Schools are an essential setting for mental health supports and services for students. To support student well-being, schools engage in universal mental health screening to identify students in need of support and to provide surveillance data for districtwide or statewide policy changes. Mental health data have been collected via anonymous and…

The provision of reinforcement to increase desired behaviors is a crucial element of behavior analytic intervention for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Formal preference assessments, like the multiple stimulus without replacement procedure (MSWO), are often used to determine reinforcers used during intervention. While…

Restricted and repetitive behaviors are a core feature of autism spectrum disorder. This descriptive study documented the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors in 85 toddlers with autism spectrum disorder as they interacted with their caregiver in a play interaction. For each child restricted and repetitive behavior, a caregiver…

Empirical studies have documented a variety of social abnormalities in infancy that indicate risk for later social and behavioral difficulties. There is very little research illustrating the presence of such behavioral vulnerabilities with frequent repeated measures, and the feasibility of designing interventions for improving social engagement in…

Although evidence-based practices (EBPs) for educating children with autism, such as pivotal response training (PRT), exist, teachers often lack adequate training to use these practices. The current investigation examined the efficacy of a 6-hour group workshop plus individual coaching for training 20 teachers to use PRT. Results indicate that the…

Implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) for children with autism is challenging for teachers because these practices are often complex, requiring significant training and resources that are not available in most school settings. This brief investigation was designed to identify areas of strength and difficulty for teachers implementing one…

The effect of cognitive style and learning conditions on the rote verbal learning performance of Mexican American subjects classified as field independent or field dependent was investigated. Field dependent referred to a strong perceptual influence caused by the context or background while field independent referred to an ability to overcome the…