Week 9 Case Study: Implementation of a Culturally Appropriate Positive Behavior Support Plan With a Japanese
Mother of a Child With Autism: An Experimental and Qualitative Analysis
Cheremshynski, C., Lucyshyn, J., & Olsen, D. (2013). Implementation of a culturally appropriate positive behaviour plan
with a Japanese child with autism: An experimental and qualitative analysis. Journal of Positive Behavioural
Interventions, 15 (4), 242 – 253. 10.1177/1098300712459904
Personal Reflection
Arigatō
In their 2013 article, Cheremshynski et al. investigate the role that culture and language plays in the
implementation of positive behaviour plan with a Japanese child with autism.
The PBS intervention is elegant in its design. It has aspects of respecting the child and family by
incorporating their values and it is set in the child’s natural environment. Incorporating the values of family
makes them active and authentic participants in their child’s intervention strategy. The natural setting makes
the intervention meaningful and transferable to the child’s everyday life. The PBS plan has elements of
applied behavioural analysis, a well-studied technique to develop positive behaviour.
Respecting the values of the family and child with ASD is taken to another level by incorporating the cultural
beliefs of the family. By placing the family’s culture as an important factor in developing and implementing
the intervention strategies the interventionists are building trust between them and the family. The
interventionists are sending a message that the PBS plan is not about progressing the child with ASD to a
point where they fit inside norms based on western ideology. The PBS plan with a cultural component is
about progressing the child to goals that are aligned with values of the family and therefore will increase the
quality of the child’s life.
I quite like the idea of PBS plan with a cultural component. I value a plan that meets a child where they are
developmentally, environmentally and culturally while having aspects of applied behavioural analysis. In my
mind it incorporates the best of many intervention strategies. However, this particular study does not provide
measurable evidence t