Association for Behavior Analysis International

Families of young children experiencing behavioral challenges require support early on. There is an urgent need for early, systematic, preventive help to reduce the risk of future behavioral difficulties and family stress. Despite a wealth of research on evidence-based interventions, many families do not receive the support they feel is necessary and tailored to their children with and at risk for developmental disabilities and to their cultural context. Three research studies focusing on compassionate, individualized ABA in early intervention will be presented. Findings suggest the need for increased compassion and collaboration in ABA, accessibility of individualized coaching in ABA for parents of young children, and considerations for cultural adaptation. Data for each project will be presented. Implications for future research and practice will be discussed.

Intermediate Participants have experience working with clients and some knowledge in multiple baseline, single-case design research.

Caregiver mediated intervention (CMI) is an evidence-based practice that centers caregivers as interventionists for their autistic children (Akemoglu et al., 2020; Brookman-Frazee et al., 2006; Kaminski et al., 2008; Steinbrenner et al., 2021). Several CMIs have demonstrated positive social communication outcomes for young children on the autism spectrum delivered in person (Bradshaw et al., 2017; Ingersoll & Wainer, 2013) via telehealth (Ferguson et al., 2018; Vismara et al., 2018) and in a group setting. However, CMIs have minimally considered the racial, ethnic, or cultural variables that may impact caregiver and child outcomes (Jones & Mandell, 2020). A multiple probe design across caregiver and child dyads was used to experimentally evaluate the caregiver-mediated NDBI on Latinx caregiver fidelity and child social communication outcomes. Results demonstrated Latinx caregivers’ fidelity of implementation was stable but high at baseline for some components of NDBI and continued to improve with caregiver coaching. Child outcomes were mixed for social communication, demonstrating the need to understand dosage of caregiver-mediated NDBIs.

Despite a wealth of evidence-based intervention research, many families do not receive any support for their children with and at risk for developmental disabilities (DD). When services are available, they can be limited by lengthy wait lists, require high effort on the part of the family, or be ignorant of cultural adaptations. Promoting Reciprocal Relationships with Flexibility, Coaching and Teaching (PRRFCT Match) intervention package incorporates a virtual coaching protocol to teach parents how to implement evidence-based, applied behavior analytic (ABA) techniques to increase engagement with their child experiencing DD. Using a concurrent multiple baseline design across participants, parent-child dyads (N=10) were paired with graduate student clinicians and coached to use ABA technologies to increase child engagement during play. Results include visual analysis, with Tau-U, distal and non-experimental (pre-, post-test) outcomes for parents (stress, parent self-efficacy) and children (inflexible behaviors, adaptive behavior). Implications for science and practice in early intervention will be discussed.