Investigating the survivability of an ecological, family-centered positive behaviour intervention with a family of a child with a developmental disability and problem behaviour

The purpose of this study was to replicate the work of Lucyshyn et al. (2011) and Binnendyk (2009) by investigating the survivability of an intervention based upon an ecological, family-centered positive behaviour support approach to assessment and intervention. The approach integrates child behaviour, parent-child interaction, and family activity settings into an ecological unit of analysis aimed at improving child behaviour, parent-child relationships, and promoting meaningful changes in the functioning of the family. One family of a child with autism and problem behaviour participated. Two home-based family routines were targeted for assessment and intervention. A quasi-experimental, multiple baseline design across two family routines was used to evaluate the association between implementation of the intervention and child behaviour. Results documented substantial improvements at the point of intervention in child problem behaviour and routine steps successfully completed in the two family routines. These improvements maintained up to 8 months post-intervention. Sequential analysis methods were used to examine changes in parent-child interaction across baseline and intervention conditions. Results offer robust, categorical evidence of the transformation of coercive processes of parent-child interaction into constructive processes of interaction following implementation of the intervention. Social validity and goodness-of-fit results indicated that the intervention was acceptable and contextually appropriate within the ecology of the family. A high level of parent implementation fidelity was sustained across the intervention and follow-up phases. Despite positive outcomes, meaningful improvements in family functioning were not reported. Results are discussed in terms of contributions and relationship to the literature, implications, cautions and limitations, and future research.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat