About Us

The Developing Ability Partnership believes in facilitating the collection and sharing of best practice in improving the quality of life for people with developmental challenges. To this end, our focus is on helping you - whether you are parents, guardians, family members, friends or professionals - to achieve these goals:

Since the availability of expert practitioners falls far short of demand, and many families experience difficulties in attending traditional courses, our hope is that you will find this expanding range of online services and community of benefit to you.

In this way, the experience and expertise of the Developing Ability Partnership team, its affiliates and partners will be available to any member on this website. We need your support to make this innovative and cost effective support service work, primarily in giving us feedback on what works best for you...

Thank you.
Dr Ken Kerr, Director of Services :: November 2007


Partnership and Affiliate Programmes :: June 2008


Dr Ken P. Kerr

Dr Ken P. Kerr is Director of Developing Ability in Partnership, a cooperative of leading behavioural practitioners working with children and adults with Autism and Intellectual Disability.

Ken's extensive experience in supporting individuals with Autism and Intellectual Disability in school, community and residential settings. 

Previously, Ken was Regional Services Manager for Children's Autism Service in Co Mayo, Senior Psychologist/Acting Principal Psychologist in Co Mayo, Director of Saplings School in Kildare, and Director of Training of Parents' Education as Autism Therapists in Northern Ireland.

Ken has been involved with training parents and supervising home-based educational programs for many years. 

His main research interests include ABA, Precision Teaching, and Early Intervention for children with autism and positive behaviour support. He has published widely on ABA and related topics in national and international journals and has co-edited two books on educational supports for children with autism.

Email: ken.kerr@developing-ability.com


Dr Katrina Duffy

Dr. Katrina Duffy, co-editor of 'First Steps in ABA', is the Educational Director with the Saplings for Children with Autism in Co. Westmeath and has over six years experience applying the principles of applied behaviour analysis (ABA) to working with children with autism. Katrina has provided ABA training and consultancy for numerous professional and parent led groups.

A former graduate of University of Ulster Coleraine, Katrina completed her Ph.D. in Behaviour Analysis, Stimulus Equivalence and Precision Teaching. Katrina has presented at national and international conferences and lectured on Behaviour Analysis, Stimulus Equivalence and Precision teaching for several Universities. 

Katrina is currently conducting research examining the efficacy of Precision Teaching with children with autism and also researching effective interventions to deal with feeding problems in young children.

Email: katrina.duffy@developing-ability.com