While descriptive assessment outcomes show limited correspondence with experimental analysis outcomes, they are still often used in the treatment of problem behavior. The most effective way of treating problem behavior is by manipulating its controlling variables; however, if descriptive analyses are not depicting accurate environment-behavior relations, then treatments based off of descriptive analysis results have a higher chance of failing. The current study looks to replicate and extend the literature on utility descriptive assessments by analyzing three different data analysis methods. Three children with a diagnosis of autism were exposed to two types of experimental analyses. Following experimental analyses, descriptive assessments were completed and analyzed to determine correlations between the behavior and environmental events. The results from the three investigated data analysis methods were then compared to the outcomes of the experimental analyses.

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.

A few studies have examined the effects of a remote control tactile device (RCT) as an unobtrusive prompting method used to promote skills such as verbal initiations and play behaviors in children with autism. To date, however, no published studies have investigated the effects of the RCT as a consequence to increase and maintain conversation skills. This study was designed to determine whether the RCT, in conjunction with common training techniques (i.e. roleplays, visual feedback, and sibling coaching), could be used as a discrete and unobtrusive feedback system to promote conversation skills in high functioning children with autism. Results found that the RCT and training packages were effective in initially increasing rates of target responses. The effects however, did not always maintain with a return to baseline. Programming "naturally" maintaining communities of reinforcement was found to be a critical factor in the maintenance of the conversational responses.

Mand training is a very logical and natural procedure to begin teaching communication skills to individuals with autism. Existing research has documented strategies for teaching children with autism to mand for preferred items, although there are fewer high quality studies on teaching children to mand for other people to perform an action. In addition to improving the general mand repertoire, teaching children to mand for others to perform an action is important because it allows children with autism to communicate ways in which another person could improve their environment by performing a simple action. The purpose of this study was to document a functional relation between mand training and acquisition and generalization of unprompted mands for another person to perform an action. Using a multiple-baseline design across participants, four children with autism were taught to mand for an adult to perform a variety of actions (e.g., to open a container so the child could obtain a preferred item). Results showed that the intervention produced an increase in unprompted mands for actions for all participants. Additionally, all participants demonstrated unprompted mands at or above mastery criteria during all generalization sessions in a different setting and different interventionist. The magnitude of effect was also large for all participants. This study extends the research on mand training by demonstrating a procedure that can be used to teach children with autism specific mands for actions. Additionally, this study will contribute to a body of strong and adequate studies that will eventually lead to mand training being considered an evidence-based practice.

Submitted by Marlene Aparecida de Souza Cardozo (mcardozo@pucsp.br) on 2018-04-19T10:14:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodolfo Ribeiro Dib.pdf: 900356 bytes, checksum: 7f176b28502e61b2ec2f325e3dde9649 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-19T10:14:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodolfo Ribeiro Dib.pdf: 900356 bytes, checksum: 7f176b28502e61b2ec2f325e3dde9649 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-11-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder frequently experience delays in their vocal verbal behavior. Previous studies that have attempted to teach verbal mand to autistic children through the scope of Behavior Analysis have used different antecedents in the process of teaching as a means to facilitate and speed up the acquisition of this verbal operant. The present study investigates the effect of gradually delaying the echoic method, until completely removing it to teach vocal mand. Along with the addition of the echoic method, participants were deprived of an item whose topography had been previously taught. The echoic model corresponding to the mand topography taught was immediately repeated by the researcher after putting away the item of interest to the child inside a box and, gradually, the time for presentation of the echoic model was delayed. The intention was to investigate whether the motivating operation alone could control the verbal operant. Three children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder between three and four years old participated in the study. Two participants were taught three vocal mand topographies and one was taught two topographies. One of the participants learned all three mand responses in just a few sessions, while two participants learned only one over the course of additional sessions. At the follow-up session twenty days after being taught the mands, the participants still provided the correct responses. The importance of variables such as motivation, the participants’ starting repertoire, number of attempts, and frequency of the sessions is discussed from the perspective of the study’s efficacy. Limitations such as the lack of planning of a generalization process and the low number of participants should be addressed in future studies / Crianças com diagnóstico de Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA) apresentam, frequentemente, déficits expressivos em repertórios verbais. Estudos anteriores, que se propuseram a ensinar mando para crianças com TEA sob a ótica da Análise do Comportamento, usaram diferentes antecedentes no procedimento de ensino como forma de facilitar e agilizar a aquisição desse operante. O presente estudo investigou o efeito do atraso gradual do modelo ecoico, até sua retirada, no ensino de mando. Além da adição do modelo ecoico, também houve a presença da privação de um item, cuja topografia foi ensinada. O modelo ecoico correspondente à topografia de mando ensinada era dito imediatamente pelo experimentador, após o mesmo guardar o item de interesse da criança numa caixa e, gradualmente, o tempo de apresentação do modelo ecoico foi atrasado. Pretendeu-se investigar se apenas a operação motivadora poderia controlar o operante verbal. Participaram da investigação três crianças com TEA com idade entre três e quatro anos. Dois participantes foram submetidos ao ensino de três topografias vocais de mando e um ao ensino de duas topografias. Um dos participantes aprendeu as três respostas de mando ensinadas em poucas sessões, enquanto dois participantes aprenderam apenas uma, em um número maior de sessões. No follow-up, realizado para dois participantes vinte dias após o encerramento do ensino, as respostas corretas se mantiveram. Discutese a importância de variáveis como motivação, repertório de entrada dos participantes, número de tentativas e periodicidade das sessões para a eficácia do ensino. Limitações como ausência do planejamento da generalização e número pequeno de participantes devem ser atendidas em estudos futuros

