The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children (PTR-YC) as implemented within public early behavioral intervention (EBI) for children with autism or intellectual disability. Several adjustments to the research design and to training and intervention protocols were made in response to organizational constraints, the COVID-19 several waves and families’ needs within this real-world intervention context. EBI educators were trained in the PTR-YC program, which they then applied with the parents of a child in their caseload who presented challenging behavior. Parent-practitioner intervention teams were divided in two cohorts according to their readiness to apply the program. Parents evaluated their chid’s challenging behavior, their parenting stress levels, caregiving strain, and sense of competence, as well as their family’s quality of life before and after program application, as well as the acceptability of the program after its application. Frequency of children’s aggressive behavior, decreased significantly after program application, but not self-injurious, stereotyped or overall challenging behavior. Parents’ feelings of strain and parental stress also decreased after the program, while family quality of life had improved. The program did not change parents’ sense of competence. Parents rated the PTR-YC as generally acceptable. As implemented within this real-world context of public EBI services, the PTR-YC program has shown promising results on child, parent, and family outcomes.

Data on the presentation of behavioral and emotional problems in early childhood and their evolution over time through large, longitudinal cohort studies remain scarce, which limits the current state of knowledge on how to guide early childhood interventions. This study aimed to develop a better understanding of behavior problems in young children with developmental disabilities, of how these change over time, and of associated child and family characteristics. This longitudinal study on 958 families addressed several shortcomings of the literature by adopting an instrument specifically developed to measure behavioral and emotional problems in children with developmental disabilities, the Developmental Behavior Checklist (Einfeld et al. in Manual for the developmental behaviour checklist: Primary carer version (DBC-P) and teacher version (DBC-T), Monash University, 2002), by employing consistent data collection intervals (i.e., after the diagnosis and at two annual follow-ups), and by sampling a homogeneous age group (i.e., 18–59 months at the time of diagnosis). Children’s emotional and behavioral problems, adaptive behavior, intellectual functioning, and autism symptoms, as well as parenting stress and family quality of life were assessed. Overall, social and communication problems tended to decrease, while externalizing behavior problems tended to increase and internalizing behaviors remained stable over time. Cluster analysis yielded four subgroups based on behavioral and emotional problems as assessed at the time of diagnosis. These subgroups differed in child’s gender and diagnostic labels and on other child and family characteristics. Patterns of change in behavioral and emotional problems significantly differed over time according group membership. Co-occuring conditions, such as emotional and behavioral problems, should be considered in planning interventions.

The present study examined barriers and facilitators to the implementation of evidence-based practices to manage challenging behavior under real-world conditions within community-based autism services. Parents, early intervention practitioners, and administrators at a public agency who participated in Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children (PTR-YC), an intervention based on positive behavior support principles, shared their perspectives on the factors that helped or hindered the implementation of the program. Barriers and facilitators were identified at the macrosystemic (community), services (organization and program), and case (parent, family, child, practitioner) levels. Of note, the governmental response and lockdown measures of the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted both challenges and opportunities for the planned large-scale deployment of the intervention. While the program itself includes built-in facilitating elements (e.g., peer support, flexibility, efficiency), results also underscored the importance of robust change management practices, administrative support, responsive clinical supervision, and organizational commitment to professional development. Parents and practitioners, the core members of the intervention team, bring to bear many positive personal qualities but benefit from support in adopting the new approach and its procedures.

Cet article présente une adaptation et une évaluation d'implantation du programme d'intervention DBT STEPS-A en contexte scolaire pour les adolescents rencontrant des difficultés de régulation émotionnelle. Bien que la version originale de ce programme ait été implantée et évaluée à quelques reprises, il n'a jamais été adapté, implanté ou évalué au Québec. Un des objectifs de l'étude est d'adapter l'intervention en se basant sur les meilleurs critères utilisés par les différents auteurs en thérapie comportementale dialectique (TCD) et ainsi répondre à un manque d'informations et d'uniformité dans le processus décisionnel des auteurs lors de l'adaptation d'un programme en TCD. Une revue de littérature scientifique est effectuée, puis un format de d'adaptation initial issu de cette revue de littérature est monté par l'équipe de recherche et soumis à des experts dans le domaine afin de recueillir leur évaluation. Le deuxième objectif est d'implanter ce programme d'intervention et d'évaluer l'appréciation des participants d'une école secondaire du Québec à l'aide d'une entrevue semi-structurée. Les résultats montrent une appréciation des participants de la majorité des thèmes couverts lors de cette entrevue.

