Nirbhay N. Singh

Augusta University · Department of Psychiatry

Objectives The prevalence of overweight and obesity is high in adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), and the availability of and engagement in self-determined health and wellness programs is limited. The objective of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of the Mindfulness-Based Health Wellness (MBHW) progr...

Objectives This study assessed whether a simple technology-aided program (i.e., a program involving the use of microswitches linked to a smartphone) could be set up to enable people with motor, sensory and intellectual disabilities to control preferred environmental stimulation through two different response movements. Methods Ten participants wer...

BACKGROUND People with motor, visual, and intellectual disabilities may have serious problems in inde-pendently accessing various forms of functional daily occupation OBJECTIVE The study was aimed at developing and assessing new, low-cost technology-aided programs to help people with motor or visual-motor and intellectual disabilities independentl...

Response-contingent stimulation is a behavioral strategy used to improve the situation of patients with disorders of consciousness. Such strategy involves the presentation of brief periods (e.g., 10 to 15 s) of stimulation considered preferred by the patients, contingent on (immediately after) the emission of specific patients’ responses. The aim i...

People with mild to moderate intellectual or multiple disabilities may have serious difficulties in accessing leisure events, managing communication exchanges with distant partners, and performing functional daily activities. Recently, efforts were made to develop and assess technology-aided programs aimed at supporting people in all three areas (i...

BACKGROUND: People with severe/profound intellectual and multiple disabilities often need support for their occupational engagement. OBJECTIVE: This study assessed a smartphone-based intervention program to strengthen a functional object manipulation response (i.e., collecting and putting away objects) and possibly improve the mood of five adult pa...

Objectives The study assessed a smartphone-based technology system, which was designed to enable six participants with intellectual disability and sensory impairment to start and carry out functional activities through the use of reminders and verbal or pictorial instructions. Methods The technology system involved a Samsung Galaxy A22 with Androi...

Background: People with intellectual and multiple disabilities tend to engage in very low levels of physical activity. Objective: This review paper aims to provide a comprehensive picture of intervention programs using stimulation-regulating technologies to promote forms of physical activity in people with intellectual and multiple disabilities. Me...

Objectives The study assessed a smartphone-based technology system, which was designed to support functional occupation and mobility in people with severe to profound intellectual disability and visual impairment. Methods The technology system provided (a) verbal orientation cues to guide the participants to a desk with two containers (and two gro...

The study assessed a new smartphone-based program to enable five adults with moderate intellectual disabilities and visual or visual-motor impairments to independently access leisure events, communication with distant partners, and functional activities. The program was evaluated through a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants...

Objectives The rising interest in mindfulness-based programs in education reflects a growing need for schools to respond to the wellbeing of educators. Benefits of mindfulness-based programs have been largely measured at an individual educator level with less attention paid to group processes and their effects. The objectives of the present study w...

BACKGROUND People with intellectual and multiple disabilities tend to engage in very low levels of physical activity. OBJECTIVE This review paper aims to provide a comprehensive picture of intervention programs using stimulation-regulating technologies to promote forms of physical activity in people with intellectual and multiple disabilities. ME...

Purpose This study assessed everyday technology to help eight participants with intellectual and sensory-motor disabilities access stimulation via functional arm/hand responses and improved body posture. Methods An ABABB¹BB¹ design was used for each participant, with A representing baseline phases, B intervention phases in which arm/hand responses...

Background: Persons with severe/profound intellectual disability and visual impairment tend to be passive and sedentary and technology-aided intervention may be required to improve their condition without excessive demands on staff time. Objective: This study was aimed at (a) extending the assessment of technology-aided intervention to support func...

Objectives Adolescents with autism often experience comorbid internalizing disorders such as anxiety disorders or depression but the available evidence-based treatments to support the mental health of adolescents with autism are limited. The aim of this study was to investigate if and how MYmind, a mindfulness-based program (MBP) for youth with aut...

BACKGROUND: Music stimulation is considered to be a valuable form of intervention for people with severe brain injuries and prolonged disorders of consciousness (i.e., unresponsive wakefulness/vegetative state or minimally conscious state). OBJECTIVE: This review was intended to provide an overall picture of work conducted during the last deca...

