Preliminary Results of an Interdisciplinary Behavioral Program to Improve Access to Preventative Dental Care for Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (AIDD) experience significant oral health disparities, partially due to perceived behavioral issues. This article describes the preliminary outcomes of a developing interdisciplinary (dental, medical, behavioral) program involving a behavioral intervention for AIDD previously receiving preventative dental care with sedation, general anesthesia, or protective stabilization (SAS). After a baseline assessment, a board-certified behavior analyst implemented increasingly complex behavioral interventions during simulated dental visits. Prior to COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions, there were 32 active participants; 15 (46.9%) successfully completed a focused, real dental exam with simple behavioral interventions and 17 (53.1%) remain in treatment. These preliminary results suggest that many AIDD previously receiving SAS may participate in a preventative dental exam with minimal behavioral supports, if given the opportunity.

Behavioral Assessment and Treatment via Telehealth for Children with Autism: From Local to Global Clinical Applications.

Functional analyses (FA) and functional communication training (FCT) are the most commonly used behavioral assessment and treatment approaches via telehealth for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who display challenging behavior. The FA + FCT telehealth model has been shown to maintain treatment effectiveness (i.e., child behavioral outcomes and parent acceptability), as well as demonstrate treatment efficiency (i.e., cost savings). However, the majority of these studies have been conducted in the United States. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes obtained with the telehealth FA + FCT model that included global applications. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results of the 199 participants who enrolled in the telehealth project across all project sites. The results showed that behavioral outcomes and parent acceptability maintained at similar levels to previous studies across all sites. Additionally, very few differences were found across project sites in relation to drop-out rates, visit cancellations, and technology issues. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the FA + FCT telehealth model for addressing the challenging behavior needs of children with ASD globally and highlight areas in need of additional evaluation (e.g., drop-outs, cancellations) to determine the conditions under which telehealth could be best used.

Towards the development of a curriculum to train behavior analysts to provide services via telehealth.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic increase in behavior analysts' use of telehealth services. Nonetheless, no research has evaluated the skills or training needed for therapists to provide these services effectively. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a curriculum for providing high-quality, parent-training telehealth services. Four in-service Board Certified Behavior Analysts® (BCBAs®) who received brief behavioral skills training on this curriculum reached 100% fidelity within four sessions. The skills generalized to a novel family and maintained nearly 1 year after the training. All participants rated the training as highly acceptable and effective. The independent ratings of 4 in-service BCBAs, blinded to the study conditions, also supported the social validity of the outcomes. This curriculum may be considered an initial step towards development of competency for interventionists providing ABA services via telehealth. Further research is warranted as demand for telehealth services continues to grow.