Teaching Early Reading Skills to Adults With Intellectual Disabilities Using a Support Worker/Family Carer Mediated Online Reading Programme: A Feasibility Randomised Controlled Trial.

Background: There is a paucity of research into interventions that help people with intellectual disabilities learn to read. This feasibility study examines whether an online reading programme, Headsprout, with additional support strategies and supervision (the intervention), can be delivered by support workers/family carers and the feasibility of conducting a later large-scale effectiveness trial.

Methods: The study used a 2-arm randomised controlled trial (RCT) design with an embedded process evaluation using a mixed methods approach.

Exploring the Use of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) in Special Education Settings.

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system which is widely used to support children with developmental disabilities. In the present study, we surveyed individuals responsible for implementing PECS in special educational settings in the United Kingdom (N=283). We explored knowledge of and adherence to the  intervention, with a view to identifying training and support needs.

Challenging behaviour and its risk factors in children and young people in a special school setting: A four wave longitudinal study.

Background: Longitudinal research is needed to strengthen evidence for risk factors for challenging behaviour in children with intellectual disabilities and to understand patterns of change over time.

Methods: Data on challenging behaviour were collected for 225 students in one school over four annual time points and a range of potential risk correlates. Data were analysed using Generalised Estimating Equations.

The READ-IT study protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial of using a support worker/family carer mediated online reading programme to teach early reading skills to adults with intellectual disabilities.

Background: Many individuals with intellectual disability (ID) have not learnt basic reading skills by the time that they reach adulthood, potentially limiting their access to critical information. READ-IT is an online reading programme developed from the Headsprout® Early Reading (HER®) intervention and supplemented by support strategies tailored for adults with ID. HER® has been successfully used to teach adults with ID to read in a forensic setting by trained staff.

Exposure to challenging behaviour and staff psychological well-being: The importance of psychological flexibility and organisational support in special education settings.

Background And Aims: The present study examines the levels of psychological distress (anxiety, depression, stress) and burnout and their relationship to challenging behaviour, amongst staff working in a special education setting. It further examines the relationships between psychological distress and burnout and psychological flexibility, role clarity and workplace support.

Methods And Procedures: This was a cross-sectional survey of staff (N = 145) self-report data on exposure to challenging behaviour (CB), and contingent emotional reactions as well as psychological distress, burnout, perceived organisational support and psychological flexibility.

Teaching early reading skills to children with severe intellectual disabilities using Headsprout Early Reading.

Background: Beginning reading skills are often taught using phonics. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of phonics with typically developing students, but less research has evaluated this method with students with intellectual disabilities.

Method: This paper evaluated the computerized phonics-based intervention Headsprout Early Reading with eight students aged 7-19 years with severe intellectual disability.

Effects of computer simulation training on in vivo discrete trial teaching.

Although Discrete-trial Teaching (DTT) is effective in teaching a many skills to children with autism, its proper implementation requires rigorous staff training. This study used an interactive computer simulation program ("DTkid") to teach staff relevant DTT skills. Participants (N = 12) completed two sets of pre-tests either once (n = 7) or twice (n = 5) before brief DTkid training.

Outcomes of a behavioral education model for children with autism in a mainstream school setting.

The authors report 1-year outcomes for 11 children (3-7 years) with autism who attended an "Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) classroom" educational intervention in a mainstream school setting. The children learned new skills by the end of 1 year and learned additional skills during a 2nd year. Group analysis of standardized test outcomes (IQ and adaptive behavior) showed moderate to large effect size changes over 1 year, with further changes during a 2nd year.

Parents' experiences of home-based applied behavior analysis programs for young children with autism.

Although much research has documented the benefits to children with autism of early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI), little has focused on the impact of EIBI on families. Using a semi-structured format, we interviewed 53 parents whose children had received 2 years of EIBI to obtain detailed first person accounts of the perceived benefits and pitfalls of running a home program, and the impact of EIBI on family life and support systems. In general, parents were positive about EIBI, its benefits for them, their child, and the broader family.

Teaching children with autism when reward is delayed. The effects of two kinds of marking stimuli.

Three children with autism were taught to identify pictures of emotions in response to their spoken names. Their speed of acquisition was compared using a within-child alternating treatments design across three teaching conditions, each involving a 5 second delay to reinforcement. In the marked-before condition, an instruction encouraged the children to visually orient to the cards before they made their choice response; in the marked-after condition, an attention-eliciting verbal cue (e.

Teaching children with autism using conditioned cue-value and response-marking procedures: a socially valid procedure.

Five children with autism were taught to match printed words to corresponding pictures. Participants' speed of learning was compared across three training conditions, each involving a 5-s delay of reinforcement, using a within-participants alternating treatments design. In the cue-value condition, a verbal phrase of approval (e.

Discrete-trial training for autistic children when reward is delayed: a comparison of conditioned cue value and response marking.

Three children with autism were taught to identify pictures of objects. Their speed of acquisition of receptive speech skills was compared across two conditions. In the cue-value condition, a compound audiovisual stimulus was presented after correct responses and again when a primary reinforcer was delivered after a 5-s delay; in the response-marking condition, a second stimulus was presented after both correct and incorrect responses, but not prior to the primary reinforcer.