Cultural adaptation of Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Hispanic/Latine children with autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive developmental disorder that has risen in prevalence in recent years. Although ASD affects children of all ages, gender, race, and ethnicity, racial/ethnic discrepancies exist regarding access to available and quality autism services, and age of diagnosis. The prevalence of autism in the Hispanic/Latine community may be growing (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014); however, Hispanic/Latine children are often under-identified, underserved, and diagnosed at a later age than their White peers (Travers et al., 2014; Morrier & Gallagher, 2012; Valicenti-McDermott et al., 2012). Additionally, there are relatively few interventions specific for culturally and linguistically diverse individuals that focus on autism and co-occurring challenging behavior (Ratto et al., 2016; Safer-Lichtenstein et al., 2019). The proposed study will adapt a preexisting intervention (Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Families, PTR-F; Dunlap, 2017) for use by Hispanic/Latine families and children with autism who engage in challenging behavior. Data from two focus groups funded by an alternate source will inform intervention adaptation. Information from the focus groups will be used to develop a culturally adapted form of PTR-F and the preliminary effectiveness of the adapted PTR-F intervention will be examined with four parent/family-child dyads using a single-case multiple-probe design study. The proposed single-case experimental design will provide researchers and service providers a better understanding of how to serve Hispanic/Latine children with autism. Additionally, the results of this study will contribute toward increasing the availability of ASD interventions available for culturally and linguistically diverse populations.