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A Practical Guide for Finding Interventions That Work for Autistic People

Diversity-Affirming Evidence-Based Practice

  • 2nd Edition - July 29, 2024
  • Latest edition
  • Author: Susan M. Wilczynski
  • Language: English

A Practical Guide for Finding Interventions that Work for Autistic People: Diversity Affirming Evidence-Based Practice, second edition, provides a socially valid, culturally sensit… Read more

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Description

A Practical Guide for Finding Interventions that Work for Autistic People: Diversity Affirming Evidence-Based Practice, second edition, provides a socially valid, culturally sensitive, and person-centered resource to aid practitioners in guiding the selection of effective interventions. By providing multiple illustrative examples, practitioners will learn to use their professional judgment to integrate the best available evidence with client values and context. The second edition includes new chapters on diversity affirmation and cultural adaptations of interventions, quality of life, self-determination, guided decision-making, and ethics as foundational skills for identifying effective, socially valid interventions that are delivered with compassion and assent/consent.

Key features

  • Presents a detailed description of the diversity-affirming evidence-based practice decision-making model
  • Offers a framework that helps practitioners integrate the best available evidence with client values and context
  • Demonstrates how to culturally adapt interventions and center decision-making on the client
  • Guides practitioners through the process of assessing intervention outcomes that fit with client values and contextual variables
  • Provides numerous concrete examples involving Autistic people holding many intersecting identities

Readership

Clinical psychologists, Psychiatrists, Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), and other professionals who work directly with children with ASD

Table of contents

Introduction: What is the problem with Applied Behavior Analysis?
A. Understanding contemporary problems in the field of ABA
B. Implicit bias through a behavioral lens
C. Anti-oppression: What is anti-oppression and how is it connected to diversity, equity, and inclusion?
D. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable: Moving from being a technician an analyst
E. Social validity: Our history and our way forward
F. Social validity and evidence-based practice

Section I: Evidence-based practice as a treatment selection model.

1: A brief overview
A. Why professional decision-making requires mindful deliberation
B. What the client as the center of decision-making means
C. The role of interested parties in decision-making
D. Social validity and evidence-based practice
E. Evidence, ethics, and pragmatic behavior analysis

2: Ethics and evidence-based practice

Section II: Sources and strength of evidence

3: Evidence: Critically evaluating outcomes of single-subject research design studies
A. The strengths and limitations of single-subject research design
B. The strengths, limitations, and delimitations of existing single-subject research involving Autistic participants

4: Systematic reviews
A. What are systematic reviews: The good, the bad, and the ugly
B. Why do different systematic reviews report different outcomes?
C. Bias at the foundation of systematic reviews: Why we must be cautious interpreting results

5: Alternate sources of evidence
A. Narrative reviews and practice guidelines
B. Principles of ABA
C. Client history & current client data
D. Bias in alternate sources of evidence

6: Overestimating or underestimating evidence in behavior analysis

Section III: Social Validity and Initial Intervention Selection

7: Three dimensions of social validity
A. Anti-oppressive selection of intervention targets
B. Intervention acceptability: Person-centered and compassionate care
C. Meaningful improvements: Harm and quality of life


8: Social validity and your client
A. Intervention targets: Self-determination, person-centered care, anti-oppression, and behavior analysis
B. Assessing Preferences: From reinforcer identification to intervention partiality
C. Motivating operations, antecedent interventions, and least restrictive environment
D. Client health – part 2: Referring to other professionals
E. Prioritizing intervention options that reflect choice and preferences, generalization, and quality of life
F. Intervention Acceptability: Instruments and behavioral observations
G. Sneak peak: Making a meaningful difference

9: Social validity and interested parties
A. Caregivers, educators, administrators, and other people who share lives with Autistic clients
B. Intervention acceptability: Instruments and behavioral observations
C. Intervention Feasibility: Resources, supports, and risks to procedural accuracy
D. Bias and social validity of interested parties
E. Sneak peak: Making a meaningful difference

Section IV: Professional Judgment

10: Research alone is not the answer
A. Remembering the limitations and delimitations of research
B. Cultural humility, cultural awareness, and cultural sensitivity
C. The current state of social validity research

11: Consensus-building without marginalizing Autistic clients
A. Interdisciplinary engagement
B. Consensus building
C. Autistic clients at the centering of intervention decisions

12: Initial intervention selection
A. Weighing and Integrating information
B. Building an implementation plan: BIPs and beyond

13: Progress monitoring
A. Mismatched behavior
B. Social validity: Affect and motivation
C. Social validity: Feasibility and maintain interventions

14: What next?
A. Evidence-based practice as an iterative process
B. Social validity and decisions to retain, adapt, or reject interventions
C. Least restrictive environment?: Developing a plan to fade effective interventions
D. Adapting or rejecting interventions and moving forward

Section V: Conclusions

15: Putting it all together for ethical service delivery
A. Aligning our purpose as behavior analysts with our application of behavioral principles
B. Anti-oppression: Self-evaluation, self-reflection, and self-forgiveness
C. Scope of competence and evidence-based practice
D. Evidence-based practice will always be an iterative process

Appendices:
A. Reliable resources
B. Anti-oppression & EBP checklist
C. Implementation Plan Checklist

Review quotes

"As a practitioner committed to delivering compassionate, evidence-based care, I found A Practical Guide for Finding Interventions that Work for Autistic People, second edition to be an indispensable resource. Wilczynski’s focus on culturally sensitive, person-centered approaches fills a critical gap in our field, offering practical tools and insights for selecting interventions that are both effective and respectful of client autonomy. The inclusion of new chapters on diversity affirmation and ethics further elevates this guide, making it a must-read for any behavior analyst dedicated to social validity and meaningful client outcomes."— Mychal Machado, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LBA, University of Alaska Anchorage

"Every practitioner and trainee who works with or aspires to work with autistic people should read this book. It goes beyond evidence-based practice to integrating compassion and respect with effective practice to recognize the impact of and honor the experience of autistic people with intersectional identities. The perspectives of autistic people who have shared concerns about the way they are treated come through loud and clear to motivate and inspire practitioners to prioritize autonomy, dignity, and the individual’s preferences, when identifying effective and culturally adapted interventions. about making ethical decisions. This book will be required reading in our BCBA preparation program!"— Jennifer McComas, The University of Minnesota, College of Education and Human Development

Product details

  • Edition: 2
  • Latest edition
  • Published: July 29, 2024
  • Language: English

About the author

SW

Susan M. Wilczynski

Dr. Susan Wilczynski is the Plassman Family Distinguished Professor at Ball State University, a licensed psychologist, and a board-certified behavior analyst. She holds a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion certificate from Cornell University. Susan conducts research on training practitioners to use the diversity affirming evidence-based practice decision-making model, which strongly emphasizes social validity, quality of life, and person-centered care. She serves on the nursing division of Wolters-Kluwer Publishing House’s diversity advisory board. Susan is the former Coordinator for ABAI’s Practice Board, served on their Task Force for the Promotion of Quality and Values-Based ABA, and on their Licensing Committee. As the former Executive Director of the National Autism Center, she chaired the first National Standards Project, the most comprehensive systematic review of behavioral and educational interventions supporting Autistic people of its time. She developed the first center-based intervention program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Susan has edited and/or written multiple books, including Postsecondary Transition for College- or Career-Bound Autistic Students. She has published in numerous journals such as Behavior Analysis in Practice, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, and Psychology in the Schools.

Affiliations and expertise
Ball State University, Teachers College, Muncie, IN, USA

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