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People with intellectual and developmental disabilities sometimes engage in challenging behaviours. When behaviours escalate to the point where they pose imminent risk to the safety of people and environments, a crisis occurs that jeopardises community living and participation. In these situations, timely access to crisis stabilisation services is required. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to synthesise evidence on effective crisis stabilisation service models for challenging behaviours. A total of 46 publications met the inclusion criteria. The literature describes a spectrum of crisis stabilisation services of varying intensities including: outreach, outpatient, inpatient, respite, and capacity building through education and training. However, there is limited guidance on how to best structure service models. This review highlights the need for comprehensive and person-centred programme evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities-Revised (ABLA-R) is an assessment tool used by applied behavior analysis (ABA) service providers for determining the learning ability of clients with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder ASD. In this study, we combined an ABLA-R self-instructional manual (DeWiele et al., 2014) with video modeling and evaluated the effectiveness of the training package for teaching ABA service providers to administer the ABLA-R to the experimenter who role-played a child with ASD and to a child with ASD. We evaluated the training package using a single-subject, modified concurrent multiple-baseline (MB) design across a pair of participants, replicated across three other pairs of participants, plus a modified nonconcurrent MB design across a pair of participants, replicated across one other pair. Participants demonstrated a significant increase in the accuracy with which they administered the ABLA-R to an experimenter from baseline to post-test, and conducted the ABLA-R with high accuracy in a generalization assessment with a child with ASD. An implication of this research is that the self-instructional training package is an effective tool for training ABA service providers to accurately administer the ABLA-R to children with ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) is a tool that is used to assess the learning ability of individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and children with autism. The ABLA was recently revised and is now referred to as the ABLA-Revised (ABLA-R). A self-instructional manual was prepared to teach individuals how to administer the ABIA-R (DeWiele, Martin, Martin, Yu, & Thomson, 2011). Using a modified multiple-baseline design across a pair of university students, and replicated across four pairs, we evaluated the effectiveness of the ABLA-R self-instructional manual for teaching the students how to administer the ABLA-R Each student: (a) after examining a brief description of the ABLA-R, attempted to administer the ABLA-R to a confederate role-playing an individual with ID (Baseline); (b) studied the ABLA-R self-instructional manual (Training); and (c) re-attempted to administer the ABLA-R to a confederate (Post-Training Assessment). Participants who achieved at least 90% accuracy in conducting the ABLA-R in their Post-Training Assessment then administered the ABLA-R to an individual with ID in a Generalization Assessment. Although additional research is needed, our results suggest that the self-instructional manual is an effective tool for training individuals to accurately administer the ABLA-R [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) assesses the ease or difficulty with which persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) and children with autism are able to learn a simple imitation and five two-choice discriminations that are hierarchical in difficulty. ABLA Level 6 is a two-choice auditory discrimination. An auditory-auditory identity matching prototype task (AAIM PT) assesses a testee's ability to identify matching sounds. Published research indicates that the AAIM PT is more difficult than ABLA Level 6, and pass/fail performance on ABLA Level 6 and the AAIM PT are predictive of the ease or difficulty with which persons with ID and children with autism are able to learn certain language tasks. It is quite possible that the AAIM PT might be considered as ABLA Level 7. In order to determine if the skills needed to pass AAIM PT are precursors for vocal imitation, a method to teach AAIM must be developed. We therefore developed an experimental procedure for teaching AAIM tasks. In a single-subject AB design with replication within and across one person with ID and two children with autism, all three participants learned two AAIM tasks, and two participants generalized to a third AAIM task. The encouraging results provide a promising starting point for future research on teaching AAIM tasks to persons with ID and children with autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities -- Revised (ABLA-R) is used to assess the learning ability of individuals with developmental disabilities. To ensure that testers administer the ABLA-R with accuracy, Martin, Martin, Yu, Thomson and DeWiele (2011) created an ABLA-R tester evaluation form (ABLA-R TEF). We evaluated the reliability and validity of the ABLA-R TEF. In Phase 1, three ABLA-R experts rated each item on the ABLA-R TEF with a mean of 6.7 on a 7-point scale, demonstrating high face validity. In Phase 2, two trained observers obtained high mean interobserver agreement of 93.9% using the ABLA-R TEF for live scoring of testers' performances while they administered the ABLA-R. In Phase 3, the ABLA-R TEF scores of testers' performances, before and after receiving training on applying the ABLA-R, were significantly different. In Phase 4, the ABLA-R TEF scores of testers were significantly correlated with subjective ratings of the testers by ABLA-R experts, demonstrating high concurrent validity. Our research indicates that the ABLA-R TEF is a valid and reliable tool for assessing the quality of an ABLA-R assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]