The Efficacy of Virtual Positive Behavior Support in a Special School for Students with ASD
Virtual school-wide PBS gives rapid, large behavior gains for students with autism in special-education classrooms.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Alwahbi (2024) tested a virtual school-wide positive behavior support plan in a Saudi special school. All students had autism spectrum disorder.
Staff ran the PBS lessons and reward system online. The study used single-case design to track each child's disruptive behaviors.
What they found
Disruptive behaviors dropped right away and stayed low. The gains were large and clear for every student.
Teachers kept using the virtual tools with good fidelity after the study ended.
How this fits with other research
Mazonson et al. (2018) first showed that setting-wide PBS works in adult homes. Alwahbi moved the same idea to kids with ASD and added virtual delivery.
Gardner et al. (2009) built the original in-person school-wide PBS for typical elementary students. The new study keeps the core steps but runs them on screen, so distance or sick days no longer stop the program.
Alshuayl (2025) also worked in Saudi special-education and used tech, but aimed at academic skills with AI. Together the papers show Saudi schools are open to high-tech help for both behavior and learning.
Why it matters
You can roll out school-wide PBS even when staff or students are home. Use short online lessons, digital point boards, and Zoom coaching. Start with one class, track disruptive minutes daily, and expand once you see the same quick drops Alwahbi found.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In response to the demand for adopting a social justice system to manage students’ challenging behaviors, many countries are implementing positive behavior support (PBS) programs at the school level. However, the use of PBS in Saudi Arabian schools is still a goal rather than reality. It is strongly evident that school-wide PBS can be applicable to different educational contexts. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a virtual school-wide positive behavior support program for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Saudi Arabia. Teaching and reinforcement procedures were implemented to help the students replace interfering classroom behaviors with alternative, appropriate behaviors. Observations were conducted to collect data on the students’ classroom behaviors. The results of the study showed that there was an immediate and major improvement in the students’ behaviors upon the introduction of the program. The results support the conclusion that school-wide positive behavior support can be successfully applied to different educational settings and suggest several implications for special and general education schools.
Journal of Behavioral Education, 2024 · doi:10.1007/s10864-022-09486-1