Functional communication training (FCT) is an evidence-based treatment for behavior targeted for reduction that often combines extinction for target responses and arranges functionally equivalent reinforcement for alternative behavior. Long-term effectiveness of FCT can become compromised when transitioning from clinic to nonclinic contexts or…

Functional analysis has been shown to effectively identify the function of challenging behavior and inform the design of function-based treatment that emphasizes reinforcement-based procedures. However, there is minimal research on culturally responsive approaches to functional analysis with bilingual clients with a developmental disability who…

Individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) are twice as likely to have obesity than non-disabled individuals. Replacing the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) with water has many health benefits, including weight reduction. In this study, a token reinforcement system was implemented to increase water consumption and decrease the…

Urine-detecting alarms are prevalent in toilet training intervention research and clinical practice for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, but the effects of urine alarms remain unclear. Urine alarms may function as punishing or reinforcing contingencies, or may merely alert trainers to accidents and improve treatment…

In this review, we summarized and meta-analyzed 35 single-case intervention studies that involved the use of multiple schedules of reinforcement with 78 individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Based on Tau-U calculations, multiple schedules of reinforcement produced an overall large effect for appropriate communicative…

As a treatment for escape-maintained problem behavior, differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) is typically initiated by reinforcing compliance on a dense reinforcement schedule. This work schedule is then progressively thinned such that the individual is required to complete more work, up to some socially acceptable terminal…

Over 50 years of research suggests that toilet training based on behavioral principles is effective for most individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). However, many adults with IDD are never effectively toilet trained. Lack of independent toileting is associated with detrimental physical, mental, and social experiences.…

Previous research has shown that responding to the appropriate and problematic speech of individuals diagnosed with developmental disabilities with interested and uninterested listener responses, respectively, can promote more appropriate conversational engagement. However, Fisher et al. (2013) also responded to appropriate speech with access to…

Studies showed that children with Developmental Disabilities (DD) have communication and social difficulties; consequently, they are more likely to display disruptive behaviors. During daily interactions, disruptive behaviors can pose difficulties for individuals such as siblings, peers, parents, and educators. In KSA, parental involvement in…

In 2020 the Centers for Disease Control provided the public with recommendations to slow the spread of COVID-19 by wearing a mask in the community. In the current study, experimenters coached group home staff via telehealth to implement synchronous schedules of reinforcement to increase mask wearing for 5 adults with intellectual and developmental…

Prior research has examined interventions to prevent prompt dependence from occurring during the training of novel skills. Nevertheless, the relative efficacy and efficiency of different intervention procedures may be idiosyncratic across learners, suggesting the potential benefit of an individualized assessment. The purpose of the current study…

Children with developmental delays are more likely to experience difficulties in social-emotional skills and challenging behavior, which can lead to poor long-term outcomes if left untreated. The purpose of this literature review was to synthesize the literature related to home-based interventions to address social-emotional skills and challenging…

Children with developmental delays are more likely to experience difficulties in social-emotional skills and challenging behavior, which can lead to poor long-term outcomes if left untreated. The purpose of this literature review was to synthesize the literature related to home-based interventions to address social-emotional skills and challenging…

Formal preference assessments are commonly implemented as a way to evaluate potential reinforcers for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, developmental disabilities, and intellectual disabilities. Today there are numerous formal preference assessments that can be used clinically, and which have been evaluated empirically.…

The shift to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to swiftly develop strategies for virtual settings to ensure students received effective instruction. Antecedent- and consequence-based interventions have been shown to be effective in classrooms; however, to our best knowledge, there have been no reports on the effects of…