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…

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) may engage in challenging behavior. These behaviors present challenges to support staff who often lack training in effective behavior management procedures. Behavioral skills training (BST) is an empirically supported method of staff training and has been used to teach support staff a…

The oral health of people with intellectual and developmental disability is poorer than that of the general community. Any solution for people with intellectual and developmental disability living in residential services needs to include disability support workers (DSWs). Previous studies have used either didactic or train-the-trainer approaches…

Aggressive and destructive behaviors are an ongoing challenge for many children, adolescents, and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). What's behind these high-risk behaviors, and how can professionals help manage them? Discover the answers in this comprehensive text, the most up-to-date compendium of knowledge on…

Staff training is a critical performance improvement objective within behavioral health care organizations. This study evaluated a systematic training program for teaching applied behavior analysis knowledge competencies to newly hired direct-care employees at a day and residential habilitation services agency for adults with intellectual and…

Describes problems facing personnel preparation in community-based vocational and residential services for adults with developmental disabilities. Recommends plans of action to allay these problems: (1) direction and coordination of adult services; (2) assessment of providers' personnel training needs; and (3) evaluation and strengthening of…

A survey of 102 personnel working in 14 adult programs for the developmentally disabled was undertaken to assess training needs. Results showed that the majority of respondents ranked the same training needs, and skills necessary to carry out their current jobs as most important. (PHR)

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a staff training-and-management package on nutritional practices in two community-based group homes serving adults with developmental disabilities. Food storage, menu development, and meal preparation were covered. All staff behaviors increased after training and were maintained for up to one year.…

Staff at a day program were trained in Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC) strategies and techniques. The goal was to provide training that would allow staff at the centre to use communication strategies when working with their clients. Two training sessions were provided on AAC and communication strategies for all staff at the centre.…

Three booklets provide fire safety information for staff of residential facilities serving people with developmental disabilities. Booklets focus on: (1) preventing fire death and injury, (2) conducting a fire drill in a group home, and (3) the role of fire safety experts. The first booklet stresses the elimination of the following dangers:…

This survey of 39 University Affiliated Program (UAP) Outreach Training Directors describes UAP outreach training efforts to improve services to people with developmental disabilities. The survey examined the influence of different staffing strategies on the structure of outreach training programs, and the degree of participation by various groups…

Two studies compared the effectiveness of different strategies for promoting generalization of staff skills in teaching self-care routines to clients with developmental disabilities. Results indicated that general case training was more effective at promoting generalized training effects than provision of written instructions, single case…

This report describes the development and pilot testing of a fire safety certification system for board and care operators and staff who serve clients with developmental disabilities. During Phase 1, training materials were developed, including a trainer's manual, a participant's coursebook a videotape, an audiotape, and a pre-/post test which was…

The guide describes and evaluates 20 resource materials intended to help in training direct-care staff in behavior management issues involving persons with developmental disabilities. Each description provides the bibliographic reference for the material being evaluated, information on the target audience, a summary, a review, and an address and…

A program to increase staff effectiveness in implementing a group home behavior management program for residents with developmental disabilities was evaluated. The program emphasized systematic self-recording and supervisor feedback, and resulted in increased staff consistency in all four areas evaluated (such as implementing response costs for…