Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006. / Title from title page screen, viewed on June 8, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Laura E. Berk (chair), Karla Doepke, Stacey Jones Bock, Dawn McBride. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-175) and abstract. Also available in print.

This study used a single case design to explore the relationship between individual child-centered play therapy on children with developmental delays by examining its effectiveness in: 1) increasing measured developmental age; 2) reducing problematic behaviors related to developmental delays; and 3) increasing developmentally appropriate behaviors. Three participants were assessed weekly with both developmental and behavioral measures during the three phases of the study: baseline, intervention, and follow up. Additionally, parents of the participants completed behavioral measures at pretest, midpoint, and posttest administrations. The participant's weekly standard scores were graphed and results were examined separately using visual analyses. Changes between phases: non-intervention baseline, intervention, and non-intervention follow-up were examined; specifically, the level, trend, and variability of the data across the phases were examined. Each of the three participants served as their own control group in this single case analysis and their results, and all three of the participants demonstrated improvement on the developmental measures after receiving the play therapy intervention. Results from this single case analysis suggest the need for further replication, use and reporting of single case interventions and designs, to promote the efficacy of counseling interventions and to potentially enhance the literature and research base for evidence based interventions.

This study examined the effects of a support group for parents of autistic children on the parents' reported stress levels.

The effectiveness of a training procedure designed to teach developmentally disabled children to play by themselves was examined. In addition, the influence of the frequency of probing was investigated. Baseline data showed low levels of self-amusement. The generalization training procedure produced moderate increases in self-amusement when probes were conducted frequently. The same treatment procedure produced higher levels of self-amusement when probes were conducted intermittantly. Some strategies for more successfully programming self-amusement are suggested.

This investigation was concerned with determining the effectiveness of filial therapy as a method of intervention for families of children with pervasive developmental disorders.

An acquisition criterion, more commonly known as “mastery criterion” is an instructor-established standard of performance that may signal the acquisition of a novel skill or the conclusion of a phase of intervention. When teaching new behaviors, researchers and practitioners in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) apply some type of criterion for the learner to achieve. The purpose of the following studies was to evaluate the effects of acquisition criteria on skill acquisition in addition to other components of mastery such as response maintenance and stimulus generalization. In Experiment I (Wong et al., 2021), I conducted a systematic comparison of two applications of acquisition criteria. I selected four participants to teach 40 novel sight words using learn unit instruction. The participants were between the ages of 5 and 7 years old and diagnosed with developmental disabilities. I equated the target operants and quasi-randomly assigned 20 sight words in one acquisition criterion condition and 20 sight words in another acquisition criterion condition. In one condition, Set Analysis (SA), the acquisition criterion was applied to a set of four operants. The other condition, Operant Analysis (OA), applied acquisition criterion to individual operants. The level of accuracy and the replication of the accuracy remained the same across conditions, and more specifically, a 100% accuracy across one replication session was utilized under OA and SA. The results of skill acquisition showed that all four participants learned a greater number of sight words under the OA condition compared to the SA condition within the same time frame. Response maintenance results suggested that SA produced more durable responses for three out of four participants. In Experiment II, I extended the findings of Experiment I by addressing some limitations and systematically replicating the procedures. I increased the number of replications of the acquisition criterion from 1 replication to two replications. I selected four new participants and taught them sight words under the OA application of acquisition criterion and the SA application of acquisition criterion. Similar to the findings of Experiment 1, the skill acquisition results showed all participants learned a greater number of operants under OA compared to SA. The response maintenance results showed that all four participants responded with 100% accuracy to a similar or higher percentage of operants under the OA condition compared to the SA condition, suggesting that the added replication to the acquisition criterion may have improved the durability of responses during four-week follow-up sessions. The findings of both Experiment I and Experiment II contributed to the small but growing body of literature demonstrating the parametric effects of acquisition criteria. However, small sample sizes in the existing acquisition criteria research limit the external validity of the findings. Thus, I conducted a descriptive analysis of every skill acquisition article published in 2017 to 2019 in three peer-reviewed behavioral journals, in order to address this limitation. I reported the general characteristics of over 200 articles targeting skill acquisition. Additionally, our analysis targeted the effects of acquisition-criterion levels and frequency of replications on response maintenance results and generalization results. Ultimately, the results provide evidence that acquisition criteria play an important role in the mastery of novel behaviors, which have practical implications for ABA clinicians and researchers.

