Coaching educators to use positive behavioral supports for autistic children

This study seeks to learn how we can help educators better support autistic elementary-aged students who exhibit challenging behaviors and may benefit from behavioral support in the classroom. The study evaluates two different ways for educators to learn a behavioral intervention called RUBI in Educational Settings (RUBIES), which teaches educators how to use evidence-based behavioral strategies to better support their autistic students in the classroom and to respond more effectively when challenging behaviors occur. Our research team will be coaching educators to use RUBIES at your child’s school.

Participating students need to:

• have an autism classification
• exhibit challenging behaviors (i.e., verbal or physical aggression, off-task behavior, meltdowns, transition difficulties, etc.)
• be in grades K-5, and
• spend 4 or more hours per week in a general education setting. A general education setting can include academic or non-academic times, such as recess, lunch, PE, art class, and the like, where your autistic student interacts with general education peers and staff.

All public school district employees are eligible if they work with a student who matches the criteria above.

You (the parent/caregiver) will be asked to fill out questionnaires about your child at the beginning of the study. It should take you less than 30 min. You will receive a $25 digital gift card via email for completing these questionnaires.

Your child will go through their regular school day. The research team will not have any direct interaction with your child. Your child’s educator, who will be trained in RUBIES, will provide behavioral support for your child in the classroom based on our training materials for the duration of the study (which goes through the end of the school year).

The use of routine evidence-based interventions (EBIs) in educational settings is limited, which is concerning given that inconsistent or limited EBI use hinders the ability of autistic youth to benefit from EBIs, contributes to poor long-term outcomes, and contributes to the misallocation of limited school resources. Supporting educators to learn and use EBIs has the potential to reach autistic youth in their primary service setting in a cost-efficient manner, and thus likely could have a major public health impact.