Browsing by Subject "Behavior Management"

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    Tailoring Dental Appointments for Neurodivergent Children
    (2025-05) Chelmella, Payton; Van Antwerp, Leah; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Steele, Jaime
    Many neurodivergent children have a difficult time during their dental visits or cannot find a dental office willing to treat them. This doctoral capstone project aimed to give a local pediatric dentist office the information and experience they need to confidently provide care for neurodivergent patients and patients with dental anxiety. Six evidence-based themes about beneficial adaptations and modifications were addressed, including: acclimating to the dentist, desensitization, patient care beyond the chair, child behavior management, adaptive communication, and sensory processing. The capstone student provided the dental team with additional information during the project, but the above themes were emphasized the most. The dental team members completed a pre-survey (9 participants) and post-survey (8 participants) to evaluate their knowledge and confidence in three areas: general knowledge about adaptations and modifications, perceived knowledge about concepts relating to specific adaptations and modifications, and their confidence in implementing specific adaptations and modifications. The results show that the three categories had a statistically significant difference between pre-survey and post-survey results with a medium to large effect size. This project had a strong impact on the dental team’s knowledge and confidence in ways to treat their neurodivergent patients and patients with dental anxiety, therefore, this project shows that occupational therapy has a valuable place in pediatric dental settings.
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    Training Educators in Autism Spectrum Disorder Support: A Study on Signs, Strategy Application, and Prompting Needs
    (2013-08) Flemister, Diadra; Neal, Tiffany; Swiezy, Naomi
    Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects approximately 1 in 50 children in the United States, with prevalence continuing to rise. Despite longstanding mandates for the use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in educational settings, there remains a gap between research and implementation in classroom environments for students with ASD. The HANDS in Autism® Summer Training program is designed to bridge this gap by providing hands-on, interactive professional development for school personnel. This study examined follow-up evaluations completed 30 days post-training to assess the extent to which educators applied, improved, or needed additional prompting for key instructional and behavioral strategies introduced during the training. Findings indicated high rates of strategy application and improvement, particularly in visual structure and behavior management, while data-related practices (e.g., collection and analysis) were more likely to require further support. These results suggest that the HANDS model offers a promising framework for translating EBPs into classroom practice, though further study is needed to assess long-term retention and outcomes across staff roles.