Challenging behaviors in young children with autism and intellectual disabilities pose significant barriers to learning and inclusion. The Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children (PTR-YC) program is an evidence-based intervention that addresses these behaviors according to Positive Behavior Intervention Support principles. It is essential to assess the social validity of an intervention, when implemented into a public service system, to ensure sustainability and relevance to stakeholders. The present study aimed to document the social validity of PTR-YC from the point of view of three key informants: parents, practitioners, and administrators. Sixty-one participants were interviewed about their experience with PTR-YC (9 administrators, 31 practitioners, and 20 families). Semi-structured interviews assessed three fundamental components of social validity (Wolf, 1978): (a) social relevance of intervention goals, (b) social appropriateness of intervention procedures, and (c) social importance of intervention effects. Participants’ responses were subjected to thematic analysis. Intervention goals, namely family participation in the clinical process, strategies that focuses on prevention, and teaching alternative adaptive behaviors, were identified as relevant. Participants appreciated the program’s clear, structured, and turnkey clinical process, its parent-practitioner collaboration, and its consistency with practices already in place in the field. Positive instrumental outcomes (e.g., knowledge, competencies, self-efficacy) and ultimate outcomes (e.g., decrease in challenging behavior) of the intervention were reported on children, families, and practitioners. This study represents the first in-depth evaluation of the social validity of PTR-YC in specialized public services for autism and demonstrates its appropriateness for universal implementation in this sector.

BACKGROUND:Mental disorders are among the leading causes of disability for which family physicians are often required to complete sickness certificates. Yet, little is known about family physicians' sick-listing practices in Quebec.OBJECTIVE:This study aims to describe their practices, difficulties and needs.METHODS:Twenty-three family physicians completed a comprehensive questionnaire on sickness certification practices. Descriptive statistics were used.RESULTS:Despite being completed on a weekly basis, sickness certifications were deemed problematic by all participants. While they rarely refused to sick-list a patient, 43.5% reported suggesting accommodations as an alternative to sick leave. Waiting-time to access psychotherapy and delays to set-up workplace accommodations are responsible for many unnecessary sick-leave prolongations. Lack of time, long duration absences, situations where the physician held a different opinion than the patient/healthcare provider and assessing an individual's capacity to work are the most common reported problems. More than half of participants indicated medical schools do not greatly prepare them to carry out these tasks.CONCLUSION:Sickness certifications are deemed problematic, and more training might be key. Our results can be used by medical schools or bodies responsible for continuous education to improve training.

L’intégration des enfants atteints d’un trouble envahissant du développement (TED) en classe « ordinaire », notamment celle des enfants de moyen ou de bas niveau de fonctionnement, n’est pas une problématique très étudiée. Une première raison de cet état de choses tient à la prédominance en milieu scolaire du modèle TEACCH reposant sur la formule de la classe spéciale. De plus, les études sur le mainstreaming des enfants handicapés par l’autisme font souvent partie de recherches sur l’intégration des élèves présentant un retard mental; les deux clientèles sont alors assimilées l’une à l’autre. Toutefois, en dépit de leurs difficultés propres, les enfants autistes, sous certaines conditions, bénéficient d’intégration. L’une de ces conditions concerne le degré d’adaptation du programme de la classe requis par l’enfant. Une autre concerne les enseignants d’intégration : ils doivent recevoir une formation. Il faut aussi préparer l’enfant à cette expérience par un programme d’intervention précoce intensive. Des mesures d’accompagnement sont également requises, une fois l’intégration faite dans la classe ordinaire. Ce texte décrit les pratiques qui ont cours en Amérique du Nord.

L’intégration des enfants atteints d’un trouble envahissant du développement (TED) en classe « ordinaire », notamment celle des enfants de moyen ou de bas niveau de fonctionnement, n’est pas une problématique très étudiée. Une première raison de cet état de choses tient à la prédominance en milieu scolaire du modèle TEACCH reposant sur la formule de la classe spéciale. De plus, les études sur le mainstreaming des enfants handicapés par l’autisme font souvent partie de recherches sur l’intégration des élèves présentant un retard mental; les deux clientèles sont alors assimilées l’une à l’autre. Toutefois, en dépit de leurs difficultés propres, les enfants autistes, sous certaines conditions, bénéficient d’intégration. L’une de ces conditions concerne le degré d’adaptation du programme de la classe requis par l’enfant. Une autre concerne les enseignants d’intégration : ils doivent recevoir une formation. Il faut aussi préparer l’enfant à cette expérience par un programme d’intervention précoce intensive. Des mesures d’accompagnement sont également requises, une fois l’intégration faite dans la classe ordinaire. Ce texte décrit les pratiques qui ont cours en Amérique du Nord.

PURPOSE Assistance and companion dogs have numerous positive effects for family of autistic children, such as supporting their rehabilitation and improving their quality of life. To date, very few studies have compared the effects of both types of dogs. This comparison, considering the limited access to assistance dogs, could be helpful for families wanting to adopt a dog. METHODS An explanatory sequential design with a mixed-method approach was used. First, 85 parents (nassistance dogs = 57; ncompanion dogs = 28) of children aged between 3 and 17 years old (M = 10.73, SD = 3.67) completed an online questionnaire including sociodemographic questions and the Treatment Acceptability Rating Form-Revised (TARF-R). Then, 17 of these participants (nassistance dogs = 14; ncompanion dogs = 3) completed a semi-structured interview. RESULTS The quantitative data analyses showed that parents with assistance dogs were significantly more satisfied: t (83) = -2.12, p = .037, d = 0.49. Significant associations between some sociodemographic variables (e.g., number of children, comorbid condition, reasons for acquiring a dog) and acceptability/satisfaction (TARF-R total scores) were found. The qualitative analysis revealed that families with both dog types observed positive effects. CONCLUSIONS In brief, having an assistance dog constitutes a significant added value; nevertheless, both types of dogs are appreciated.

This exploratory case study using a mixed analytic approach aimed to assess the assistance dog's effects on social behaviors (SB) of a child with ASD. The first objective was to examine the frequency of 26 SB. The second objective aimed to assess symptoms of ASD. The third objective was to describe the mother's experience. One family participated in 17 sessions of direct observations. The mother completed the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-Second Edition (GARS-2), and a semi-structured interview. The findings showed a discrepancy between the effects measured by direct observations and the parent's perceived benefits.

This proof-of-concept study assessed the feasibility of implementing Prevent-Teach-Reinforce-for-Young-Children (PTR-YC) program to address challenging behaviors in children with autism within the context of public, specialized early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) services offered in community settings. Following a 2-day training and with brief weekly supervision meetings, children's EIBI educators acted as facilitators in 35 families' home environments. Small and moderate effect sizes were observed for children's behavioral outcomes and parenting stress. Recruitment and retention rates, implementation fidelity, as well as treatment acceptability from the perspective of participating parents and the organization attested to the feasibility and relevance of implementing and evaluating this program on a larger scale as part of a multi-center randomized controlled trial.

Creativity is viewed as a trait of essential use in many contexts. The need for creative people in different domains implies that school should develop and evaluate creativity in their curriculum. Runco identified more than 80 creativity tests in English. No equivalent compendium exists for creativity tests in French. Thus, francophone students are not well deserved by the current state of creativity's testing. The first objective of this article is to identify existing French tests of creativity with children and adolescent subjects that were identified in different databases using a systematic literature review method. The second objective is to present the key components and psychometric values of each identified test. Eight instruments for francophones were identified as being validated or being used in research setting with children or adolescent. Different theories of creativity associated with each test are also presented to guide the reader in selecting the most appropriate test for his school curriculum or his research.

This study investigated temporal adjustment of children with autism spectrum disorder under a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rates (DRL) schedule. Sixteen participants, aged 3.2 to 7 years, were exposed to two conditions, DRL 5 s and DRL 20 s. Children participated in 7 sessions in each condition, except for 1 participant who attained the adjustment criteria in the DRL 5-s schedule. Temporal adjustment was measured with the proportion of reinforced interresponse times (IRTs) and the mean IRT. The operant response was a press on a touch screen and the reinforcers were cartoons. IQ and receptive language were measured prior to the DRL sessions. Results showed that the mean proportion of reinforced IRTs was slightly higher in the DRL 5-s schedule. The mean IRT was above the IRT requirement in both conditions. However, substantial individual variability was observed. Children with higher IQ and receptive language scores presented a greater proportion of reinforced IRTs in both conditions. Moreover, participants who adjusted their responses to the DRL 5-s schedule were more likely to adjust responding to the DRL 20-s schedule. This suggests that some children might be more sensitive to reinforcement contingencies than others. This study points at future research in the field of timing in children.

