Parental Knowledge, Acceptability, and Involvement in Applied Behavior Analysis for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Objective To compare and analyze the short-term effect of play-based communication and behavior intervention (PCBI) and applied behavioral analysis (ABA) on the treatment of toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods Seventy-four ASD toddlers aged from 19 to 30 months were recruited in Nanjing Brain Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University from November 2017 to May 2018.The toddlers who participated in this study were randomly assigned into PCBI group and ABA group, then they were intervened weekly by PCBI or ABA for a total of 12 weeks.Portage Early Development Checklist and autism treatment evaluation checklist (ATEC) were used to estimate the toddlers′ developmental level and the treatment efficacy respectively.The t-test was used to reveal whether there was significant difference between the 2 groups before and after intervention. Results (1)Compared with the ABA group, there was a significant increase in cognitive scores (ΔPCBI=9.03 scores, ΔABA=4.27 scores, t=3.997) and a significant decrease in social behavior scores (ΔPCBI=8.87 scores, ΔABA=16.91 scores, t=-4.022) of the Portage Early Development Checklist after 12 weeks of intervention in the PCBI group, and there were statistically significant differences(all P 0.05). (2)Compared with the ABA group, after 12 weeks of PCBI intervention, the scores of social contact, perception, behavior of ATEC were decreased, but the difference was not significant (P>0.05); the total score of ATEC scale(ΔPCBI total=14.89 scores, ΔABA total=22.22 scores, t=2.209)and the scores of language subscale(ΔPCBI language=2.89 scores, ΔABA language=6.43 scores, t=2.515)were decreased significantly, and there were statistically significant differences (all P<0.05). Conclusions After 12 weeks of the very early intervention of PCBI, the ASD toddlers all improved in clinical symptoms and developmental level.Compared with ABA intervention, PCBI very early intervention with parental guidance was comparable in short term efficacy, and PCBI was not taking up as much medical rehabilitation resources as ABA. Key words: Autism spectrum disorder; Toddler; Very early intervention; Play-based communication behavior intervention; Efficacy evaluation

Scientific research data evidences that the number of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is growing in Lithuania, as general global trend, however, Lithuanian educators are still unprepared to learn students with ASD (Diržytė, Mikulėnaitė ir Kalvaitis, 2016). One of the reasons of this issue – students’ behavior problems, which significantly disturbs the process of education. The education system in Lithuania has not yet found its unified model of education for effective intervention plans for students with problem behavior, while Functional behavior assessment (FBA) is already successfully used to reduce problem behavior of children with ASD in the United States and in part of Western European countries. The purpose of this article – to explore the practice of Western countries in the application of FBA procedures for the purposes of developing interventions for students with ASD. The meta-analysis of secondary data was performed for the purposes of this research. The article deals only with those studies’ results, which are directly related to the core problem of this article. The overview of the foreign studies has clearly shown that FBA methods may be effectively applied in both – group and individual learning – to reduce problem behaviours of children with ASD. FBA is a process when the variables influencing problem behavior are identified and this allows you to identify an effective treatment for severe problem behavior. The FBA provides the means to reduce challenging behavior sets for students with ASD and to use the outcomes of an FBA to develop function-based intervention plans. Data is essential in determining the effectiveness of an intervention and its durability. Behavior problems of students with ASD have been addressed successfully by using reinforcement of alternative behavior and extinction of inappropriate behavior. Additional research is necessary in order to find out and justify the effectiveness of the application of FBA in the Lithuanian realm.

Parental monitoring is recognized as one of the most important factors in the adjustment of children and adolescents. Contemporary interpretations of parental monitoring emphasize the importance of parents knowing where their children and adolescents are, who they are with, and how they spend their time when unsupervised. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between parental monitoring and parental involvement, from the parents’ perspective. Additionally, the study seeks to explore indirect relations between parental involvement, and parental knowledge with sources of parental knowledge (adolescent self-disclosure, parental solicitation and parental control) as a mediating factor. The sample consisted of 216 parents (82.1% female). Data on parental involvement were collected using the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire and assessed using the Parental Monitoring Scale. The results indicate that parental gender and age, parental involvement, parental solicitation, child self-disclosure, and parental control account for 60.4% of the variance in parental knowledge. No direct link was found between parental involvement and parental knowledge, while the indirect effects of parental involvement on parental knowledge were found for paren tal solicitation (Z = 5.942; p &lt; .001), and parental control (Z = 3.079; p &lt; .01). The findings are discussed considering the significance of active parental involvement during adolescence.

