Department Chair
Associate Professor
Dr. Burnham Riosa is interested in supervising graduate students in ABA and LDCC in Fall 2027, pending departmental supervision allocations.
I am an associate professor in the Department of Applied Disability Studies. I am a Doctoral-level Board Certified Behaviour Analyst and I have been working in the disability field with children, youth, and adults with autism and their families for over 20 years. I earned my PhD in human development at the University of Guelph and MSc at Western University in developmental psychology. I also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at York University where I conducted clinical research in the area of mental health and autism.
My research focuses on understanding and improving the well-being and quality of life of people with disabilities and their families across the lifespan. Some topics of interest include: therapeutic rapport; parent-child relationships; mental health; understanding family experiences of disability; using behavioural methods to study mindfulness-based approaches; strengths-focused research; community-engaged participatory action research.
Ensor, R., Burnham Riosa, P., & Yu, K. H. X. (2023). Evaluation of a rapport-building intervention for early interventionists working with children on the autism spectrum. Behavioral Interventions. http://doi.org/10.1002/bin.1983
Davy, B., Burnham Riosa, P., & Ghassemi, E. (2023). Understanding the mental health perspectives and experiences of migrants to Canada. International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services. https://doi.org/10.1177/27551938231156032
Burnham Riosa, P., Ensor, R., Jichici, B., & Davy, B. (2023). How my life is unique: Sibling perspectives of autism. Autism, 27(6), 1575–1587. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613221142385
Burnham Riosa, P., Randhawa, A., & Muskat, B. (2022). Autism comes to the pediatric hospital: Perspectives of Child Life Specialists. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 10.1007/s10803-022-05776-9
Burnham Riosa, P., Khan, M., & Weiss, J. A. (2019). Measuring therapeutic alliance in children with autism during cognitive behaviour therapy. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 26(6), 761–767. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2404
Salem-Guirgis, S., Albaum, C., Tablon, P., Burnham Riosa, P., Nicholas, D., Drmic, I., & Weiss, J. A. (2019). MYmind: A concurrent group-based mindfulness intervention for youth with autism and their parents. Mindfulness, 10(9), 1730–1743. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01107-9
Fardella, M. A., Burnham Riosa, P., & Weiss, J. A. (2018). A qualitative investigation of risk and protective factors for violence in adults on the autism spectrum. Disability & Society, 33(9), 1460–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2018.1498320
Weiss, J. A., Thomson, K., Burnham Riosa, P., Albaum, C., Chan, V., Maughan, A., Tablon, P., Black, K. (2018). A randomized waitlist controlled trial of cognitive behavior therapy to improve emotion regulation in children with autism. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 59(11), 1180–1191. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12915
Burnham Riosa, P., Greenblatt, A., Muskat, B. (2017). An online ASD learning module for pediatric health care professionals. Advances in Autism, 3(3), 154–162. https://doi.org/10.1108/AIA-03-2017-0007
Burnham Riosa, P., Ting, V., Maughan, A., Stables, V., Albaum, C., & Weiss, J. A. (2017). Remediating deficits or increasing strengths in ASD research: A content analysis. Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 1(3), 113–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41252-017-0027-3
Hassan, M., Thomson, K. M., Khan, M., Burnham Riosa, P., & Weiss, J. A. (2017). Behavioral skills training for graduate students providing cognitive behavior therapy to children with autism spectrum disorder. Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice, 17(2), 155–165. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bar0000078
Weiss, J. A., Burnham Riosa, P., Robinson, S., Ryan, S., Tint, A., Viecili, M., MacMullin, J. A., & Shine, R. (2016). Understanding Special Olympics experiences from the athlete perspectives using photo-elicitation: A qualitative study. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 30(5), 936–945. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12287
Thomson, K., Burnham Riosa, P., & Weiss, J. A. (2015). Brief report of preliminary outcomes of an emotion regulation intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 45(11), 3487–3495. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2446-1
Weiss, J. A., & Burnham Riosa, P. (2015). Thriving in youth with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(8), 2474–2486. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2412-y
Burnham Riosa, P., Preyde, M., & Porto, M. L. (2015). Transitioning to adult mental health services: Perceptions of adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems. Journal of Adolescent Research, 30(4), 446–476. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0743558415569730
Muskat, B., Burnham Riosa, P., Nicholas, D., Roberts, W., Stoddart, K., & Zwaigenbaum, L. (2015). Autism comes to the hospital: The experiences of patients with autism spectrum disorder, their parents, and health care providers at two Canadian paediatric hospitals. Autism: International Journal of Research and Practice, 19(4), 482–490. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1362361314531341
Feldman, M. A., Bosett, J., Collet, C., & Burnham Riosa, P. (2014). Where are persons with intellectual disabilities in medical research? A survey of medical clinical trials. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research. 58(9), 800–809. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.12091
McArthur, B., Burnham Riosa, P., & Preyde, M. (2012). Treatment fidelity in psychosocial intervention for children and adolescents with comorbid problems. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 17(3), 139–145. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-3588.2011.00635.x
Burnham Riosa, P., McArthur, B., & Preyde, M. (2011). Effectiveness of psychosocial intervention for children and adolescents with comorbid internalizing and externalizing problems: A systematic review. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 16(4), 177–185. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-3588.2011.00609.x
Preyde, M., & Burnham Riosa, P. (2011). Intervention fidelity in psychosocial oncology. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 8(4), 379–396. https://doi.org/10.1080/15433714.2011.542334
Preyde, M., Frensch, K., Cameron, G., Hazineh, L., & Burnham Riosa, P. (2011). Mental health outcomes of children and youth accessing residential programs or a home-based alternative. Social Work in Mental Health, 9(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2010.494557
Burnham, P., Synnott, E., & Preyde, M. (2009). The association between childhood mental health and poverty: Unveiling a hidden reality. Child and Family Professional, 12(2), 14–20.
Book Chapter
Weiss, J. A., Burnham Riosa, P., Mazefsky, C. A., & Beaumont, R. (2017). Emotion regulation in autism spectrum disorder. In C. Essau and T. Ollendick (Eds.). Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology in Children and Adolescents (pp. 235-258). London: Oxford University Press.
Current:
Shona Mills, MA Student Kevin Yu, MA Student
Sara Tanasichuk, MA Student
Past:
Jean Phan, MA
Brittany Davy, MARebecca Ensor, MABrynn Jichici, MA
