published_or_final_version / Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine / Master / Master of Philosophy

A multiple baseline design across activities and people was used to assess the effectiveness of a feedback package on the facial orientation of a young girl with autism. During baseline, observations indicated low rates of facial orientation and high rates of gaze avoidance during conversation (restricted operant) and play (free operant) conditions. After treatment, facial orientation rates increased and gaze avoidance rates decreased to levels similar to typically-developing peers and maintained at one month follow up. These results suggest that the feedback package was effective in producing durable facial orientation across different environments and people. Possible interpretations, strengths, and limitations are discussed.

A 5-year-old child with autism was taught to: (a) ask "What is that?" in the presence of unknown objects and (b) name the objects he did know. Generalization in the presence of the experimenter was probed across four new tasks. The child's performance generalized to the first 3 tasks without additional training. The fourth task required programming of common stimuli before generalization occurred.

Few studies have investigated methods for establishing neutral stimuli as conditioned reinforcers in human subjects. Conditioned reinforcers, however, can alleviate some of the problems encountered in applied behavior analytic (ABA) therapy for children with autism, such as satiation and suitability of reinforcers for specific environments. A series of reversals evaluated the effects of a conditioning procedure involving pairing a neutral stimulus, the remote control stimulus (RCT), with an identified reinforcer. Phase 1 demonstrated that the RCT was neutral. In Phase 2, alternating pairing and testing conditions were run. During testing the effects of pairing were evaluated by the effectiveness of the RCT in maintaining a response in the absence of a previously available reinforcer (extinction test) and in increasing a new response over a baseline level (learning test). Results from the extinction test suggest that under some pairing conditions the RCT can acquire properties of a reinforcer.

Most toddlers with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) and Autism are non-compliant, have language delays and immature play; however, some have intact information processing ability, while others do not. Play data from two treatment outcome studies of children with PDD and Autism, and one normative longitudinal study were analysed to (1) compare play of normally developing children to delayed children with intact versus impaired processing; (2) investigate differential impact of a parent-implemented cognitive-behavioural treatment on children with intact versus impaired processing; and (3) investigate the use of information processing, and non-verbal play measures, including sustained attention, for use with children with delays. Both children with intact and those with impaired processing, but particularly children with impaired processing, displayed immature play relative to normally developing children. With treatment, sophistication of play improved substantially for children with intact processing and less for children with impaired processing confirming the usefulness of both information processing and play as alternative assessment procedures for children who are non-verbal and non-compliant.

The research investigated the impact of sexual harassment on withdrawal behaviors and attitudes toward harassment by examining the gender composition of the harassment dyad and the organizational status of the perpetrator in relation to the victim. Archival data from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan was used to obtain surveys in which participants rated their attitudes and experiences related to sexual harassment. Only individuals who reported experiencing sexual harassment within the 24 months prior to data collection are included in the current research. A MANOVA was conducted to determine if withdrawal behaviors and attitudes of victims varied by the gender dyad and/or the organizational status of the perpetrator. Results indicated that individuals harassed by people with higher organizational status displayed more withdrawal behaviors in the form of decreased productivity and increased use of sick, annual, and unpaid leave. Individuals harassed by a member of the same gender also used more unpaid leave. Interestingly, individuals harassed by members of the opposite gender, tended to disagree more strongly with the attitude index measuring cautious awareness of sexual harassment.

The effectiveness of behavioral interventions for the treatment of young children with autism has been well documented in professional literature. The success of these procedures, however, depends on the fidelity of implementation and proper training of the therapist. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a 125-skill, comprehensive staff training package that involved a graduated sequence of teaching. In addition to changes in skills, social validity and training time were also assessed. Results indicate that correct demonstration of skills increased following training, incorrect implementation decreased, teachers rated the procedures favorably, and the total training took between 20 and 32.5 hours for over 120 skills to reach mastery criteria. A discussion of the results as well as implications for future research is also provided.

No description available.

The present study consists of two experiments that analyze the effects of high and low densities of reinforcemnt on the maladaptive behaviors of a 9 year old girl with autism. The first experiment investigates the isolated effects of density of reinforcement on the frequency of maladaptive behaviors during a motor imitation teaching task. High densities of reinforcement produced fewer occurrences of maladaptive behavior than low densities of reinforcement. Experiment 2 analyzes the effects of density of reinforcement during the same teaching tasks as in experiment 1 on maladaptive behavior, task accuracy, prompt resistance, and language. Maladaptive behavior did not recur during experiment 2. High density of reinforcement conditions during the second experiment showed a positive effect on the accuracy of responding and compliance with prompts.

M.A. (Counselling Psychology) / Mothers’ experiences of raising a child who has been diagnosed with autistic disorder or autism spectrum disorder are multifaceted and multidimensional. These experiences include both negative and positive aspects which at times occur simultaneously. The aim of this research was to explore three mothers’ lived experiences of raising a child who has been diagnosed with autistic disorder. This entailed their experiences prior to receiving a diagnosis of autistic disorder for their child to their present circumstances. A hermeneutic epistemological framework, which falls in the qualitative research approach, was used. Data were collected in the form of three written narratives and three interviews which were analysed using a hermeneutic epistemological framework and thematic analysis. The analysis of the data resulted in the identification of five metathemes: the journey towards a label, challenges, attempting to be a good enough mother, coping, and personal growth. The most prominent metatheme is the three mothers’ attempts to be a good enough mother to their child with autistic disorder. Furthermore, the metathemes seem to confirm that mothers’ experiences are multidimensional and multifaceted.