Introduction Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a set of heterogeneous neurodevelopmental conditions, characterised by difficulties in social communication and restricted, repetitive behaviours and interests. There are several rehabilitative interventions for individuals with ASD but the evidence of their effectiveness is low or moderate overall. The transition phase of ASD individuals from adolescence to adulthood represents an important challenge. Adults with ASD struggle to access employment or independent living. Methods In our study, we evaluated the effect of three different high-intensity interventions, namely Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication-Handicapped Children (TEACCH) and Behavioural Educational Intervention (BEI), in 93 ASD (levels 2 and 3) adolescents (age range 12–18 years). Results Our results showed that all adolescents with ASD reported an improvement of core symptoms, regardless of the type of treatment. Conclusions A high intensity intervention ameliorates the core symptoms of ASD, enriching evidence of effectiveness regarding adolescents with ASD. KEY POINTS Individuals with ASD need lifespan support and they struggle to access employment, independent living and community inclusion. There are several rehabilitative interventions for individuals with ASD but the evidence of their effectiveness in adolescents is insufficient. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the possible enhancement produced by three intensive interventions (ABA, TEACCH, BEI) of symptom severity and adaptive functions. Results show that independently of the treatment, individuals with ASD decrease in ASD severity. Individuals who were treated with the BEI and TEACCH programmes reported improvements in the adaptive domains.

There is growing awareness of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the Czech Republic. As a result, there has been an increasing number of diagnoses, more services have become available, and legislation has been developed with regard to practices for children with ASD. In the past, families seeking services to support the needs of children with ASD had limited options. Teaching methodology based on applied behaviour analysis (ABA) for children with ASD was not available prior to 2016. Even though ABA has now reached the Czech Republic, the full extent of its prevalence in the region is unclear. There has been a lack of information regarding the accessibility of services, the details of practitioners, the characteristics of clients, facets of services, its integration with other practices, and challenges associated with its usage. Therefore, the aim of this study was to survey all self-identified ABA practitioners within the region (N = 40) in order to better understand the current state of ABA provision in the Czech Republic. The results show that although there has been a movement towards the increased availability of ABA support for children with ASD, more needs to be done in terms of training and support.

Socially assistive robots (SAR) have the potential to impact therapies for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by supporting clinicians in increasing learning opportunities presented to individuals. Recent research on robot-mediated intervention (RMI) delivery has predominantly addressed social deficits in ASD with positive outcomes. Current literature has minimal focus on teaching children with ASD a skill not known apriori by the individual. Furthermore, it is unclear how to integrate robots in clinical settings because current RMIs do not adhere to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) protocols. In this work, we investigated whether a RMI could be utilized to teach children with ASD a completely new language and communication skill they could not exhibit at baseline. We utilized a standard ABA assessment tool to first identify appropriate skills to teach children with ASD. We then developed, implemented, and evaluated a RMI intervention that followed standard clinical operating procedures in ABA and targets participants’ unique skill deficits. We examined the effects of the RMI training on teaching wh-question answering. All sessions were conducted with the SAR as the primary therapist using evidenced-based ABA human teaching protocols. All participants acquired the wh-questions answering skill within seven sessions which is in line with their typical acquisitions rates.

To make possible the inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in mainstream settings, parental knowledge and attitudes towards the disorder play a key role between the home and the school setting. However, prior literature has not carried out an in-depth analysis of parents’ knowledge about ASD and their attitudes toward the inclusion of children with this diagnosis. This study examined the parental attitudes towards inclusion and knowledge about ASD. Participants were parents of children with ASD (n = 75), parents of children without ASD whose children had prior or current contact with peers with ASD (n = 44), and parents of children with no previous interactions with a peer with ASD (n = 51). The Attitudes of Regular Educators Towards Inclusion for Students with Autism Survey and the Autism Knowledge Questionnaire were filled out. Nonparametric statistical tests were used. Results showed that parents of children with ASD have better knowledge about this disorder and hold more favorable attitudes towards the inclusion of children with ASD than the other parents. These findings suggest that the benefits of inclusive schooling are limited to the school setting and do not appear to affect families of children without ASD.

