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Alzheimer's disease is the most commonly known neurocognitive disorder characterized by deterioration in areas such as memory, attention, and activities of daily living. From a behavioral perspective, memory and attentional deficits may be described as deterioration of stimulus control. This paper provides a case study of discrimination behavior in a patient with neurocognitive disorder. The purpose of the current study was twofold: (i) to study the effect of using presumed familiar pictures in arbitrary matching-to-sample tasks and (ii) to study variables that affect stimulus control in a patient diagnosed with vascular dementia. There were 12 conditional discrimination experimental conditions with various types of stimuli, from familiar pictures to identity matching. The results showed that the participant's responses were not in accord with experimenter-defined stimulus classes when using familiar pictures. However, intact stimulus control by sample stimulus was established following systematic procedural changes in the conditional discrimination tasks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, applied behavior analysis services for many autistic individuals were transitioned to telehealth. The current study assessed caregiver‐reported quality of life (QoL) and social validity for families of autistic children receiving only telehealth services (n = 96) or a combination of telehealth and in‐person services (n = 173). Barriers to the telehealth experience were analyzed via an ANOVA, and the impact of funding source was analyzed using an independent samples t‐test. Caregivers reported benefit across QoL and social validity items, with scores ranging from 3.31 to 4.44 (1 = least benefit, 5 = most benefit). While many caregivers reported no barriers regarding technology (44.61%), childcare (69.52%), and employment (64.68%), the presence of those barriers significantly impacted QoL and social validity scores. Funding source was not found to have a significant impact. Overall, caregivers found value in their child's telehealth services. Clinicians have an obligation to mitigate barriers to ensure the success of the intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) for children with autism spectrum disorders is the intervention that has the strongest empirical support. EIBI requires frequent supervision by qualified professionals. Norway, like many other countries, has a shortage of qualified supervisors, particularly in rural regions. This study used a reversal design to investigate how supervisors and supervisees perceive the quality of EIBI supervision and the local team's preparedness when supervision was provided either on‐site or via videoconference. Calculations were made on how much time could be saved on travel when part of the supervision was provided via videoconference. There were no significant differences in the supervisors' and supervisees' ratings of on‐site and videoconference supervision. Moreover, the supervisors found the local EIBI teams to be better prepared when supervision was provided via videoconference, and the videoconference supervision meetings were shorter. The study discusses the implications of these findings for the accessibility of EIBI and case capacity and proposes some areas for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited research on the social validity of treatment for pediatric feeding disorders. When it is assessed, the evaluation of treatment acceptability may focus on a few specific procedures or the entire program post‐treatment. This report took place within a home‐based behavior‐analytic treatment model in Australia. Caregivers of eight children (aged 3–11) with pediatric feeding disorders provided treatment acceptability ratings for the full range of treatment procedures, at pre‐ and post‐treatment. Caregivers were also provided the opportunity to provide open‐ended responses. Results showed that caregivers unanimously gave strong ratings of the importance of goals, and preferred that treatment be effective and quick, over minimizing side effects. Procedures experienced by all caregivers (differential attention, tangible reinforcement, nonremoval of the spoon, and re‐presentation) were rated highly at admission and increased at discharge, with the exception of tangible electronics. Caregivers of children receiving additional procedures for acceptance or clean mouth also provided high acceptability ratings for these at both timepoints. This report is the first to examine pre‐ and post‐acceptability measures on the full range of treatment procedures with caregivers experiencing treatment. Results inform future research and will serve to improve efforts to disseminate behavior analysis as an acceptable and effective treatment for pediatric feeding disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College student members of Greek Letter Organizations (GLOs) report high levels of alcohol consumption, which is associated with adverse academic and health consequences. Those who report lower consumption also report counting their drinks, which requires the ability to identify and pour standard servings of alcohol, skills college students generally lack. Behavioral skills training (BST) has been used to teach students to pour standard servings of beer. However, little is known about whether BST is effective when used in a small‐group format or with other alcohol types, and whether skills generalize across time and novel cups. We used a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design to address these gaps. After receiving small group BST, all participants poured beer accurately, most poured accurately at follow‐up, and about half poured accurately into a novel cup. After receiving individual BST, participants' pours of liquor were variable and most required additional training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social validity is often defined as the degree to which an intervention has value to the community that it effects, but it is seldom reported in the literature. Most social validity questionnaires are purposely created by the authors of the study and often lack a description of scale development process. The purpose of this study was to