BACKGROUND Persons with severe or profound intellectual disability and visual impairment tend to be passive and sedentary, and technology-aided intervention may be required to improve their condition without excessive demands on staff time. OBJECTIVE This study aims to extend the assessment of technology-aided interventions for supporting function...

BACKGROUND: People with severe to profound intellectual disabilities and visual or motor impairment tend to be detached and sedentary. OBJECTIVE: The present study assessed a technology-aided intervention to promote ambulation in four people with severe to profound intellectual disability combined with blindness or deafness and spasticity. METHOD:...

Music stimulation is considered to be a valuable form of intervention for people with severe brain injuries and prolonged disorders of consciousness (i.e., unresponsive wakefulness/vegetative state or minimally conscious state). This review was intended to provide an overall picture of work conducted during the last decade to assess the impact of m...

Objectives Self-injurious behavior (SIB) refers to any repeated self-directed, non-suicidal, behavior that may cause or has the potential to cause physical harm to the person’s body. Behavioral interventions provide the standard evidence-based treatments for SIB by people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities (ID). Trans...

In recent years, mindfulness-based programs and practices have been recognized as effective treatment and training approaches congruent with Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) principles and applications. In this chapter, we introduce definitions of mindfulness and possible mechanisms of its actions as used in the context of anger and aggression manag...

Purpose This paper provides a review of studies that evaluated technology devices to sustain various forms of mobility in older people with cognitive impairment or dementia and mobility problems (e.g., inability to ambulate or difficulties to orient with consequent failures to reach relevant destinations). Methods A literature search was performed...

Objectives Considering the Western-Eastern cultural differences in parenting practices, as well as the relative paucity of research on the use of mindfulness-based programs by Chinese parents, we replicated a recently proposed Western model of mindfulness. The purpose of this study was to test the direct and indirect relations between parents’ disp...

People with severe/profound and multiple disabilities may receive insufficient stimulation and correspondingly show low levels of happiness (satisfaction). Various stimulation strategies have been proposed to address this situation. This study aimed to extend the assessment of two of those strategies (i.e., self-regulated and staff-regulated stimul...

Objectives Mindfulness-Based Positive Behavior Support (MBPBS) has been shown to be effective in reducing stress and burnout in parents and professional caregivers of children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The aim of this study was to assess the comparative effects of the...

The benefits of mindfulness are widely recognized, and it has received increasing research attention. Recently, researchers have extended the concept and practice of mindfulness to the parent–child relationship and proposed the construct of mindful parenting, that is, parenting with mindfulness. However, mindful parenting is a relatively new concep...

Objectives: Caring for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be gratifying as well as stressful. Professional staff employed as caregivers often report compromised mental and physical wellbeing due to the stressful nature of working with clients who exhibit aggressive and destructive behaviors. Prolon...

Objectives Self-compassion has become increasingly recognized for its benefits to human health and well-being, but continued work is required to achieve its accurate assessment in the context of research and psychological treatment. The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) is widely referred to as a trait measure, although the scale’s ability to differentia...

Purpose This study assessed a new technology system to help six participants with intellectual and visual disabilities manage leisure engagement and communication with distant partners in an independent manner. Methods A nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants was used to assess the effects of the new technology system. This inc...

Background Smartphone-aided programs were recently developed to support leisure engagement and communication with distant partners in individuals with special needs. This study evaluated an extended smartphone-aided program that supported daily activities in addition to communication and leisure in individuals with intellectual and visual or visuo-...

Objectives The present study evaluated a new smartphone-based program to help 12 participants with intellectual disability plus visual and motor impairments to self-regulate their stimulation input (thus avoiding their dependence on staff) through simple non-verbal responses. Method Nonconcurrent multiple baseline designs across participants were...

Objective To assess a simple technology solution to support basic communication and leisure in people with neurological disorders, extensive motor impairment, and absence of speech. Design The design was a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants. Methods The study included eight participants and assessed a technology setup including...

Background. People with intellectual disability and motor impairment have reduced opportunities to participate in recreational and communication activities. Objective. This study reports on the evaluation of a new tablet-based program to help seven participants with mild/moderate or moderate intellectual disability, motor impairment, and limited co...

