Evaluating Sources of Continuing Education and Professional Development Used by Behavior Analysts

Professional Development in Autism and Multilingualism for Behavior Analysts: A Randomized Waitlist Control Trial

PURPOSE

Autistic children and their families from heritage-language-speaking homes are underrepresented in empirical research and would benefit from receiving care tailored to their linguistic and cultural needs. Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) commonly support autistic children in the United States but have reported limited knowledge and training in how to support bilingual children, their families, nor the bilingual staff who support them. The following research question was addressed: Do BCBA leaders in autism care who complete an asynchronous online professional development training demonstrate (a) increased knowledge, (b) improved self-efficacy, and (c) improved attitudes toward supporting multilingual Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) staff and recipients of multilingual ABA services compared to BCBA leaders in a waitlist-control group?

METHOD

Part of a larger sequential exploratory mixed methods study, this randomized waitlist control trial measured the impacts of a professional development training related to autism and multilingualism in ABA care on BCBAs' knowledge, self-efficacy, and attitudes. Social validity data were also collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics.

RESULTS

The training significantly increased the intervention group's knowledge and reported self-efficacy compared to participants in the waitlist control group but had no significant effect on participants' attitudes. In addition, participants perceived the training as socially valid.

CONCLUSION

Implications highlight the need for more attention on professional development research for autism providers, to examine pre-service training, and for clinical leaders to examine their workplace environment to promote effective and fair practices.

A Call to Investigate and Improve the Research Literacy of Professional Behavior Analysts

The effectiveness of behavior-analytic service delivery is likely to depend in part on the process of applying knowledge from the laboratory to a service setting. Therefore, a regular review of the literature is an important part of effective practice. It has been proposed that a review of the literature is one of the pillars of evidence-based practice in applied behavior analysis. An effective review of the literature requires five distinct research literacy skills: (1) efficiently finding relevant research investigations or discussions; (2) accessing a full text copy; (3) reading and evaluating; (4) applying what was read to practice; and (5) staying current. In this paper we apply the Six Boxes Model to delineate behavioral influences and possible barriers to research literacy, suggest potential interventions to improve the research literacy of professional behavior analysts, and identify potential research opportunities in this area.

It's our job to bridge the gap: Perspectives of bilingual autism providers on heritage language care

LAY ABSTRACT

In the United States, many people have heritage languages they speak in their homes other than English, such as Chinese or Spanish. Autistic children whose families speak different languages could benefit from support and teaching in their heritage languages. Still, caregivers have reported that it is challenging to do so. Many autism professionals make suggestions that are not based on research. To date, researchers have not examined the perspectives of the small group of bilingual professionals in the United States who provide bilingual support for autistic children. Therefore, this study explored how bilingual autism providers in the United States talked about their work, bilingualism, and the impacts their bilingual work has on autistic children and families. The bilingual providers in this study reported many positive outcomes for autistic children when they can learn and use their heritage languages and some negative outcomes when providers cannot communicate in the same language. Recommendations from this study highlight the need to recruit more bilingual providers in the field of autism.