Children with autism often experience substantial delays in the development of play behavior. Interventions to teach play skills are often complicated by challenging behavior and stereotypy. Previous research has demonstrated a potential relationship between stereotypy, challenging behavior and play in children with autism. However, few research-based methods for addressing stereotypy and challenging during play interventions are available to practitioners. The purpose of this study was to reduce stereotypy and challenging behavior during a play intervention for five children with autism by adding an abolishing operation component to a common research-based procedure for teaching play skills. The abolishing effect is one of several possible effects of MOs. An abolishing operation is any stimuli or series of events that reduces the value of a particular reinforcer. If an individual has unrestricted access to a particular reinforcer for an extended period of time that stimuli may eventually lose its reinforcing value. Incorporation of the abolishing operation concept into play interventions may allow practitioners to effectively reduce the reinforcing value of stereotypy prior to beginning a play intervention. If the reinforcing value of stereotypy is reduced, then the child may engage in less stereotypy and less challenging behavior when stereotypy is interrupted. By reducing these interfering behaviors, it was hypothesized that a research-based play intervention would be more effective and efficient. The effects of two conditions were compared. In one condition (abolishing operation condition) the child is allowed to engage in stereotypy freely prior to the implementation of an intervention targeting play skills. In the second condition the same play intervention was implemented without the prior free play period. The levels of functional play, symbolic play, stereotypy, and challenging behavior were compared across these two conditions. Results show decreased levels of stereotypy and challenging behavior and increased levels of functional play in the abolishing operation condition. Symbolic play did not occur following either condition. / text

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:18:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bruno Cesar de Pinho Costa.pdf: 2100325 bytes, checksum: a0a403a0fe937f1bb60b8c8668abe43d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-04-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study sought to: (1) propose a device to the experimental analysis of behavior, (2) present the results of two studies conducted during the testing of equipment, (3) present the first experimental results obtained from monitoring the daily activities of the experimental subject in such equipment and (4) report two experiments in which they attempted to demonstrate empirically the establishment of different surrogate conditioned motivating operations. First, the equipment (Caixa Geradora e Monitora de Cotidiano, CGMC) was presented. During testing of the equipment, two studies were conducted. The first on the effects of light on the daily activities of the experimental subject, the results produced indicated the need for adjustments to equipment, in particular concerning the type and intensity of light used for establishing the cycles of light / dark. The second study occurred during the tests CGMC allowed us to analyze the effects of water restriction (imposed accidentally) of approximately five days on the daily activities of the experimental subject. The results indicate changes in the distribution of the daily activities of the experimental subjects, even those not necessarily related to obtaining water. Once the testing phase of the equipment was finished, a study was conducted in order to monitor the daily activities of the experimental subjects, over the days. The results point to the existence of patterns in the flow behavior that can be modified by various types of variables, such as the cycle of light and dark used, water restrictions and changes in schedules of reinforcement. Finally, two experiments were performed in order to demonstrate empirically the formation of two surrogate conditioned motivating operations. The results point to the failure to establish surrogate conditioned motivating operations / O presente trabalho pretendeu: (1) apresentar uma proposta de equipamento para a análise do comportamento, (2) apresentar os resultados de dois estudos realizados durante os testes do equipamento, (3) apresentar os primeiros resultados experimentais obtidos a partir do monitoramento das atividades diárias do sujeito experimental neste tipo equipamento e (4) relatar dois experimentos nos quais se tentou demonstrar empiricamente o estabelecimento de diferentes operações motivadoras condicionadas substituas. Primeiramente, o equipamento (Caixa Geradora e Monitora de Cotidiano, CGMC) foi apresentado. Durante os testes do equipamento, dois estudos foram realizados. O primeiro sobre os efeitos das luzes sobre as atividades diárias do sujeito experimental; os resultados produzidos indicaram a necessidade de ajustes no equipamento, em especial com relação ao tipo e intensidade da luz utilizada para estabelecer os ciclos de claro/escuro. O segundo estudo ocorrido durante os testes da CGMC permitiu analisar os efeitos de uma restrição hídrica (acidentalmente imposta) de aproximadamente cinco dias de duração sobre as atividades diárias do sujeito experimental. Os resultados apontam para mudanças na distribuição das atividades diárias do sujeito experimental, mesmo daquelas não necessariamente relacionadas com a obtenção de água. Concluída a fase de testes do equipamento, foi realizado um estudo com o objetivo monitorar as atividades diárias do sujeito experimental, ao longo dos dias. Os resultados obtidos apontam para a existência de padrões no fluxo comportamental que podem ser modificados por diversos tipos de variáveis, como o ciclo de claro-escuro utilizado, restrições hídricas e mudanças nos esquemas de reforçamento. Por fim, dois experimentos foram realizados com o objetivo de se demonstrar empiricamente a formação de duas operações motivadoras condicionas substitutas. Os resultados apontam para o não estabelecimento das operações motivadoras condicionadas substitutas

