Promoting Happiness Among Adults With Autism And Other Severe Disabilities: Evidence Based Strategies

Dennis H. Reid

Quality of life among adults with severe disabilities is heavily determined by the daily happiness they experience. This book describes in practical terms how human service staff can promote happiness among the people they support and especially for individuals who have difficulty describing their emotional experience of happiness. Relying on 40+ years of experience and over 140 published articles and chapters on supporting people with severe disabilities, the author provides tried and tested ways to identify and increase individual happiness.

“Very few people have the credibility or experience to write a book on this topic and Dennis Reid tops the list” Joseph Darling, Human Service Professional (Review on Amazon)

“Brings happiness to the forefront of the daily support of people with severe disabilities . . . gives concrete strategies to improve life quality . . . a primary source for agencies” R. M. Schell, BCBA-D, Senior Psychologist

SPECIAL HIGHLIGHTS

* 78 highlighted bullets of key information * forms for guiding actions to promote happiness * case illustrations of actual means of promoting happiness and decreasing unhappiness * succinct chapter summaries of critical points for enhancing happiness * 50 references to selected readings providing research-based evidence and background for chapter topics *

 

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Section I: Introduction to Promoting Happiness
        Chapter 1: Introduction to Promoting Happiness Among Adults With Autism and Other Severe Disabilities
        Chapter 2: A Basic Protocol for Promoting Happiness
        Chapter 3: Identifying Indices of Happiness and Unhappiness
        Chapter 4: Validating Indices of Happiness and Unhappiness
Section II: Strategies for Increasing Happiness
        Chapter 5: Establishing Good Relationships
        Chapter 6: The Power of Social Attention
        Chapter 7: Promoting Consumer Choice Making During Daily Activities
        Chapter 8: Accessing Preferences
        Chapter 9: Personal Goal Planning
        Chapter 10: Promoting Happiness by Reducing Unhappiness
Section III: Promoting Happiness Through Independence
        Chapter 11: Preference-Based Teaching: Promoting Happiness While Learning
        Chapter 12: Teaching Naturalistically to Increase Independence and Promote Happiness
        Chapter 13: Working With Staff to Promote Consumer Happiness
 
ISBN 0-9645562-6-X      Published 2016      Index Selected      Readings  Practitioner Forms