Emergency preparedness of families of children with developmental disabilities: what public health and safety emergency planners need to know.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the emergency preparedness knowledge, behaviors, and training needs of families of children with developmental disabilities (DD). DESIGN: An online survey. PARTICIPANTS: A sample of 314 self-selecting US parents/guardians of children with DD, aged birth-21 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 1) Preparedness self-assessment; 2) self-report regarding the extent to which families followed 11 specific preparedness action steps derived from publicly available preparedness guides; and 3) parent training and support needs. RESULTS: Although most participants assessed themselves to be somewhat to moderately well prepared, even those who reported being "very well prepared" had taken fewer than half of 11 recommended action steps. Most participants expressed a need for preparedness support; virtually all the respondents felt that training was either important or very important. CONCLUSIONS: Children with disabilities are known to be particularly vulnerable to negative disaster impacts. Overall, parents in this study appeared under-prepared to meet family disaster needs, although they recognized its importance. The results suggest opportunities and methods for public health and safety planning, education and outreach to parents of children with DD who would benefit from targeted training such as information and skill building to develop effective family preparedness plans and connections to local emergency management and responders.

Emergency preparedness of families of children with developmental disabilities: what public health and safety emergency planners need to know.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the emergency preparedness knowledge, behaviors, and training needs of families of children with developmental disabilities (DD). DESIGN: An online survey. PARTICIPANTS: A sample of 314 self-selecting US parents/guardians of children with DD, aged birth-21 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 1) Preparedness self-assessment; 2) self-report regarding the extent to which families followed 11 specific preparedness action steps derived from publicly available preparedness guides; and 3) parent training and support needs. RESULTS: Although most participants assessed themselves to be somewhat to moderately well prepared, even those who reported being "very well prepared" had taken fewer than half of 11 recommended action steps. Most participants expressed a need for preparedness support; virtually all the respondents felt that training was either important or very important. CONCLUSIONS: Children with disabilities are known to be particularly vulnerable to negative disaster impacts. Overall, parents in this study appeared under-prepared to meet family disaster needs, although they recognized its importance. The results suggest opportunities and methods for public health and safety planning, education and outreach to parents of children with DD who would benefit from targeted training such as information and skill building to develop effective family preparedness plans and connections to local emergency management and responders.

Innovations in Behavioral Intervention Preparation for Paraprofessionals Working with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Given the empirically validated success of behavioral intervention based on applied behavior analysis for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities, the demand for knowledgeable and skilled paraprofessional teaching staff is very high. Unfortunately, there currently exists a widely recognized shortage of such practitioners. This paper describes the development of an online training program aimed at preparing paraprofessionals for face-to-face training and supervision, as part of a solution to the growing demand. The focus of the program has been on moving beyond traditional online pedagogy, which has limited interactivity. Instead, the approach to teaching fundamental knowledge and implementation skills in behavioral intervention methods incorporates first-person simulations, typical of live mentor/mentee training. Preliminary program evaluation data are also described.

Educating first responders to provide emergency services to individuals with disabilities.

OBJECTIVE: Individuals with disabilities experience more negative outcomes due to natural and manmade disasters and emergencies than do people without disabilities. This vulnerability appears to be due in part to knowledge gaps among public health and safety emergency planning and response personnel (responders). We assessed the effectiveness of an online program to increase emergency responder knowledge about emergency planning and response for individuals with disabilities. METHODS: Researchers developed an online course designed to teach public health, emergency planning and management, and other first response personnel about appropriate, efficient, and equitable emergency planning, response, interaction, and communication with children and adults with disabilities before, during, and after disasters or emergencies. Course features included an ongoing storyline, exercises embedded in the form of real-life scenarios, and game-like features such as points and timed segments. RESULTS: Evaluation measures indicated significant pre- to post-test gains in learner knowledge and simulated applied skills. CONCLUSION: An online program using scenarios and simulations is an effective way to make disability-related training available to a wide variety of emergency responders across geographically disparate areas.

Discovering Behavioral Intervention: A Parent's Interactive Guide to ABA.

BACKGROUND: Estimates suggest the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders affects one in every 110 children. While early behavioral intervention based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) has strong empirical support, few parents are equipped to manage the variety and intensity of services their children will require. METHOD: Focus groups with parents and service providers helped to inform the development of Discovering Behavioral Intervention: A Parent's Interactive Guide to ABA. INTRODUCTION: Autism Spectrum Disorders is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by severe deficits in social and language development that affect a person's ability to communicate, form social relationships and respond appropriately to the environment. ABA treatment can result in meaningful and functional changes in language, social behavior and adaptive functioning. FINDINGS: DBI resulted in significant increases in knowledge and parents found the material to be engaging, practical, and relevant to their child's needs. Parents also reported high levels of satisfaction with the material.

Extending the Reach of Early Intervention Training for Practitioners: A Preliminary Investigation of an Online Curriculum for Teaching Behavioral Intervention Knowledge in Autism to Families and Service Providers.

Early behavioral intervention, based on the methods of applied behavior analysis, has the strongest and most consistent scientific support as a means of teaching skills to young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and reducing their restricted and maladaptive behavior. Though individual ABA-based treatment plans are usually developed, designed and supervised by a senior-level clinician, they are most often implemented by a practitioner, such as a parent, direct service provider, aide, or an early childhood professional from a related discipline. Unfortunately, few practitioner-orientated training programs are available to geographically disparate persons. Online distance-learning education offers a potential solution to this problem. Fifty-one individuals participated in an initial study of a short, three-module online course. The results showed a highly statistically significant difference between the mean pre-test and post-test score. The outcomes suggest the feasibility and user satisfaction of teaching BI knowledge acquisition online, and thus bolster confidence that future, larger-scale curricula aimed at teaching BI in a distance-learning format is warranted.