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…

Currently, there is limited research examining the effectiveness of behavior analytic techniques with adults with disabilities, who often struggle with generalizing socially significant skills to real life situations in the community. Further, little research has examined the remote delivery of behavior analytic techniques, which has become a…

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…

Aggression is a known contributor to burnout and caregiver instability among direct support professionals (DSPs) caring for adults with developmental disabilities. However, few studies have explored the differential effects of aggression subtypes on caregivers and what implications these may have for intervention planning. This longitudinal study…

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) unquestionably have desires to engage in sexual and intimate relationships (Black & Kammes, 2019). However, with high rates of abuse and exploitation among people with IDD (Shapiro, 2018), it is important to evaluate their education regarding sexuality and romantic relationships.…

Introduction: Health and social service providers have limited expertise with regard to assessing and treating psychiatric disorders in adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The aim of this study was to describe the development and pilot evaluation of a virtual capacity-building program (Project ECHO) focused on supporting the…

Since most individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities live at home, engaging families in social inclusion efforts is important to build more inclusive communities. This project was exploratory, mixed methods research about supporting families in how to expand social inclusion for their adult children who were living at home. There…

This study investigated the effectiveness of a 1-day dysphagia training package delivered to support workers who work with adults with a learning disability. Thirty-eight support staff took part in this study. Twenty-five support staff received training, and 13 did not receive training and therefore acted as a control group. Three questionnaires…

People with learning disabilities are at increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Research suggests this may be due to inequalities in health status and inequities in the way health services respond to need. Little is known about the most effective way to improve health outcomes for people with learning disabilities. A previously developed…

This paper documents the experiences of a group of parents who came together to form a human service cooperative in their local community to address the needs of their adult children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Each parent felt that their child's needs were not (or could not be) met by existing providers. Parent leaders who…

The purpose of the current study was to explore the use of overt and covert self-rules in the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of a chained task by adults with mild developmental disabilities. This research differed from previous research in that the experimenter did not deliver reinforcement for correct responses during training, and…

This study compared the total amount of training time and total number of trial blocks for individuals with severe developmental disabilities to acquire mands under control of unconditioned establishing operations and mands under control of transitive conditioned establishing operations for manual sign and for the Picture Exchange Communication…

Interview questions most frequently used and corresponding beneficial responses were derived from an empirical analysis of the "hiring community" and were used in developing a job interview skills training package for adults with developmental disabilities. Training resulted in improved responding by all subjects. Improved quality in responding to…

It is difficult to apply benefit cost analysis to human service programs. This paper explains "threshold benefit analysis," the derivation of the minimum dollar value which the benefits must attain in order for their value to equal the intervention costs. The method is applied to a mobility training program. (BS)

Procedures are outlined for employing a resource components approach to collect and report cost information on training and supported employment programs for adults with developmental disabilities. Examination of the costs of 41 Minnesota programs indicates that costs are functionally related to different consumer and program factors. (Author/JDD)