caregivers extra stress, especially when support is insufficient. Because of the inadequacy of professional support available globally, the need to…

There is limited evidence on the imperative role that caregivers play in social-emotional learning development for effective social-emotional learning program implementation despite their crucial influence on childhood development. This doctoral project explored the effects of parent education for two school-based, social-emotional learning…

Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) is a common strategy for escape-maintained behaviors targeted for reduction (i.e., targeted behavior) exhibited by youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities. DRA often involves various methods of prompting to ensure the instruction or task remains in place until contingencies…

Background: We aimed to identify key factors in implementing and adhering to positive behaviour support (PBS), provided by frontline staff, targeting challenging behaviours of people with intellectual disabilities living in residential group homes. Method: Using semi-structured interviews with 12 frontline staff members, we collected perspectives…

We examined the effectiveness of coaching on caregiver implementation of responding to joint attention (RJA) intervention for toddlers with autism. We used a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline across participants single-case research design to examine the relation between coaching practices and caregivers' RJA intervention implementation behaviors.…

Annually, thousands of infant deaths are classified as sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUIDs). In an effort to reduce the risk of SUIDs, the American Academy of Pediatrics has made a number of recommendations to educate caregivers, childcare providers, and healthcare professionals on safe infant sleep practices. The purpose of the current study…

Purpose: Applied behavior analysis (ABA) interventions are considered an evidence-based practice for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, behavior analytic professionals quickly pivoted ABA therapy to the telehealth modality to ensure continuity of services. In particular, this modality has been reported to…

We report the effects of peer-mediated training as a performance improvement intervention on recording of well-body checks by classroom instructors at a specialized school for children and youth. The instructors were trained as peer mediators and then assumed performance monitoring responsibilities in the classroom. Compared to baseline phases in…

Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions are an empirically supported intervention approach for young autistic children. Despite the prevalence of disruptive behaviors among autistic children, most manualized caregiver-mediated naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions include limited formal guidance on when and how to manage…

In places where in-person applied behavior analysis (ABA) services are not available to those in need, distance approaches may be needed. However, in the Czech Republic and surrounding countries, ABA and telehealth practices are just emerging. Therefore, minimal systems are guiding ABA-based telehealth for children with autism and their…

The breadth of available non-pharmacological interventions for autistic children, with varying evidence for efficacy summarised in multiple systematic reviews, creates challenges for parents, practitioners, and policymakers in navigating the research evidence. In this article, we report the findings of an umbrella review of 58 systematic reviews…

PWS Smart-Start is a behavioral caregiver training program developed specifically for caregivers of children with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) ages 3 to 14. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of the program. Thirty-four caregivers of children with PWS received the PWS Smart-Start training…

We report findings from a 40 middle school randomized controlled trial of an adapted version of Coping Power (Lochman & Wells, 2002a) for middle schoolers, called the Early Adolescent Coping Power (EACP) Program (Bradshaw et al., 2019) to determine the impact of EACP on adolescents' mental health outcomes, as indicated by student self-reported…

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government declared a state of emergency and many applied behavior analysis clinics temporarily closed. The current study described a pilot of an existing manualized caregiver behavior skills training, the Online and Applied System of Intervention Skills (OASIS), to promote telehealth…

Alarmingly, nearly half of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in behaviour that causes separation from caregivers. More than half of these children go missing for a concerning duration of time and/or enter into dangerous situations. Caregivers often do not feel prepared to address these serious concerns. This study evaluated the…