Association for Behavior Analysis International

Telehealth has been shown to be effective in providing behavioral services to families of individuals with disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Unholz-Bowden et al.,2020). In addition to telehealth, behavioral skills training (BST) has been used to teach caregivers to implement several strategies, such as functional behavioral assessment (Shayne & Miltenberger, 2013), incidental teaching procedures (Hsieh, Wilder, & Abellon, 2011), and social skills (Hassan et al., 2018). However, due to the novelty of this approach, there is a critical need to examine the effects of using telehealth in training parents of children with ASD to implement strategies to develop skills or reduce challenging behaviors. Therefore, this symposium will include two presentations that will (a) evaluate the effects of BST in training parents to implement augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)-based intervention in naturalistic context via telehealth (b) evaluated the effects of BST on parents to implement behavioral toilet skills training package with their children with autism via telehealth technology.

The target audience include a variety of levels of ABA practitioners, including BCBAs and BCaBAs.

The study aimed to evaluate the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) in training parents to implement augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)-based intervention in naturalistic context via telehealth. Three parent-child dyads participated in the study. All participants were diagnosed with ASD and their age ranged between 4 and 6 years. Concurrent multiple probe design across parent–child dyads was used to evaluate the effects of the intervention. Parents were trained to teach their children augmented and non-augmented mand skills in a natural context via internet-based service delivery. The findings of the study revealed that parents were successful at using AAC-based intervention in teaching communication skills to their children with ASD during snack time. Further, participants were able to generalize acquired mands across other communication partners (i.e., siblings) and during other routine situations (i.e., playtime). Future studies should examine the effects of BST to train parents on the implementation of other behavioral strategies via telehealth.

The present study evaluated the effects of a behavioral skills training on parents to implement behavioral toilet skills training package with their children with Autism via telehealth technology. Two dyads (mother – child) participated in the study. Effects were demonstrated using multiple baseline design. All sessions were conducted via ZOOM technology. The behavior skills training of both mothers resulted in achieving continence for both children. Both children demonstrated maintenance of their toileting skills at follow - up. One child improved significantly in initiation of toileting. Social validity evaluations were strong. Implications for future and further researches are discussed.