In Sri Lanka, the prevalence and detection of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) has increased in recent times. Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is an evidence based intervention in ASDs. In Sri Lanka the principals and methods of ABA are used as part of generalized intervention rather than a stand-alone intervention. This paper discusses how an evidence based intervention such as ABA can be adapted, so that it is effective and accepted in a different culture. This is important as concepts that come in ABA such as reinforcement is influenced by culture. Cultural awareness allows the therapist to utilise aspects of culture such as appropriate reframes to increase the acceptability of an intervention. ABA can be a very useful intervention in less resourced and culturally different situations when adapted in an appropriate way.

Parent training programs focus on parent knowledge and/or skill development regarding strategies to improve child outcomes. Parent training programs are considered evidenced-based treatments for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet little is known about parent training use for youth with ASD served in community settings. This mixed methods project examined parent training for Medicaid-enrolled youth with ASD under age 21. Data were obtained from Medicaid claims for 879 youth and surveys from 97 applied behavior analysis (ABA) providers. Open-ended survey items were analyzed with content analysis. Results demonstrated that the frequency of parent training was low and providers' conceptualization of parent training was inconsistent with evidence-based models. Providers are largely unaware of evidence-based components (i.e., modeling, caregiver practice with feedback) and use them infrequently. Implications for increasing parent training in community settings are discussed.

Autism is a group of neurodevelopment disorders characterized by impaired communication, impaired social interaction and restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviours or interests in the first 3 years of life. It shows a strong male bias and found four times more in males than in females. According to a study in the US, in 2014, overall 1.68% of victims were reported to have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), whereas the percentage was increased by 15% and 150% respectively over the year 2012 and 2000. Numerous genes have been discovered that have roles in ASD but still a good understanding of the pathophysiological process of ASD is not established. ASD costs are estimated to be approximately $250 billion annually in the U.S. Moreover, it is suggested that by 2025, ASD costs will rise to over $450 billion. Thus, the financial burden on families is increasing. There is no effective screening tool for proper diagnosis is available. Based on Infant Toddler Checklist (ITC) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5) some tests like ADOS-G, ADI-R, CARS etc. are used for diagnosis. There are medications to cure symptoms but no single medication for ASD. However, some therapies (like ABA- Applied Behavioural Analysis, DTT- Discrete Trial Training, and Symptomatic treatments, etc.) are there that show positive responses towards improvement from a disease state. Some crucial advancement has been achieved in the last decades. Here in the work we have focused on the diagnostic methods and treatment available for the symptoms of Autism. So, it can be said that the day is not too far away when the remedy to cut the curse of autism will be in our hands.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are commonly occurring group of neurodevelopmental conditions and applied behaviour analysis (ABA) is used to treat a range of their core symptoms as well as psychopathology and challenging behaviours.Present study is a systematic analysis that synthesizes present literature about use and efficacy of ABA to treat ASD, trends in use of ABA, and variables that may affect the treatment.For these 18 studies were selected and analysed it is extracted that as an early childhood intervention ABA is effective treatment of ASD.Systematic review shows that efficacy remains unquestionable even if it is implemented in some later stage of childhood.It is also suggested that ABA improves social, cognitive, language, adaptive and independent living skills as well as functional, cognitive domain and developmental delays.Parental training, professional education, and individual factors impact efficacy of ABA, however, conclusions regarding intervention's intensity and duration on efficacy of intervention need further research.

This manuscript provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of applied behavior analysis (ABA) on children and youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Seven online databases and identified systematic reviews were searched for published, peer-reviewed, English-language studies examining the impact of ABA on health outcomes. Measured outcomes were classified into eight categories: cognitive, language, social/communication, problem behavior, adaptive behavior, emotional, autism symptoms, and quality of life (QoL) outcomes. Improvements were observed across seven of the eight outcome measures. There were no included studies that measured subject QoL. Moreover, of 770 included study records, only 32 (4%) assessed ABA impact, had a comparison to a control or other intervention, and did not rely on mastery of specific skills to mark improvement. Results reinforce the need for large-scale prospective studies that compare ABA with other non-ABA interventions and include measurements of subject QoL to provide policy makers with valuable information on the impacts of ABA and other existing and emerging interventions.

