Association for Behavior Analysis International

Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs) teach caregivers to embed behavioral teaching into play-based interactions. NDBIs have been shown to increase communication skills in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Schreibman et al., 2015). Play-based interactions can be particularly helpful for teaching action words. Verbs are inherently dynamic, making it more difficult to ensure the child is attending to the action of the event model rather than the objects involved. NDBIs emphasize turn-taking and imitation sequences and child cooperation with demands. These interactions are examples of a special kind of interaction called higher order supported joint engagement (HSJE), which have been shown to be salient language learning opportunities for children with ASD (e.g., Bottema-Beutel et al., 2014). This study sought to identify if caregiver verb models in episodes of HSJE predicted later child verb repertoire size in 29 toddlers with ASD. Frequency of caregiver verb models in episodes of HSJE in play sessions accounted for a significant, large amount of variance in later child verb repertoire size. These findings support the importance of identifying the types of intervention contexts that facilitate generalized verb learning, and support the importance of teaching prerequisite skills for these interactions.

Social skills are an important part of child development (Jones et al., 2015), and children with developmental delays (DD) often show delays in conversational and play skills (Zubler et al., 2022). The current study investigated the effectiveness of parent training on parent implementation fidelity, effectiveness of parent-implemented video self-modeling (VSM), and evaluate the parents’ experiences and perspectives of the intervention. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants was used to determine a functional relation of parent training to parent implementation fidelity and parent-implemented VSM to the scripted and unscripted play actions and vocalizations. A thematic analysis was conducted on parent interviews to determine the social validity of the intervention. Three dyads participated including children with DD and their parent. The results showed an increase in parents’ correct implementation of VSM with their child. All three children showed an increase in scripted play actions and vocalizations, but no effect was found for unscripted play actions and vocalizations. All three parents noted benefits of generalization of skills and other developmental changes in their child after the intervention. The current study added to the literature of in-home parent-implemented interventions having implications for practitioners’ approach to telehealth and parent training.

Daily living skills reflect individuals’ self-sufficiency and autonomy. However, individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) lack independence in daily living skills which limit their ability to lead an autonomous life. There are many benefits of teaching caregivers to implement daily living skills interventions, including promoting maintenance and generalization across the wide variety of settings in which caregivers support their children. Structure work system could be an approach to equip caregivers with the tools necessary to support the development of individuals’ independent daily functioning. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of caregiver training programs to teach caregivers to develop an individualized structured work system, subsequently, to evaluate the impact of caregiver-implemented a structured work systems intervention package on improving daily living skills for those individual with IDD. Three individuals with IDD and their caregivers were recruited for this project. The research methodology encompassed three experiments: Experiment 1 used pre- and post- tests to evaluate the effectiveness of a caregiver training package on improving caregiver’s ability to develop an individualized structured work system. Experiment 2 evaluated a functional relation between a caregiver coaching package and caregiver’s implementing fidelity of structured work system. Experiment 3 evaluated a functional relation between caregiver-implemented structured work system and the individual’s performance of daily living skill. The results indicated that caregivers were able to develop and implement an individualized structured work system with high fidelity through caregiver training and caregiver coaching programs. Caregivers developed and implemented structured work system further improved individuals’ performances in daily living skills. The findings of this study will be further discussed.