Developmental research confirms the importance of early parental language input for building children's vocabulary and language skills (Hart & Risley, 1995). While reading with a caregiver is a common way for language input to occur, the approaches parents utilize often fail to capitalize on techniques for improving language and pre-literacy…

Feeding difficulties occur at a high rate in children with normal development and at a disproportionally high rate in children with developmental disabilities. Prolonged problematic eating, categorized as Pediatric Feeding Disorder (PFD), can result in poor physical growth and jeopardize overall health. Extant research on applied behavior analysis…

"Family and Adolescent Balanced Education and Leisure Occupations" (FABELO) is a training program designed for OTPs who work with learning-disabled adolescents in school and community settings. Background: Adolescents with a learning disability are often missing opportunities to engage in play and leisure as essential occupations. The…

Opportunity gaps emerge even before children begin learning to read, and early-literacy interventions therefore stand to be of greatest benefit early, before disparities become insurmountable. One of the earliest influences on a child's language development is input from their parents, and research has identified shared book reading as an…

Students with special education needs (SEN) are more vulnerable to school bullying, which is a prominent concern in Macau. Parents play a significant role in addressing and intervening in the bullying events. This study was an exploration of the experiences and perceptions of parents in Macau regarding their children with SEN being targeted for…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of helicopter parenting on first-year college students at a selected Historically Black College and University in Mississippi. Helicopter parenting is a style of parenting that involves excessive control and overprotection of children. This study utilized the social capital theory to evaluate…

Tact is the most important verbal operant (Skinner, 1957) due to the uniqueness of stimulus control and its role in facilitating acquisition of another verbal (e.g., mands, intraverbals) and nonverbal (i.e., listener) operants (Sundberg, 2015). Teaching tacts to children with ASD and the research on this area, however, are largely focused on…

Children with disabilities often engage in less complex play and fewer spontaneous pretend play behaviors. Research has highlighted the value of providing caregivers with sustained support to promote their active involvement in the learning of their children with disabilities. Caregivers; however, are rarely offered opportunities to facilitate…

Online education is an increasingly popular format of schooling used around the world (Digital Learning Collaborative, 2019). For students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), challenges with executive functioning skills like self-management can have a significant impact on their ability to successfully participate in online learning. With a…

The current study investigated the effects of a novel, research-informed intervention on listening comprehension skills of students identified as English Language Learners and the parental self-efficacy of their parental learning partner. Twenty-six student-parent dyads were split into two groups; one that participated in sixteen listening lessons…

An overview of the literature would suggest that post-secondary institutions are familiar with overparenting; however, little is known about how clinicians working in college counseling centers conceptualize overparenting and their experiences with it on campus. The current study involves a qualitative analysis that examines the perspectives and…

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by pervasive impairments, inhibiting social interaction and learning opportunities, often with ensuing behavior challenges (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Studies estimate that 25-30% of children with ASD do not develop flexible and consistent language (Hinzen et al., 2020; Schaeffer et…

The topic of the three chapters of this dissertation is empowering caregivers of children with or at high likelihood for autism to implement interventions in home settings with high fidelity to promote their child's social communication development. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the previous studies focused on caregiver-implemented early…

Children with Developmental Delay (DD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience challenging behaviors, including noncompliance, that impact individual and family functioning across settings. Due to developmental risk, parenting has emerged as being especially instrumental within this population, with positive parenting practices directly…

There are far too many painful stories about cyberbullying--stories about young adults and adolescents whose lives have been crushed or destroyed because of words, embarrassing pictures, and videos that have been posted on social media by their peers with the intention to defame their character and demean their self-esteem, sometimes to the point…