L’analyse appliquee du comportement, communement appelee AAC ou ABA, est une discipline ayant contribue au developpement des services d’intervention publics destines aux personnes autistes au Quebec. Cet article vise a dresser un portrait evolutif de la situation d’une province canadienne francophone quant a la place de cette discipline relativement au developpement des services en autisme, en y associant un regard sur la recherche et la formation. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a discipline that has contributed to the development of public intervention services for people with autism in Quebec. This article aims to provide an evolutionary picture of the situation of a French-speaking Canadian province regarding the place of this discipline in the development of autism services, by associating a look at the research and training associated with it. © copyright Anae

Dans le domaine de l’analyse expérimentale du comportement, la relation entre un comportement et ses conséquences est traditionnellement analysée selon le concept de programmes de renforcement (Ferster & Skinner, 1957). Cependant, dans le domaine de l’analyse appliquée, ce type d’analyse se rencontre peu souvent. Cette rareté s’explique en grande partie par le fait que depuis les années 90, l’analyse fonctionnelle analogue d’Iwata et al. (1994) est devenue la procédure dominante. Forget et ses collègues (1987 ; Duval & Forget, 2005 ; Leroux-Boudreault, Forget et Caron, 2014), adoptant la première approche, étudient les relations entre le comportement d’enfants et l’attention sociale qu’ils reçoivent de leur environnement immédiat selon trois programmes de renforcement : à pro-portion variable, à intervalle variable et concurrent. Cependant, la plupart de ces études comportent une limite, soit celle de ne pas valider les hypothèses générées par cette analyse par l’intermédiaire d’interventions. La présente étude vise à vérifier la pertinence éducative et inductive d’un tel proto-cole. L’étude est réalisée auprès de deux élèves du primaire et leur enseignante. Les enfants ont un faible taux d’attention à la tâche, mais ne présentent aucun diagnostic psychologique. Les résultats de l’analyse fonctionnelle montrent que les comportements de Pier sont corrélés avec une distribu-tion de l’attention de son enseignante qui correspond à un programme concurrent et à un programme à proportion variable, tandis que les comportements de Jeff sont corrélés avec un programme à in-tervalle variable. Une stratégie d’attention sélective de l’attention est alors mise en place en salle de classe en fonction des données obtenues à la suite de l’analyse fonctionnelle. Les résultats montrent que les participants augmentent leur taux d’attention à la tâche.

Previous works on the generalized matching law in natural settings studied behavioral patterns of participants having developmental disabilities. From a translational view (applying findings from basic science to applied research and reciprocally), it is of interest to evaluate the sensitivity of typical behavior to reinforcement among typical children. In the current study, we examined the relationship between children's naturally occurring rate of play behaviors and rate of social reinforcers awarded by their educator and peers. Three typical children's behaviors were observed via descriptive analyses in their usual day care room during periods of free play. Results show that the generalized matching law explained 94%, 73%, and 90% of the variance of the relation between behavior and reinforcer rate ratios and that children's behaviors were sensitive to social attention (sensitivity of .88, .67, and .87). Allocation of playing behaviors of typical preschool children followed the matching law predictions. The natural variability of response and reinforcer rates (their unpredictability) within natural settings is discussed. We suggest that there may be no need in natural settings to wait for the operant to reach a steady state as long as participants have been consistently behaving in the contingencies of reinforcement.

Le but de l’étude est d’adapter et de valider les sous-échelles de perfectionnisme positif orienté vers soi (PPOS) et de perfectionnisme négatif orienté vers soi (PNOS) de l’Échelle de Perfectionnisme Positif et Négatif (EPPN) (Seidah et al., 2002) pour les enfants de 6 à 9ans. Quatre cent trente garçons et filles remplissent le questionnaire deux fois à un intervalle de deux semaines, ainsi qu’un questionnaire évaluant les attitudes et les comportements associés aux troubles des conduites alimentaires (TCA), et un autre mesurant le sentiment d’efficacité personnelle spécifique à l’alimentation (SEPA). L’analyse factorielle en composantes principales suggère une structure bifactorielle. La cohérence interne est bonne (PPOS=0,76 et PNOS=0,81) et la fiabilité test–retest est modérée (PPOS=0,67 et PNOS=0,66). Le PPOS n’est pas associé aux TCA, mais il est associé positivement au SEPA. Le PNOS est positivement lié aux TCA et négativement lié au SEPA. Les énoncés du PPOS et du PNOS possèdent des qualités psychométriques satisfaisantes. Ces sous-échelles représentent un outil important spécifiquement adapté pour les enfants francophones du Québec. Elles peuvent être utilisées en recherche pour améliorer l’état des connaissances quant au perfectionnisme chez les enfants et ainsi favoriser l’élaboration de mesures préventives.