evaluate methods for the development of a Likert‐type social validity scale. Caregivers of children who took part in a study on behavioral treatments for pediatric feeding disorders were part of an initial interview to inform scale development. We analyzed interviews using thematic (qualitative) analysis and textual (quantitative) analysis, and used the resulting themes to generate items for two social validity questionnaires. We examined the inter‐rater reliability of the questionnaire development process and evaluated the content validity of the questionnaires resulting from each method. Textual analysis had higher inter‐rater reliability for producing themes that could be converted to questionnaire items. The textual analysis method produced a questionnaire with content validity equal to that of the thematic analysis method. The study demonstrates the successful use of a quantitative approach to the development of social validity questionnaires for behavioral interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Care providers within human services organizations have many job responsibilities and performance expectations. In the present study, we conducted social validity assessment with 78 care providers concerning their attitudes and opinions about behavior data recording with adults who had intellectual disability and lived in community group homes. Specifically, the care providers responded to a written questionnaire that inquired about the practicality, training/supervision, and value of behavior data recording in the context of service delivery. Results indicated generally high approval of behavior data recording practices, purposes, and approaches to training. We discuss implications of these findings for implementing data recording by care providers and the contribution of social validity assessment to training and performance management within human services organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral caregiver training programs are extensively used interventions, based on empirical research and applied concepts of behavior. As these interventions become more widespread in use across settings for various populations, the availability of efficient methods to evaluate program effectiveness is crucial. Currently, there is a lack of widely used and psychometrically sound measurement tools to assess change in caregivers' knowledge of behavioral principles following participation in such training. In the current study, we assessed change in caregivers' knowledge of behavioral principles following participation in a caregiver training based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis. Twenty caregivers participated in the evaluation, which included pre ‐ and post ‐ Brief Behavioral Knowledge Questionnaire (BBKQ) completed before and after participation in a brief behavioral training (BBT). The measurement was found to have good internal consistency. Results also show that following participation in the BBT, caregivers' initial knowledge of behavioral principles increased significantly. The results suggest that the BBKQ may be a useful tool in detecting changes in caregiver's knowledge of behavior principles following BBT. Limitation and future directions are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Videoconferencing has been successfully implemented to teach functional analysis (FA) procedures to service providers who support individuals with autism spectrum disorders. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the acquisition of the competencies for implementing FA methodology for special education teachers after participation in a group-format workshop via a videoconferencing program in which the training site and the remote site were located on different continents, connected through the internet. Four special education teachers in Saudi Arabia who did not have previous exposure to functional behavior assessment participated in the study. Teachers received 3 h of group-format training via Skype followed by individualized feedback. Training involved role-playing, video modeling, and reading materials. Results indicate that all four participants mastered the skills across at least two of the conditions with one participant demonstrating mastery across all four conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have evaluated the sensitivity of discontinuous recording methods for detecting behavior changes; however, relatively few have evaluated observers' preferences for such methods. To address this limitation, this study used a concurrent chains design to evaluate eight therapists' preferences for collecting data using momentary time sampling (MTS) and partial interval recording with interval sizes of 10 s and 1 min. Results of the preference assessment showed that six of the eight therapists preferred to collect data using 1-min MTS; however, results of a follow-up questionnaire suggest that most therapists preferred 1-min MTS primarily because it was easy to use rather than that it was accurate. These results are discussed with respect to recent findings on the sensitivity of MTS and partial interval recording. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the effects of self-monitoring by swimmers to improve their performance and assessed the effects of reactivity to observer presence on their performance. Seven public high school swim team members self-monitored their behavior on dry erase boards to increase the number of assigned laps completed at practice. Reactivity to observer presence was assessed as a confederate, recorded the number of laps completed during observer absent conditions. The percentage of assigned laps completed increased during the self-monitoring phases. The self-monitoring and feedback phase further increased the percentage of assigned laps completed and increased the participants' mean level of reporting accuracy. The effects from the reactivity assessment were mixed across participants. Further research is needed to examine reactivity effects in sport settings. