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The goal of this special issue is to highlight recent work advancing supportive interventions that facilitate meaningful access for persons with autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities to inclusive community-based settings. The special issue includes a literature synthesis focused on informal education settings, interventions for critical skills such as pool side safety, and articles focused on adults with disabilities. Notable strengths include long-term follow-up of intervention effects, investigation of novel settings such as airports and informal educational settings, and inclusion of adults with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caregiver-implemented interventions are increasingly utilized to address the needs of families of autistic children. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize the studies evaluating interventions implemented by caregivers of autistic teens and young adults. We identified 10 studies that evaluated the efficacy of a caregiver-implemented intervention for autistic adolescents and young adults. We analyzed information related to participant and methodological characteristics, dependent variables, caregiver involvement, caregiver implementation fidelity, social validity, design quality, and strength of the results. In the included studies, daily living skills were the most common outcome targeted for intervention. Caregiver training often consisted of some or all of the components of behavioral skills training. Seven of the ten included studies (70%) met the What Works Clearinghouse methodological design standards. Across studies, results suggest caregiver-implemented interventions improved outcomes for autistic individuals and caregivers rated the interventions as socially valid. The current body of literature provides initial support for the use of caregiver-implemented interventions to improve outcomes for autistic adolescents and young adults, although additional research in this area is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenging behavior tends to increase in levels during adolescence for individuals with developmental disabilities (DD). If not addressed, this can lead to negative post-school outcomes for adolescents with DD. The purposes of this meta-analysis were to examine the effects of behavioral intervention in reducing challenging behaviors of adolescents with DD and to identify variables that could potentially moderate these effects. This meta-analysis included thirty single-case design studies that met standards for methodological rigor and experimental control. Overall, behavioral interventions were found to yield moderate effects for adolescents with DD (overall Tau-U = 0.68, SD = 0.04, [0.62, 0.73]) across settings and types of challenging behaviors. With regards to participant and setting characteristics, verbal ability and classroom setting were found to moderate the effects of the intervention outcomes with statistical significance. No other variables produced similar findings. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were found between interventions that included or did not include planned reinforcement as an intervention component. Several implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenging behaviors are prevalent among adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). In this review, we used the What Works Clearinghouse Standards (WWC) to evaluate the quality of 84 studies that aimed to treat the challenging behaviors of adults with IDD, ages 22 years and older, using a function-based intervention. Then, we summarized 43 studies that met the WWC Standards with or without reservations. Overall, we found self-injurious behaviors were the most commonly targeted behaviors and functional analyses were the most frequently used functional behavior assessment. Function-based interventions were effective across the majority of the included studies. We discuss the findings and provide directions for future research and implications for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) may engage in challenging behavior. These behaviors present challenges to support staff who often lack training in effective behavior management procedures. Behavioral skills training (BST) is an empirically supported method of staff training and has been used to teach support staff a number of intervention skills. The purpose of this study was to extend the literature on BST and to examine the effects of BST on staff implementation of functional communication training (FCT) for three adults with IDD using a non-concurrent multiple baseline design. Results indicated that with BST, staff fidelity increased over baseline levels. With the addition of individualized coaching, staff implementation reached mastery criteria. Improvements in staff implementation fidelity corresponded with decreases in participant challenging behavior and increases in appropriate communication. Findings suggest that BST with coaching may be an effective method to train staff to implement FCT with adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deficits in social-communication skills are a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Deficits in social communication progress into adolescence and adulthood, making complex social interactions particularly difficult and preventing the development of meaningful friendships. Interventions aimed to improve conversational skills needed to foster development of relationships for this age group are needed. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of instructional modules and covert audio coaching (CAC), on the frequency of question asking skills among college students diagnosed with ASD. Four college females diagnosed with ASD and six neurotypical peers participated in the current study. The effects of the instructional modules and covert audio coaching were evaluated using a concurrent multiple-baseline design. CAC was associated with variable increases in the frequency of question asking across participants. The introduction of a feedback phase resulted in further increases in the frequency of question asking for two of the participants. Results suggest that CAC is feasible and may be an effective tool to teach conversation skills to female college students with ASD. Further, participants indicated they found the intervention helpful and preferred it to other interventions in which they had previously experienced. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current review summarized 54 peer-reviewed articles concerning the assessment treatment of self-injurious behavior (SIB) in adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Results indicated that functional analysis was most commonly used to identify the operant function of SIB. Noncontingent reinforcement, differential reinforcement, functional communication training and response blocking were found to be the most frequently implemented interventions across studies. The methodological quality of each study was evaluated using the Council for Exceptional Children quality indicator standards. None of the included studies met all indicators to be considered methodologically sound. Directions for future research and implications for practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]