Thesis (doctoral)--Gothenburg University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)-Gothenburg University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MEdPsych)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Deaf learners are unique and require special support and assistance. It is apparent in the literature that deaf learners are more exposed to both physical and sexual abuse. The consequences of the latter can lead to emotional problems, for example, enuresis, anxiety disorders, depression, panic attacks, anger outbursts and attention deficits. One of the biggest challenges in the life of deaf learners must surely be communication. Misunderstandings and subsequent frustrations that ensue, normally occur as a result of communication difficulties between deaf learners and the hearing person. From the literature it appears necessary to stimulate the deaf learner's language development as early as possible, as it impacts on several aspects of his/her maturation into adulthood. Communication difficulties can also influence the emotional development of deaf learners. Therapeutic support for deaf learners are a challenge. The therapist that works with the learners should ideally be able to sign. The young deaf learners do, however, not yet have a signing system and consequently communication is problematic. The learners themselves experience frustrations as he/she is not able to express his/her emotions. The objective of this study was to investigate the possibility of developmental play therapy as a psychotherapeutic technique for the treatment of emotional problems in young deaf learners. To some degree, the technique makes it possible for verbal communication between therapist and learners to be replaced by physical contact. The aim of the activities is to take learners back to the early mother-child relationship and for the therapist to model healthy relationships. The research undertaken here is a qualitative case study. It was approached from an eco-systemic perspective, in other words learners are viewed as the core system which, in turn, is part of several other systems for example the family, school, church, community, etc. The systems are interdependent, which means that change in the one system also results in change within the other systems. In the data production video recordings, unstructured interviews, observations and field notes were used. Data analysis was done using the principles of coding. The results of the study show that developmental play therapy is indeed an effective psychotherapeutic technique in the treatment of emotional problems in young deaf learners. It would appear that the technique requires adaptation for deaf learners needs in order to be effective. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Dowe leerders is uniek en het spesiale ondersteuning nodig. Uit die literatuur wil dit blyk of dowe leerders meer blootgestel word aan beide fisiese en seksuele mishandeling. Die gevolge van laasgenoemde kan lei tot meer emosionele probleme, byvoorbeeld enurese, angsversteurings, depressie, paniekaanvalle, woedeuitbarstings en aandagafleibaarheid. Een van die grootste uitdagings in dowe leerders se lewe is seker kommunikasie. Misverstande en frustrasies wat daaruit vloei, ontstaan gewoonlik as gevolg van kommunikasieprobieme tussen dowe leerders en die horende persoon. Uit die literatuur blyk dit noodsaaklik om dowe leerders se taalontwikkeling so vroeg as moontlik te stimuleer aangesien dit verskeie aspekte in sy/haar volwassewordingsproses beïnvloed. Kommunikasieprobleme het ook 'n invloed op dowe leerders se emosionele ontwikkeling. Terapeutiese ondersteuning van dowe leerders is 'n uitdaging. Die terapeut wat met die leerders werk, moet verkieslik gebaretaal kan praat. Die jong dowe leerders het egter nog nie werklik 'n gebaresisteem nie en gevolglik is kommunikasie 'n probleem. Die leerders self ervaar frustrasies, omdat hy/sy nie die vermoê het om uiting te gee aan sy/haar emosies nie. Die doel met hierdie studie was om die moontlikheid van ontwikkelende speelterapie as psigoterapeutiese tegniek in die hantering van emosionele probleme by jong dowe leerders te ondersoek. Die tegniek maak dit in 'n mate moontlik om die verbale kommunikasie tussen terapeut en leerders te vervang met fisiese kontak. Die doel met die aktiwiteite is om die leerders terug te neem na die vroeê moeder - kindverhouding en gesonde verhoudings deur die terapeut te modelleer. Die navorsing neem die vorm van 'n kwalitatiewe gevallestudie aan. Dit word benader vanuit 'n ekosistemiese perspektief, dit wil sê die leerders word gesien as die kernsisteem wat deel is van verskeie ander sisteme soos byvoorbeeld die familie, skool, kerk en gemeenskap. Die sisteme is interafhanklik wat beteken dat verandering in die een sisteem ook verandering in die ander sisteme tot gevolg het. In die data-produksie is tegnieke naamlik video-opnames, ongestruktureerde onderhoude, observasies en veldnotas gebruik. Data-analise is volgens die beginsels van kodering gedoen. Die resultate van die onderhewige studie wys daarop dat ontwikkelende speelterapie wel In effektiewe psigoterapeutiese tegniek is in die hantering van emosionele probleme by jong dowe leerders. Dit wil voorkom of die tegniek aangepas moet word by dowe leerders se behoeftes om werklik effektief te wees.

I tested the effects of an observational intervention on observing responses, denial responses, and audience appropriate behaviors in 9 preschool children with developmental and language delays. The participants were 8 males and 1 female aged 3-5 years, who were selected from a preschool program that implemented a behavior analytic approach to all instruction. All participants had fluent listener and speaker repertoires and emitted mands, tacts, and sequelics with adults. The children were selected to participate because they displayed little to no awareness of, or interactions with their peers during free play and social settings. I conducted probes for a) peer observing responses, b) responses to denial of non-preferred stimuli being delivered to peers, c) social initiations to peers, d) responses to peers’ social initiations, and e) other socially appropriate behaviors. Pre-intervention probes showed that all participants emitted low peer observing responses in free play settings, and did not consistently initiate or reciprocate peer interactions across different social settings. Five out of nine participants emitted responses to denial prior to the intervention. The independent variable was an observational intervention using non-preferred stimuli and a denial condition that was used in prior studies to establish conditioned reinforcement by observation. The participant and peer confederate sat side-by-side at a table, and were separated by an opaque partition. They were both presented with a performance task. The participant observed the peer confederate receive the non-preferred stimuli but could not observe the peer’s responses to the task. The intervention continued until the participants emitted responses to denial of the non-preferred stimuli across two sessions. Post-intervention data suggest that peer observing responses in free play settings, as well as audience appropriate behaviors in social settings increased as a function of the observational intervention in 8 out of 9 participants. Responses to the denial of non-preferred stimuli delivered to a peer increased in 4 out of 4 participants who did not respond during pre-intervention probes.