Developmental support agencies support many adults with intellectual disabilities in the community. Unfortunately, these adults often exhibit high rates of challenging behaviour, which present significant pressures on these service providers. Agencies need to develop effective means of increasing their capacity to provide quality support. Previous…

Training frontline staff to respond to and manage challenging behaviors of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) poses a pervasive problem in the delivery of treatment services. Traditional synchronous staff training methods are expensive, time-consuming, and often do not result in high treatment integrity. Video Modeling alternative to…

As the rates of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) increase, so does the need to provide high-quality and empirically validated supports across the lifespan. Despite most of an individual's life taking place in adulthood, it is well-documented that the supports and services for adults with ASD are severely lacking. This is evidenced by outcomes…

Although decades of behavior-analytic studies have focused on decreasing the aggressive behavior of clients, relatively little research has been conducted on preventing injuries for the staff members who implement treatment plans. In this study, three direct-care staff members working with clients presenting with aggressive behavior were taught…

Behaviour support plans (BSPs), if accurately implemented, have been found to increase skills and decrease challenging behaviour of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Training is essential for staff to acquire the skills necessary for accurate implementation. The aim of this systematic literature review was to evaluate…

Background: Staff play a critical role in promoting positive youth development in out-of-school-time programs, yet little is known about best-practices for preparing staff to work with youth and meet their needs. The present study seeks to understand the impact of a basic psychological needs training on the staff's ability to deliver…

Background: The Who's Challenging Who? (WCW) training is coproduced and delivered by people with intellectual disabilities (IDs), and it aims to improve staff empathy for people with challenging behaviour (CB). This study qualitatively describes trainees' and trainers' experiences of the WCW. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken…

The occurrence of 'challenging' behavior is commonly documented amongst people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Since behavior is not only a form of communication, but often in response to environmental conditions, it stands to reason that one mechanism to reduce 'challenging' behaviors would be to draw attention to people's…

Positive Behaviour Support is an applied behaviour analytic system of support that is utilised in schools and in residential care settings for children and adults with disabilities who engage in challenging behaviour. Implementation fidelity depends on appropriate staff training and organisational behaviour management. A systematic literature…

Discovery awareness (DA) is an approach to using video within structured meetings to help staff become more mindful, aware and interested in a client they are supporting who has intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour. The objective was to evaluate whether, and how, DA is helpful for staff in both inpatient and community settings, and…

Two non-U.S. quasi-experimental studies reported Active Support training was associated with increased engagement in individuals with IDD, but no randomized controlled trials (RCTs) exist. We evaluated effects of Active Support training on staff assistance, and social and nonsocial engagement in 75 individuals with intellectual and developmental…

Paraprofessionals are increasingly being hired to support students with special needs in schools and are key implementers of behavior interventions for students. However, research is limited on how paraprofessionals perceive the management of student behavior. Using a mixed-methods design approach, the current investigation assesses…

Background: In typical development, primarily contextual factors at the family level are clearly associated with child developmental outcomes. In contrast, knowledge about the contextual factors influencing the developmental characteristics of children (0-12 years) with severe to profound intellectual disability is scarce. Method: Through…

Background: There is strong evidence about the effectiveness of Active Support. Recent research has established predictors of good Active Support as staff training, practice leadership, and service setting size. This paper explores features of organisational leadership and structures predictive of Active Support. Methods: Multilevel modelling with…

This paper explores the incidence of children's social, emotional and behavioural difficulties within areas of multiple deprivation in one Local Authority in Wales and the potential effects of targeted training interventions on the quality of adult-child interactions. The quality of adult-child interaction was measured pre and post-test using the…