Addressing the Need for Training More School Psychologists to Serve Toddlers and Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
A single university course can graduate school psychologists who are already skilled in toddler ABA.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Mathews and colleagues built a new course inside a school-psychology graduate program.
The course taught students how to deliver early intensive ABA to toddlers and preschoolers with autism.
Fifteen trainees took the class, practiced in a community clinic, and then rated what they learned.
What they found
All fifteen students finished the program.
They left with stronger autism knowledge, better hands-on skills, and high satisfaction.
The model proved you can fold EIBI training into a standard graduate sequence without extra semesters.
How this fits with other research
Llanes et al. (2020) and Barry et al. (2019) also train adults, but they target parents through online modules.
Mathews keeps the trainee role inside the university, showing students—not just parents—can master toddler ABA.
Colombi et al. (2018) show community clinics can deliver the Early Start Denver Model with good child gains.
Mathews adds the missing piece: a feeder system that gives those same clinics newly-minted, competent school psychologists.
Why it matters
If you supervise school-psychology interns, ask your university to copy this course.
One semester gives students real clinic hours and your site a pipeline of ready-to-work EIBI providers.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Email your local grad program and offer to guest-lecture one class on EIBI—start the partnership.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has risen significantly in the past two decades. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of mental health providers who have specialized training in delivering evidenced-based services to this population. Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) is an evidenced-based treatment recommended for toddlers with ASD, and school psychologists are uniquely positioned to help children with ASD receive it. However, many school psychologists do not receive adequate training in this subspecialty. This paper makes recommendations to school psychology training programs about how to add or improve training in this subspecialty based on the results of an Office of Special Education Programs grant-funded ASD training program which involved collaboration between a NASP-approved and APA-accredited school psychology training program and a community-based early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) clinic. The grant supported development of an interdisciplinary didactic and clinical training program to increase the ASD knowledge, skills, and competencies of school psychology graduate students, with the broader goals of developing a replicable training model and increasing the workforce of trained providers for this underserved population. Fifteen graduate students completed the training program. Outcomes related to trainee knowledge, skills, and competencies, trainee satisfaction, and lessons learned over time analyzed within a logic model that guided the project’s development and execution can be informative for other school psychology programs undertaking training in this subspecialty.
Contemporary School Psychology, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s40688-022-00434-4