Michelle Major Sanabria, Ph.D., NCSP

Assistant Professor
mmajor@mail.barry.edu
LIB 136
(305) 899-4575

Dr. Major-Sanabria is a nationally certified school psychologist. Prior to being employed by her alma mater, she worked as a School Psychologist for the Palm Beach County School District . She has taught as an adjunct professor for both the psychology and education departments at Barry University . Dr. Major-Sanabria has also worked as a pre-k teacher for children with autism in an inclusive setting and as a behavior therapist for children with autism. Dr. Major-Sanabria earned her B.S. and M.S. in psychology, S.S.P. in school psychology and Ph.D. in education and leadership with a specialization in exceptional student education from Barry University.

Research Interests

• Children with autism, with a focus on the effectiveness of behavioral intervention and special education.
• Stress, attribution and life satisfaction of parents with children with autism.
• Cognitive processes of children with autism and asperger syndrome.

Grants

• Program Evaluator for Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ Safe Schools/Healthy Students Project (US $ 420,000 for evaluation).

Selected Publications/Presentations

• Major-Sanabria, M. & Wolman, C. (under review). The perceptions of mothers of children with autistic disorders about the efficacy of the child’s behavioral intervention, considering the difficulty of the child’s condition and attribution of responsibility. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities Reseach.
• Major-Sanabria, M. (forthcoming ). Mothers' stress, attributions, emotions, and reactions to the problem behaviors of their children with autism. Unpublished manuscript.
• Major-Sanabria, M., & Muscarella, F. (October, 2006). Guidelines for working with sexual minority children. Paper presented at the Florida Association of school psychologists, Orlando, FL.
• Major-Sanabria, M., & Szuchman, L.T. (2006, August). Mothers of children with autism: Emotions and life satisfaction. Presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.
• Major-Sanabria, M. & Lineman, J. (May, 2006). Maternal emotions to the problem behaviors of their child with autism at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, New York, NY.
• Major-Sanabria, M. (March, 2006). Applied Behavior Analysis: An Educational Approach for Children with Autism. Paper presented at the National Association of School Psychologists, Anaheim , California.
• Major-Sanabria, M. (March, 2006). Mothers' Stress: Impact of Educational Programming for Children with Autism. Poster presented at the National Association of School Psychologists, Anaheim , California .
• Major-Sanabria, M., & Lineman, J. (2006, March). Marital Implications for Having a Child with Autism. Poster presented at the 70th Annual Meeting of the Florida Academy of Sciences, Melbourne, FL.
• Major-Sanabria, M. (2006, January). Perception of Maternal Burden Related to Having a Child with Autism. Paper presented at the 2nd annual conference of Phi Delta Kappa, Miami, Florida.
• Major, M.C., Szuchman, L. T. & Muscarella, F. (2001). Mothers' stress, attributions, emotions, and reactions to the problem behaviors of their children with autism. Paper presented at the 48th annual conference of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Orlando , Florida , 2002.
• Major, M. C. & Szuchman, L. T. (March, 1998). Gender differences in components of test anxiety: Implications for test performance. Paper presented at the 44th annual conference of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Mobile, Alabama .

Professional Memberships

• American Psychological Association
• Florida Association of School Psychologists
• National Association of School Psychologists

Undergraduate Courses

• Introduction to Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Psychology of Women
• Psychology of Family
• Independent Research

Graduate Courses

• Human Exceptionalities in Learning and Behavior
• Assessment of Children 0 to 5
• Purpose and Organization of Schools
• Child and Adolescent Psychopathology
• Behavior and Personality Assessment of Child and Adolescent
• Directed Research