Using Prevent Teach Reinforce for Young Children to Manage Challenging Behaviors in Public Specialized Early Intervention Services for Autism.

This proof-of-concept study assessed the feasibility of implementing Prevent-Teach-Reinforce-for-Young-Children (PTR-YC) program to address challenging behaviors in children with autism within the context of public, specialized early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) services offered in community settings. Following a 2-day training and with brief weekly supervision meetings, children's EIBI educators acted as facilitators in 35 families' home environments. Small and moderate effect sizes were observed for children's behavioral outcomes and parenting stress. Recruitment and retention rates, implementation fidelity, as well as treatment acceptability from the perspective of participating parents and the organization attested to the feasibility and relevance of implementing and evaluating this program on a larger scale as part of a multi-center randomized controlled trial.

Education for students with neurodevelopmental disabilities-Resources and educational adjustments.

Children with neurodevelopmental disorders are more likely to face challenges of various kinds throughout their schooling due to their vulnerability factors. Although certain evidence-based practices have been recognized to be effective in supporting academic performance or social and personal adjustment, transferring these practices to school realities remains a challenge. Indeed, the educational trend favored for more than 20 years promotes the development of all students in the most natural context possible. The objective of this chapter is to shed light on how resources and EBPs can be organized in an inclusive education context. A tiered framework, commonly adopted as different models across the world, is presented and used to demonstrate how interventions can be prioritized for the difficulties and special needs of specific (e.g., ADHD, dyslexia, and developmental coordination disorder) and complex (e.g., autism spectrum disorder) neurodevelopmental disorders. The chapter ends with a discussion of the conditions and drivers of intervention fidelity and effectiveness in an inclusive context and, more specifically, support for teachers and parents.

Brief Report: Impact of Challenging Behavior on Parenting Stress in Mothers and Fathers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Challenging behaviors are a known predictor of high parenting stress in families of children with autism spectrum disorders. However, few studies have evaluated the effect of reducing challenging behaviors on parenting stress. The purpose of our study was to (a) examine the impact of reducing the frequency and severity of challenging behaviors on parenting stress and (b) compare the effects of family-centered support and parent education on changes in parenting stress. Both high severity of autistic symptoms and of challenging behaviors were predictors of parenting stress. Furthermore, receiving family-centered support were associated with larger reductions in parenting stress. Overall, our results suggest that reducing challenging behaviors with family-centered support may be preferable to produce collateral reductions in parenting stress.

Initial validation of the Brief Assessment of Service Satisfaction in Persons with an Intellectual Disability (BASSPID).

Individuals with an intellectual disability often require intensive services to promote their social participation to the fullest extent. As such, measuring satisfaction with these services appears essential to enhance the quality of life of individuals with an intellectual disability and to improve service delivery within agencies. Thus, the purpose of the study was to conduct an initial validation of the Brief Assessment of Service Satisfaction in Persons with an Intellectual Disability (BASSPID), a 15-item questionnaire designed to assess service satisfaction. To examine the structure, reliability, and validity of the BASSPID, we interviewed 98 individuals with an intellectual disability and 23 parents. Overall, the BASSPID contained one scale, which had strong content and convergent validity as well as items easily understandable for individuals with an intellectual disability. Furthermore, the questionnaire had good internal consistency and adequate test-retest reliability. However, parents generally overestimated the perceived satisfaction of their child. The study suggests that the BASSPID may be useful to assess the satisfaction of individuals with an intellectual disability, but more research is needed to examine its potential impact on improving service quality.

Using ABC narrative recording to identify the function of problem behavior: a pilot study.

Many professionals report using ABC narrative recording to identify the function of problem behavior in children with developmental disabilities, but research has not established whether their analyses yield valid results. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine whether the function identified by expert reviewers using ABC narrative recordings would match the one identified by a functional analysis (FA) and the Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF) scale in four children with developmental disabilities. The functions identified by all twelve experts using the ABC narrative recordings matched at least one of the functions identified by the FA for three of four participants. The experts' analyses also agreed with the informant-based assessment at a statistically significant level for two of three participants with a conclusive QABF. Altogether, the results suggest that ABC narrative recording may be useful to generate hypotheses to identify the function of problem behavior, but that more research is needed before recommending its use as a standalone functional behavior assessment.