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of a treatment package to teach a child with autism to willingly accept skin care products conducive to health and normal everyday living. The current study uses graduated exposure, modeling and contingent social attention to teach the child to accept the application of skin care products previously avoided. Results of the study showed that the participant tolerated criterion amounts of all target stimuli with both experimenter and parent. Follow-up probes revealed maintenance of the behaviors with only two out of the three target skin care products.

As more toddlers are being diagnosed with autism there is an increased need for very early intervention. Preliminary research on interventions suggests toddlers can make important developmental progress and that parents can be part of the intervention process. The purpose of this study was to systematically replicate a parent training program reported by Alai-Rosales et al. (2009). Specifically, the present study taught parents a set of teaching strategies that included arranging the environment, setting up learning opportunities, and using positive reinforcement. Baseline-intervention conditions were replicated across four parent-toddler dyads in order to assess the effects of training on parent and child behaviors. Results indicated increases in parent teaching behaviors, the child targeted behavior (facial orientation), as well as a non-targeted skill, joint attention. Findings are discussed in relation to the challenges of intervention and considerations for future research.

The present study utilized multiple-baseline and multi-probe across participants designs to measure both fidelity and efficacy of caregivers as primary interventionists when using trial-based functional analysis (TBFA) procedures. Participants included any caregiver of a child with a medical or educational diagnosis of autism and challenging behavior. Caregiver fidelity of implementation of TBFA procedures was measured across three phases: baseline, training, and independent implementation or generalization. Within the implementation phase, caregivers independently conducted TBFAs on their respective children within the home setting. Fidelity, efficacy, and social validity across each participant were measured. Each caregiver was able to reach fidelity during the training phase, and three out of five caregivers were able to identify a clear behavior function for their child's behavior within the implementation phase of the study. Social validity was evaluated. Results indicate that caregivers may be able to supplement traditional interventionists during the TBFA process. Implications for future practice are reviewed.

We evaluated the effects of an instructional package on the emergence of novel intraverbals in children diagnosed with autism. Participants were two boys with a diagnosis of autism who had tact and listener repertoires for common objects and events, some intraverbal responses, and showed an ability to learn new intraverbal responses through direct instruction prior to participating in the study. Tact training, listener training, sorting training, and mixed training (listener and tact training) were conducted with each participant, with a probe to test for emergent intraverbals following each training step. If some emergence was seen during a probe following a training step, probes were conducted with the remaining sets to test for emergence in those sets as well. Multiple-exemplar training was conducted following the training steps if all targets within a set did not meet the criterion for emergence during probes. Results showed that for one participant, all four training steps, in addition to multiple-exemplar training, were needed to see emergence in all targets during probes for two sets, with the last two sets requiring only tact training before all targets had emerged during probes. The second participant required only tact training during three sets, with listener training required for one target in one set before all targets in all sets emerged during probes.

Under federal law, students with disabilities have the right to be educated in classrooms with students without disabilities. For students with autism, social, communication, and behavioral deficits make inclusion difficult. The severity of deficits change over time, and therefore, so too do the effects of these deficits upon inclusion. Although most research indicates autism symptoms improve with age, some studies suggest symptoms worsen, thereby affecting classroom placement. Students with autism use a multitude of interventions, most of which are not evidenced-based. Behavioral interventions are among the small number of treatments that can decrease autism severity and foster inclusion. However, behavioral interventions have not been compared to other widely used treatments, and in practice, they are rarely used in isolation. The purpose of the present study was threefold. First, relations between age, and autism severity were examined. Second, the study investigated whether relations between autism severity and time spent in regular education classrooms differed according to age. Third, it investigated types of treatments students used, and whether using behavioral treatments moderated relations between age, autism severity and amount of time in regular education classrooms. Using a national database (Interactive Autism Network), data about the severity of social, communication and behavior deficits, treatment type, and amount of time spent in regular education classrooms were extracted from school-age students (n = 2646) with autism. The results of the study showed that as age increased, social deficits increased. Furthermore, younger students, and students with more severe social impairment spent less time in regular education classrooms. Age also predicted use of behavioral treatment, and students who used behavioral treatment spent more time in special education classrooms. The findings of this study reflect the current climate of autism knowledge, which emphasizes early, intensive intervention. Consequently, students who were younger, and used behavioral treatments, were likely to be in special education classrooms that could maximize individualization, and associated treatment benefits. This is important, as social deficits increase with age, and reduce the amount of time students spend in inclusive classrooms. Additional studies are needed to further understand how behavioral treatment, compared to or used in conjunction with other commonly used treatments, affects inclusion. / Department of Educational Psychology