NDBI Practices for Autistic Students: Teachers’ Reflections from a Qualitative Perspective About an Online Program

The growing presence of autistic students in schools means that teacher training has become vitally important in providing these students with inclusive, high quality education. This study aims to shed light on teachers’ perceptions of online training processes about evidence-based Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI) aimed at students on the autism spectrum. Based on the thematic analysis proposed by Brown and Clarke, focus groups and semi-structured interviews performed at three timepoints after the training were used to collect the thoughts of the participating Hearing and Language teachers, which are crucial to identifying processes that really influence teachers’ knowledge, skills, and perceptions of competence. These perceptions are grouped into three main topics: the positive impact of this online training on participating teachers; the positive impact of this online training on the participating teachers’ autistic students; and perceptions of feasibility of NDBI practices through this online training model.