Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of choice-making training with six high school students with intellectual disability. A multiple probe design with one replication was used to evaluate the efficacy of the choice-making training. The results suggest participants increased and maintained their choice-making abilities. Findings and limitations from the study are discussed.

Positive parent-professional collaboration is critical for the educational success of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, little is known about teacher perceptions of parent-professional collaboration. Thirty-four teachers participated in a qualitative study to gain a better understanding of teachers' perceptions of helpful parental involvement and advocacy strategies to ensure the success of students with ASD educated in inclusive settings. Through focus groups and interviews, teachers reported perceptions of parents ranging from too much involvement to not enough involvement, the importance of parental and student advocacy, and shared examples of positive parental advocacy. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.

This study compared service use for families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who live in rural vs. non-rural areas. Participants were 415 caregivers of children with ASD, of whom 101 (23.7%) lived in rural areas of a southeastern state. Participants completed an online survey regarding access and quality of different services. For rural families, the most common services that were recommended but not implemented included behavior support services and parent support groups. Rural families also had to travel longer distances and for more time to access these services. For behavior support services, rural (vs. non-rural) families had lower perceptions of effectiveness. In addition, a map showing locations of all of the state's Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA) and Speech Language Pathologists (SLP) revealed that, compared to SLPs, BCBAs were present in a lower percentage of rural counties. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

The current study investigated whether four Deaf students with developmental disabilities could learn a chain of independent living skills and follow activity schedules using a combination of the two iPod Touch applications (apps): inPromptu and First Then Visual Schedule. Using a multiple probe across participants design, the study examined the effects of the intervention on skill acquisition and generalization to untrained independent living skills and novel sequences of activity schedules after the students mastered the use of the two iPod apps. Least-to-most prompting was used to teach the two iPod apps. The results showed all participants successfully acquired a variety of independent living skills using video prompting. Three of the four participants were able to follow varied and novel activity schedules after they were trained to follow the fixed order activity schedule. Multiple exemplars were needed for one participant to master varied and novel activity schedules. In addition, all participants successfully followed activity schedules in an untrained setting (e.g., school dorm). This study extended the current literature on video prompting and activity schedules by incorporating both approaches and testing their generalization effects. As such, the study provided new practices that may increase functional independence for Deaf students with developmental disabilities.

Recently, researchers have compared the effectiveness of video-based instruction (VBI), particularly video modeling, when using smaller versus larger screen sizes with positive, but mixed results. Using an adapted alternating treatments design, we compared two different screen sizes (i.e., iPhone 5 versus iPad 2) using video prompting as the VBI strategy. Three secondary students with autism spectrum disorder (ages 16-18 years) participated. Our results suggest that both screen sizes were effective with two participants while the larger screen size was more effective for one participant. These results are discussed along with implications for professionals implementing video prompting on mobile devices.

This study conducted an in-depth analysis of the efficacy of the Decision Model in the development of function-based treatments for disruptive behaviors in four toddlers with disabilities aged from 26 to 34 months in inclusive toddler classrooms. The research was conducted in three parts. In Part 1, a functional behavioral assessment was conducted to identify the function(s) of the disruptive behavior. In Part 2, behavioral treatments, developed and designed using the Decision Model, were systematically constructed for each toddler. In Part 3, the treatment was implemented in the inclusive toddler program during the most problematic naturally occurring activities for each child. The function-based treatments resulted in a significant increase in the child's replacement behaviors. Additionally, special education teachers' social validity ratings indicated that the individualized function-based treatments were preferable to the previous behavior management strategies.

A multiple probe design across behaviors was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a SMART Board used in conjunction with teacher delivered constant time delay (CTD) to teach environmental text to three young students with disabilities and minimal group learning experience during small group direct instruction. Observational learning, instructive feedback, and generalization were also assessed. Initially, reinforcement was presented to the group via the SMART Board, but was modified to a token economy to address challenging behavior and non-responding in some students. Results suggest that using a SMART Board and CTD was effective for one participant when group reinforcement was used and effective for all participants when an individualized token economy was added to sessions. Teachers should be cautious when using group reinforcement strategies with young students who may not have extended learning histories with small group instruction and reinforcement other than token economies. Suggestions for future research and implications for practice are provided.

One of the distinct characteristics of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is significant delays in socialization. Students with ASD often struggle to develop meaningful social relationships with their peers. Learning appropriate socialization skills is a necessary first step that is often taught using a systematic, direct instruction approach. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a Teaching Interaction (TI) procedure on four social skills across four elementary-aged participants with ASD. All participants received training on the same social skills within a group setting through daily instruction at school. A modified multiple-probe design showed that the TI procedure was effective in teaching all the targeted social skills to the participants. Prior to intervention, the participants showed relatively low levels of the four social skills targeted; however, after intervention, all participants showed a significant increase in their ability to perform the skills. Furthermore, the data show that all participants maintained the learned social skills over time.

The graduated reinforcement procedure (also known as differential reinforcement) is an often-used procedure in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis to teach new skills and increase pro-social behaviors. In this study, the researchers used a multi-element design to evaluated the graduated reinforcement procedure for six children with a diagnosis of autism by assessing a rate of responding task across three conditions: a graduated reinforcement condition, an all-or-none reinforcement condition, and a control (no reinforcement) condition. Results of the study were idiosyncratic to the participants. Due to the variability in responding to the graduated reinforcement procedure, this study calls into question the utility of this procedure when used with certain profiles of students to teach certain skills and to use future research to assess for variables in teaching which make the graduated reinforcement procedure effective.