Persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and low cognitive functioning tend to demonstrate regulatory responses to auditory sensations, leading to disturbed behaviours such as self-stimulation, stereotypical movements, even aggression and self-harm. The aim of this study was to investigate whether listening to specific sounds and music reduced…

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for child anxiety disorders. Low-intensity forms of CBT, such as guided parent-delivered CBT (GPD-CBT), have been developed to increase access; however, it is unclear why some children benefit from this treatment and others do not. This qualitative study aimed to increase understanding…

Upon learning that their child has a neurodevelopmental disorder, families enter a different process and can experience problems related to their child's behavior management. This study was designed in response to a request from mothers with children diagnosed with various neurodevelopmental disorders. The study used a multi-level case study, one…

The current study evaluated a toilet-training treatment package described by Greer et al. (2016) with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Most of the current research on toilet-training interventions for children with ASD are replications and modifications of Azrin and Foxx (1971) or (more recently) LeBlanc et al. (2005).…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at greater risk for experiencing high levels of anxiety symptoms. Recent evidence suggests Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may also be effective for anxiety reduction in some presentations of ASD. This meta-analysis evaluated twenty-three studies. Results yielded a moderate effect size (g =…

This study is a randomized control trial aimed at testing the role of a human-assisted social robot as an intervention mediator in a socio-emotional understanding protocol for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Fourteen children (4-8 years old) were randomly assigned to 10 sessions of a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) intervention…

Issues with sleep onset and maintenance are common among many children and adolescents with developmental disabilities. A lack of experienced practitioners, financial cost, and practical issues associated with providing parent coaching in the family home during evenings pose a number of barriers to successful sleep intervention. Telehealth…

Background: Dog-assisted therapy (DAT) is hypothesized to help children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Down syndrome (DS). Methods: The present authors compared synchronous movement patterns of these children (n = 10) and their therapy dogs during the first and last session of a DAT programme, and their post-therapy changes in emotional…

Background: Information is available about what predicts Lidcombe Program treatment time, but nothing is known about what predicts treatment prognosis. Aims: To investigate the predictors of treatment dropout and treatment outcome for children who were treated for early stuttering with the Lidcombe Program (N = 277). Methods & Procedures: A…

To date, most studies seeking to explore the impact of COVID-19 school closures on student outcomes have focused on cognitive/academic losses. This study explores changes in adaptive behaviors experienced by children and youth with autism spectrum disorders or other developmental disabilities when in-person, one-to-one behavior training was…

Functional communication training, an intervention for challenging behavior rooted in principles of applied behavior analysis, has copious empirical support dating back to the mid-1980s for autistic individuals. Recently, there has been a concerted effort to thin reinforcement delivery during functional communication training using…

This study follows McLay et al., "Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders," (2020) to investigate whether the function-based behavioral sleep interventions received by 41 children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) produced collateral improvements in ASD severity, internalizing and externalizing symptoms and parent…

This review aims to systematically summarize existing evidence to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-based interventions (CBIs) on psychological health and well-being among parents of children with developmental disabilities (DD). Six databases were searched to identify eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from their inception to…

Research related to parental satisfaction with early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) remains limited. A 35-item questionnaire called the parental satisfaction scale--EIBI (PSS-EIBI) was developed with four subdomains (child outcomes, family outcomes, quality of the model, and relationship with the team). Study 1 assessed levels of…

The use of auditory stimulation to decrease vocal stereotypy in individuals with autism spectrum disorder has been the focus of several studies in recent years. Some of these studies investigated the use of auditory stimulation in the form of music, some evaluated the use of other interventions in tandem with auditory stimulation, and others…