Almost everyone enjoys a walk through a garden, bending to sniff a flower, enjoying a fresh air breeze, listening to water bubbling from a fountain, and watching sunlight dapple through trees and plants. At Allegheny Valley School (AVS), the emphasis on multisensory environments (MSE) for individuals with intellectual and developmental…

Introduction: Since the development of inclusion and integration, parents have increasingly become the major, and sometimes the only, carers of their children with disabilities. Many families speak of stress and frustration with service and community support, and some have turned to residential and specialised day care services to overcome…

Staff training is a critical performance improvement objective within behavioral health care organizations. This study evaluated a systematic training program for teaching applied behavior analysis knowledge competencies to newly hired direct-care employees at a day and residential habilitation services agency for adults with intellectual and…

Background: Individuals with severe disability exiting school are likely to be enrolled in day activity and sheltered workshops at least as often as in supported employment. Such facilities are often staffed by paraprofessionals who may not have the skills to engage clients in meaningful activities. This article describes a 3-phase staff training…

Data demonstrate that the majority of persons in residential facilities for people with mental retardation participate in daytime programing. State institution residents were less likely to have daytime programs than residents of community-based living arrangements. Resident and facility characteristics relating to probability of participation and…

A farmstead community in Northwest Ohio, called Bittersweet Farms, serves as a habilitation program for autistic adults, involving 20 residents ranging from profoundly retarded to high functioning and 15 developmentally delayed adults who are part of an agricultural day program. The community is designated as an Intermediate Care Facility for the…