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The ability to navigate safely in the world promotes independence and consequently increase a person's quality of life. Pedestrian safety is one essential prerequisite skill for safe navigation outdoors. Some individuals with autism experience deficits such as low danger awareness and impaired risk assessment that make them especially vulnerable. Given the importance of teaching safe street crossing to mitigate such risks, we are conducting a systematic literature review to identify evidence-based interventions aimed at teaching safe pedestrian behaviours to individuals with autism.

When individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities exhibit severe behaviours that present a safety risk to themselves or to others around them and their behaviours are no longer being managed effectively a crisis arises that may lead to placement breakdowns. We are gathering evidence of existing behaviour stabilization service models and evaluating the services provided by St.Amant.

Evaluated an electronic data collection solution in a community-based EIBI program.

A systematic literature review and evidence summary related to voluntary out-of-home placement of children with intellectual/developmental disabilities.

M.A. Research, Sophie Robitaille

Social validity assessments measure consumersatisfaction with the goals, procedures, and outcomesof a program. This study aimed to measure the socialvalidity of a modified early intensive behaviouralintervention (EIBI) for 5-year-old children with a formal autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. Weevaluated a pilot program developed by St.Amantcalled the Pre-Kindergarten Program (PKP). Eightpopulations were surveyed using six uniquequestionnaires to measure indirect consumers',immediate community members', and extendedcommunity members' satisfaction with the goals,procedures, and outcomes of the PKP. Questionnaireswere distributed via email and mail containing a webbrowserlink and/or a paper questionnaire. A total of82 responses across all populations were analyzed forwithin-group and between-group differences usingdescriptive statistics and Pearson correlations to makerecommendations for how Pre-Kindergarten EIBIprograms can most effectively meet consumer needs. The PKP had good social validity overall. Waitlistfamilies and families being served were the mostsatisfied overall; clinicians outside the program werethe least satisfied group. Lack of parental involvementand limited service hours were recurring concerns mentioned among various populations in open-endedquestions. Further research is required todetermine the social validity of other EIBI programsand the factors that relate to social validity.

The effects of response-independent mirror presentation schedules on the swimming behaviour of Betta splendens were studied in two experiments. In experiment 1, four fish received alternating baseline (no mirror) and fixed-time (FT) 2-min or variable-time (VT) 2-min mirror presentation conditions. Two fish consistently showed increased rates of mirror-side lap-swimming (MSLS; a back-and-forth swimming pattern) and decreased distance from the mirror during the inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) of FT and VT sessions, and during baseline sessions that followed FT and VT phases. Data from one fish indicated that a VT schedule might increase both proximity to the mirror and MSLS rates that have decreased on FT. Therefore, in experiment 2 three fish from experiment 1 received alternating FT and VT conditions. Proximity to the mirror and MSLS rates increased during VT phases relative to FT phases in two fish, though effects were small and did not occur across all alternations. Additional findings were that MSLS during ISIs tended to increase within FT phases, that MSLS generally occurred either at a steady rate within ISIs or showed a scalloped effect, that mirror presentations produced approach to the mirror side that persisted during ISIs and subsequent baseline phases, and that mirror-side distance during the mirror presentations was less than during the ISIs. Although the findings were not consistent across all fish, they were replicated a number of times within at least two of the fish. The findings are discussed in terms of adventitious operant conditioning, respondent conditioning, and the behaviour systems approach. The results of this study increase the generality of response-independent schedule effects on locomotive behaviour.

The single-stimulus (SS) preference assessment procedure has been described as more appropriate than the paired stimulus (PS) procedure for "lower functioning" individuals, but this guideline's vagueness limits its usefulness. We administered the SS and PS preference assessment procedures with food items to seven individuals with severe or profound developmental disabilities who scored at level 2 of the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) and seven who scored at ABLA level 3. Thirteen of the 14 participants also received these assessments (PS and SS), with non-food items. The two procedures were about equally effective for both groups, and with both types of stimuli, although the PS procedure produced more refined preference hierarchies. Most participants showed moderate to high correlations in preference scores between the two procedures for both food and non-food items. These results suggest that, for individuals who score at either ABLA level 2 or ABLA level 3, the SS and the PS procedures are equally likely to identify preferred stimuli.

A 30-item screening examination for cognitive deficits was administered to 65 hospitalized elderly patients and to 60 elderly controls. A high proportion (73 per cent) of the hospitalized patients were found to have low cognitive scores indicative of probable organic mental syndrome (OMS). Especially high deficits were found among the patients with orthopedic and cerebrovascular conditions. The test correctly identified the 15 cases of established OMS. The percentage of false positive results in the normal controls was reasonably low. The importance of routine cognitive measurements in medical wards is stressed.