Objectives Preschool years provide a window of opportunity to enhance attentional flexibility, increase inhibitory control, build resilience, and strengthen emotion regulation in children. We assessed the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based social-emotional learning program—OpenMind-Korea (OM-K)—on preschool children’s emotion regulation, resilien...

Objective: The study evaluated a smartphone-aided program to support independent access to leisure events and performance of daily activities in seven participants with moderate intellectual disability, four of whom also had severe hearing loss. Method: The program relied on the use of a Samsung Galaxy J4 Plus smartphone with Android 9.0 operating...

Caregivers of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities are often stressed due to the demands of the job, including the nature and severity of challenging behaviors of the clients, work conditions, degree of management support for the staff, and the demands of implementing some interventions under adverse conditions. Mindfulness-...

Background: Individuals with extensive neuro-motor impairment and lack of speech tend to remain passive and isolated, and to rely on others for communication and leisure. While their problems are known, only limited evidence is available about intervention tools that could help them curb those problems. Objective: This study was aimed at upgradi...

Purpose: This study was aimed at assessing a smartphone-based intervention to help 11 individuals with moderate Alzheimer’s disease and ambulation problems to manage goal-directed, walker-assisted ambulation and object use (i.e., to reach specific destinations and put away objects at those destinations independently). Method: The study was carried...

Objectives The present study investigated whether and how an 8-week mindfulness-based program for teachers influences teacher wellbeing and person-centered teaching practices that emphasize the quality of student-teacher relationships. Methods In the present mixed-methods design study, we analyzed three data sets from a larger study. Sixty teacher...

Purpose of review: People with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) commonly exhibit behaviors that present challenges to their parents, caregivers, and teachers. Mindfulness-based practices and programs have emerged as a viable alternative to current interventions for such behaviors and the stress faced by their caregivers. This review...

Objectives Preschool curricula often include social emotional learning (SEL) competencies, such as self-awareness and self-management. Emerging programs also include mindfulness-based practices that develop preschool children’s awareness of the effects of their thoughts, feelings, and perceptions on their behaviors and ways by which they can make s...

Objectives There is a dearth of studies on the social validity of mindfulness-based school programs because the primary emphasis has been on effectiveness or efficacy of the programs in terms of academic engagement and performance, and classroom behavior of the students. The aim of the present study was to assess secondary outcomes of a mindfulness...

Purpose of Review This paper summarizes a number of studies using communication technology with people with neurodevelopmental disorders to (a) provide illustrative examples of the technology solutions available, (b) examine the communication skills addressed and the results obtained, and (c) discuss the affordability and accessibility of the techn...

Objectives Mindfulness-based programs could support children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their parents to cope with autism spectrum symptoms and reduce comorbid mental health problems. In this study, we aimed to explore which change processes are involved in a mindfulness-based program for children with ASD and their parents (MYmind), a...

Objectives Preschool competency in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making has been shown to affect short- and long-term social, emotional, and academic development. Known collectively as social emotional learning (SEL), these skills have begun to be paired with mindfulness-based progr...

Objectives Compromised educator well-being creates educational, social, and economic problems, which are not resolved by knowledge of risk factors alone. The present study explored the protective role of dispositional mindfulness and self-compassion within the context of educator stress. Methods A total of 231 educators from 21 Australian schools...

This paper presents an overview of recent technology-aided programs (i. e., technology-aided support tools) designed to help people with significant disabilities (a) engage in adaptive responses, functional activities, and leisure and communication, and thus (b) interact with their physical and social environment and improve their performance/achie...

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects cognition, mental and physical health, and functionality of older people. As the disease progresses from the mild to moderate stage, there is a concomitant increase in several behavioral variables, chiefly agitation, anger, and aggression. Currently, there are no evidence...

Objectives The present study investigates the effectiveness of an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention designed to improve educator wellbeing and implemented concurrently in multiple school sites. Methods Using a cluster (school) randomized controlled design, 185 educators working in 20 Australian schools were randomized to an intervention group...

The aim of this study was to assess a new smartphone-based program version to allow seven participants with intellectual plus visual and/or motor disabilities and hesitant speech to send out and receive WhatsApp messages, make telephone calls, and access leisure activities. This program version relied on a Samsung A3 smartphone, which was automated...

