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This substantial literature has identified evidence-based training strategies to promote treatment implementation by others in a variety of community settings. This chapter covers the literature, and best practices on behavior, analytic, caregiver, and staff training procedures. Consideration of the most appropriate targets; the design of practical, reliable, and sensitive performance monitoring systems; precise implementation of behavioral skills training components; and strategies to promote maintenance and generalization of caregiver, and staff skills are discussed. Also discussed is recent research on web-based and video-based training programs, along with functional approaches to performance management.

Publisher Summary The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the importance of the lifespan approach to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and to provide a review of problems and supports provided at critical times in the lifespan. Many psychological theories, referred to as lifespan theories, acknowledge that people continue to grow and change throughout their lives as they are faced with new tasks, challenges, and opportunities. Following further lifespan theories, a review of outcomes evidence and exploration of commonly encountered concerns and successes in key developmental periods are presented. A developmental lifespan approach is predicated on the notion that individual development follows a trajectory over the course of the lifespan and that various factors can impact that trajectory and the subsequent life outcomes experienced by the individual. Since early childhood has been the subject of so many comprehensive reviews and texts, this chapter focuses on critical developmental periods that have been examined less frequently: adolescence, young adulthood, and adulthood. Adolescence is marked by various other changes in psychosocial development, access to community activities and the related safety issues that can accompany those activities, and changing educational structure associated with the transition to middle and high school. Several research areas need to continue to be developed to ensure an adequate understanding of ASDs across the entire lifespan.

Publisher Summary Healthy peer relations contribute greatly to a child's social and emotional development, and the influences of those peers become greater throughout childhood. When peer relationship problems exist, a child's risk increases for a variety of poor outcomes that can persist well into adulthood. The most common peer relationship problems are bullying and being victimized by others, which are often accompanied by additional psychosocial problems, such as depression and conduct disorders. Because some of these problems are often covert, adults should look for subtle indications, such as isolation from peer groups and aggressive/dominant behavior toward others. Often, children who present with conditions of anxiety, depression, or academic difficulty and school refusal have some type of relationship problem as a functional contributing variable. Schools should consider conducting screening of all children for potential relationship problems, and clinicians should screen for relationship problems when assessing or treating other psychosocial conditions. A variety of measures of peer relationship functioning have been developed, primarily for research purposes; however, these scales might also be clinically useful in identifying children with peer relationship problems. In addition, these tools may be helpful in selecting target behaviors for treating relationship problems.