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders may not attempt treatment, even when effective treatment options are available. Little is known about how to improve frequency of attempts to implement treatment ('treatment adherence'). We provided 32 rural parents of young children with autism spectrum disorders with either written or video training materials about how to implement discrete-trial instruction and compared parental adherence between the written (control) and video (experimental) groups. Parents who received video instructions adhered to the training procedures to a significantly greater extent than did parents who received written instructions, suggesting that instruction format is a predictor of training success. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated the effectiveness of an intervention package consisting of self-monitoring and video modeling to increase on-task behavior during independent seatwork time in math. Four students in either the second or third grade, identified as displaying high rates of off-task behavior by their classroom teacher, were included in the study. Results showed immediate, large, and durable changes in on-task behavior for each of the four participants. At baseline, on-task behavior of the participants while working on independent math assignments was displayed in 47% of the intervals observed. During the intervention, the participants' average rate of on-task behavior increased to 85% of the intervals observed. Mean Busk and Serlin (1994) effect size for all four participants was 5.60, with a percentage of non-overlapping data points effect size of 100%. Observations of the participants 3 weeks following the termination of the study showed that the gains in on-task behavior were maintained. Both teacher and participant feedbacks concerning the use and effectiveness of the intervention package were positive. Results of the investigation suggest that the intervention package may be an effective and socially valid method for addressing off-task behaviors of students within the classroom. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with developmental disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder often engage in challenging behavior when presented with academic demands. Parents of school-age children with such diagnoses are commonly asked to assist their child with academic tasks but may struggle to do so as a result of challenging behavior. This study evaluated the effects of a parent education intervention on the challenging behaviors and task engagement of three school-age children with disabilities during academic activities. Parent education consisted of (i) weekly didactic instruction; (ii) modeling; (iii) role-play; and (iv) in vivo coaching and performance feedback. Using a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants with embedded individual multi-element design, this study demonstrates that a parent education intervention results in decreases in challenging behavior and increases in task engagement. These results suggest that parent education focused on addressing challenging behavior during one-to-one instruction may facilitate completion of academic tasks. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of current caregiver training practices by implementing training components sequentially, to teach parents mealtime protocols. A multiple baseline design was implemented across two caregiver dyads. Therapist-fed meals were conducted prior to training to identify an effective intervention to increase food acceptance and decrease food refusal. The package consisted of seven components: observation, written and verbal protocol review, video review, structured observation, modeling, role play, and immediate feedback. Correct implementation of mealtime protocols, by caregivers, were evaluated throughout the training process by having caregivers conduct meal sessions following each training component to determine if additional training was necessary. Results showed that the training procedures were effective in teaching caregivers to implement mealtime protocols, and systematic introduction of the training components produced systematic and incremental changes in correct caregiver implementation. In addition, all participants completed training without requiring all seven training components. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A token reinforcement program, named 'Thumbs Up', was introduced in a residential therapeutic community for drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Sixteen young people aged 14-17 years participated for varying durations. Participants were able to negotiate target behaviors and choose backup reinforcers. We evaluated the program within a multiple baseline design across participants, settings, and behaviors. Improvements occurred in positive verbal statements across settings, timely room cleaning, and leadership responsibilities. Inappropriate statements were also measured and did not change. One staff member was trained in the use of Thumbs Up with positive results. Difficulties with implementing behavioral interventions in a non-behaviorally oriented treatment service were identified. Despite needing refinements, it was concluded that a token reinforcement program can be an effective and acceptable means of improving behavior within a therapeutic community framework. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional motor skills are often taught using chaining procedures. Research suggests that chaining procedures are not likely to be effective if they do not focus on the accuracy and speed of composite skill completion. Precision teaching (PT) research suggests that improved performance of a composite skill can be achieved if the performance speed of the component behaviors is increased. This study assessed the effects of repeated timed practice of component motor skills on speed and accuracy of composite skills and the effects of fluent component motor skills on the completion of daily living composite skills. Three children with autism participated. The results suggest that all participants were able to perform the component skills at their individual aims and performed most of the component skills at fluent levels as assessed by retention and endurance checks. Each participant increased the number of composite skill steps performed independently and one decreased the overall time to complete the composite skill. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]