Objectives: This study assessed a smartphone-based program to promote practical and mildly demanding arm responses and personal satisfaction and increase physical exertion (heart rates) in people with advanced Alzheimer's disease. Methods: The program relied on a Samsung Galaxy A3 smartphone with Android 6.0 operating system. Two groups of 10 an...

This study extended the research on technology-aided programs for promoting the independent performance (practice) of functional motor responses (e.g., arm or leg-foot movements) in people with intellectual disabilities and extensive motor impairments. Specifically, the study assessed (a) the suitability of simple commercial technology (i.e., a sma...

Parenting a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or intellectual disabilities (IDs) can be stressful for many parents. Mindfulness-Based Positive Behavior Support (MBPBS) is a customized mindfulness program that enables parents and other caregivers to reduce their perceived psychological stress to normative levels through mindfulness procedure...

Mindful parenting is the extension of intra-personal mindfulness to inter-personal processes by developing and fostering mindfulness during interactions with a child when acting in the role of a parent. While some empirical evidence points to various benefits of mindful parenting both for the parent and the child, suitable measurement tools for min...

Background and aims: Randomized controlled trials (RCT) presenting macro outcome data show that parents are able to reduce and maintain their stress within average levels following training in MBPBS. Furthermore, there are concomitant changes in their children’s challenging behaviors and compliance with parental requests. The aim of the present stu...

Background and aims: The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether and how participation in an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) influences teacher wellbeing and person-centred teaching practices. Person-centred teachers are empathic, warm and indirect in their teaching and students’ perception of teachers’ personcentred beha...

Purpose Music stimulation is considered beneficial for people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. The purpose of this paper is to assess a tablet-based program to promote music-related hand responses and positive engagement (e.g. singing or moving the body with the music) in people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Design/methodology/approach Th...

Several methods have been used to assist children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to self-manage their anger and aggression, including psychopharmacological, behavioral, and mindfulness-based interventions. However, no intervention works well with all children who engage in aggression and there is a need to investigate alternative management te...

Students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulty with academic work in school because they are inattentive and disruptive as a result of the core systems of their disorder. In addition to behavioral challenges frequently associated with ADHD, these students may also have deficits in working memory, planning and organiza...

Objectives: This study assessed a new technology-aided program to support independent leisure and communication engagement with people with intellectual and motor or sensory-motor disabilities. Methods: Six adults participated. The program relied on the use of a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 LTE tablet with Android 6.0 Operating System, a NANO SIM card, an...

Purpose: This study evaluated a tablet-based program to help eight participants with moderate intellectual disability, sensory and/or motor impairments, and lack of expressive or expressive and receptive verbal skills to select and access leisure activities and video calls independently. Methods: The program relied on the use of a tablet (i.e., Sam...

Some individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in verbal and physical aggression that is inimical to their educational and social development. Given that no specific treatment is applicable to all individuals with ASD, there is a need to develop and assess interventions that enable self-management of these behaviors. In a multiple-base...

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) face difficulties in making lifestyle changes because of lack of community and professional awareness and specialist services. Some services, such as for health wellness, are even more difficult for people with IDD to acquire if they live in remote areas or they cannot access specialist...

Background: People with intellectual disability and sensory or sensory-motor impairments may display serious problems in managing functional daily activities as well as leisure activities and communication with distant partners. Aim: The study assessed an upgraded smartphone-based program to foster independent leisure and communication activity of...

This study assessed a technology-aided program (monitoring responding, and ensuring preferred stimulation and encouragements) for promoting physical activity with 11 participants with severe/profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Each participant was provided with an exercise device (e.g. a static bicycle and a stepper) and exposed to the...

Objectives: These 2 studies evaluated technology-based behavioral interventions for promoting daily activities and supported ambulation in people with mild-to-moderate and moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease, respectively. Methods: Study 1 included 8 participants who were taught to start and carry out daily activities on their own using a tab...

BACKGROUND: Technology-aided programs have typically been used to support either leisure or functional activity engagement. Yet, supporting both types of engagement would be highly relevant within applied contexts. OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed at assessing two versions of a technology-aided program designed to support combinations of leisure and...