Emotion recognition from wearable physiology could enable timely, personalized support when behavioural cues are atypical or self-report is limited. This need is particularly acute for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) during Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, where therapists must often infer internal states indirectly and in real time. Although Transformer architectures excel at modelling complex temporal dependencies, most physiological emotion-recognition models are developed on neurotypical cohorts and are rarely evaluated under therapy-relevant validation protocols or integrated into operational ABA workflows. Here, we show that a supervised Transformer operating on continuous 1D peripheral physiological time series supports practical emotion recognition for ASD intervention and is associated with measurable improvements in therapy. Using therapist annotations strictly as training targets (not as input features), we benchmarked the model on an expert-curated dataset of 1,459,337 therapist-labelled samples from <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n=12$</tex-math></inline-formula> students with ASD collected during authentic sessions, achieving Leave-One-Session-Out (LOSecO) subject-specific accuracies of 84.28% (valence), 85.73% (arousal), and 80.26% (5-class emotion). In an independent user-study cohort (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N=33$</tex-math></inline-formula>, 1,722 sessions), integrating the system into ABA sessions was associated with statistically significant improvements in students' performance compared with standard practice. The system is further deployed in a production ABA platform serving over 2,000 students across 88 sites in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Canada, with 18 ms per-window inference latency and 99.97% uptime over three months. Our results demonstrate that Transformer-based physiological emotion recognition can be implemented reliably within the constraints of large-scale special education platforms, supporting practical translation from algorithmic performance to real-world intervention settings.

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition with varied presentations and outcomes. Parental involvement has emerged as a significant factor influencing prognosis. This study evaluates the outcomes of children diagnosed with ASD based on DSM-5 criteria, with a focus on the role of active parental involvement. Methods: This retrospective observational study included 436 children diagnosed with ASD between 2020 and 2024. Diagnosis was confirmed using DSM-5 criteria. Data on comorbidities, therapeutic interventions, behavioral symptoms, and outcomes were analyzed. All children underwent individualized therapy plans with structured parental participation. Results: Of the 436 children included, 53 (12.2%) were lost to follow-up. Significant clinical improvement was noted in 200 children (45.9%), while 30 (6.9%) achieved near-normal functioning. ADHD was present in 60%, speech and language disorders in 80%, epilepsy in 10%, and sleep disturbances in 70%. Educational delays were common. Temper tantrums occurred in 20%. Fifty percent of children reported rapid improvement with LCarnosine (200 mg twice daily). Conclusion: Parental involvement significantly contributes to improved outcomes in children with ASD. A multimodal approach combining professional therapies with home-based engagement enhances progress, especially in speech and behavior. L-Carnosine showed promise as a supportive intervention and warrants further controlled trials. Epilepsy, as a comorbidity, should be actively screened and managed in this population.

Lack of appropriate curricula access can have a profound impact on the academic progress of students with autism spectrum disorder. This study sought to investigate and improve the delivery of teaching and learning for students with autism spectrum disorder. Participants and data collected in Cycle 1 consisted of interviews with educators who offered focus areas on the types of academic delivery methodologies for students with autism. Action steps were conceived, implemented, and evaluated in Cycle 2 to develop a professional development series designed to expand the use of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) methodology and the use of the Autism Curriculum Encyclopedia (ACE) with the general education curricula. The development series was delivered to a cohort of educators focused on the expansion of ABA/ ACE and developing lesson plans using key elements within ABA/ ACE to increase student access. Three sessions were developed and co-facilitated by educators at the host research site culminating in participants delivering general education curricula lessons using elements of ABA/ ACE. Evaluating the results of this Action Research study included an analysis of pre-determined objectives as well as participant survey results. This study concluded that Applied Behavioral Analysis improved the delivery of teaching and learning for students with autism by including elements of the Autism Curriculum Encyclopedia. Participants identified learning component break down, data collection and student reinforcement as key element reasons for improvement in student learning. Implications for the organization included specific methods for merging general education curricula with the elements of ABA/ ACE in order to maximize student progress. Capitalizing on what they determined to be the three most effective elements, educators realized a deeper method of teaching for wider group of students.--Author's abstract