Current research indicates that the inability to spontaneously communicate needs or wants may result in the acquisition of unconventional forms of requesting such as aggression and tantrums. This in turn limits the amount of access that students with autism have to neurotypical peers and social environments. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of using a stimulus control transfer procedure on the acquisition of spontaneous mands. Four school-aged children with autism, two boys and two girls, participated in the study. A multiple baseline design across participants was utilized to demonstrate a functional relation between the stimulus control transfer procedures and the rate of spontaneous mands. Measurement variables included the frequency of spontaneous versus multiply-controlled mands during discrete trial training on a variety of verbal operants. Effectiveness of the intervention was analyzed through visual analysis and the magnitude of effect was assessed through effect size. Visual analysis indicated that three of the four participants learned to spontaneously mand for items out of view and demonstrated generalization across targets, staff and environments. The effect size for three participants were large (d = 1.94; d = 2.2; and d = 1.4), whereas the outcome of intervention for one participant (d = 0.98) indicated moderate effect. The overall (d = 1.15) outcome demonstrated a large effect of the intervention on the rate of mands. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that early and intensive behavior intervention programs for children with autism incorporate this type of procedure for socially significant outcomes.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:17:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bruno Cesar de Pinho Costa.pdf: 15011533 bytes, checksum: 6a0668f6c2811d663f8e595649716502 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-11-27 / This work consists of three chapters. In the firt chapter, the reader will be introduced to the experimental condition where the following described experiments were performed. This condition consists of the following equipment/tools: (a) a box where multiple operant responses can be recorded continuously and completely over 24 hr per day (b) the ability to monitor and control experiments remotely and (c ) a device capable of recording in Excel spreadsheet data about the temperature and the relative humidity of the air. The chapter concludes with some suggestions for areas of research in this experimental condition could be used. In Chapter 2 describes an experiment in which a set of daily activities of the expeirmental subject was recorded 24 hr per day while it lived in the experimental conditions described in Chapter 1. The activities recorded in this experiment were: (a) number of pressures to water and food bars, (b) the number of times that the subject entered the nest, (c) number of interactions with the wooden disc and (d) number of turns in the activity wheel. The pressure responses to the bars were reinforced according to a continuous schedule of reinforcement. This experiment was approximately 91 days long. The effects from an accidental deprivation of food, the effects of the light-dark cycle, the temerature and air humidity on the activities of the subject where analysed. Furthermore, peroxides greater stability in daily activities were also discussed. Chapter 3 will describe two experiments in order to verify that sound stimuli could acquire the functions of a substitute conditioned motivating operation (OMC-S). The rat lived 24 hr a day in the experimental condition described in Chapter 1. It was believed that conducting the experiments in these conditions it would be possible to evaluate any additional effects of S-CMO, not only on pressure responses to water bar, but also on other registered activities (the same of Chapter 2). However, these additional effects could not be investigated because the sound stimuli did not acquired the functions of an S-CMO in the two experiments / Este trabalho é composto por três capítulos. No primero capítulo, o leitor será apresentado à condição experimental em que os experimentos descritos a seguir foram realizados. Esta condição é composta pelos seguintes equipamentos/ferramentas: (a) uma caixa onde múltiplas respostas operantes podem ser registradas de forma contínua e completa ao longo de 24 hr por dia, (b) a possibilidade de monitorar e controlar os experimentos remotamente e (c) um dispositivo capaz de registrar em planilhas de Excel os dados referentes à temperatura e à umidade relativa do ar do ambiente. O capítulo é encerrado com algumas sugestões de áreas de pesquisa em que esta condição experimental poderia ser utilizada. No Capítulo 2, é descrito um experimento no qual um conjunto de atividades diárias do sujeito expeirmental foi registrada 24 hr por dia enquanto o sujeito vivia nas condições experimentais descritas no Capítulo 1. As atividades registradas neste experimento foram: (a) número de respostas de pressão às barras de água e alimento, (b) número de vezes em que o sujeito entrava no ninho, (c) número de interações com o disco de madeira e (d) número de voltas na roda de atividades. As respostas de pressão às barras eram reforçadas de acordo com um esquema de reforçamento contínuo. Este experimento teve aproximadamente 91 dias de duração. Foram analisados os efeitos de uma privação acidental de alimento, do ciclo de claroescuro, da temeratura e da humidade relativa do ar sobre as atividades do sujeito. Além disso, os perídos de maior estabilidade nas atividades diárias também foram discutidos. No Capítulo 3 serão descritos dois experimentos com o objetivo de verificar se estímulos sonoros poderiam adquirir as funções de uma operação motivadora condicionada substituta (OMC-S). O sujeito vivia 24 hr por dia na condição experimental descrita no Capítulo 1. Acreditava-se que realizando os experimentos nessas condições seria possível avaliar eventuais efeitos adicionais da OMC-S, não apenas sobre as respostas de pressão à barra de água, mas também sobre as demais atividades registradas (as mesmas do Capítulo 2). Entretanto, esses efeitos adicionais não puderam ser investigados, tendo em vista que os estímulos sonoros não adquiriram as funções de uma OMC-S nos dois experimentos realizados

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:30:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5408.pdf: 1181775 bytes, checksum: 5f7558320a6c72689a7a2d18a904a1a5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-19 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / Children with atypical development and with verbal behavior deficits, specifically children with autism, can benefit from a systematic teaching of verbal operants and programs that promote its generalization. Verbal behavior is an operant behavior maintained by consequences mediated by a listener that was previously trained by the verbal community to respond to such verbal stimuli. Among the verbal operants, three were of particular interest to this research: echoic, tact and mand. The aim of this research was to examine the effects of tact training for high and low preferred leisure items in the emergence of mand for these same items. Five students with autism (aged from 5 to 14 years old) attending a special education school participated in this research. Participants were exposed one at a time to the experimental conditions and the behavior was observed in the test condition of mand, teaching tact and, then, the effects of the tact teaching was observed in the emergence of mand. The experimental stimuli (leisure items and edibles) were selected from the indication of the parents and teacher, followed by a Forced Choice preference assessment. At the end of the teaching procedure, participants presented tact for high (AP) and low preferred (BP) items. In the mand post-test, participants demonstrated the emergence of this operant with a higher frequency of responses for AP items. The results suggest that the emergence of mands with a higher frequency of responses for AP items may be related to the motivating operation, since the AP items could exert a more reinforcing function than the BP items, which has practical implications for the teaching of verbal behavior. / Crianças com desenvolvimento atípico e que apresentam déficits no comportamento verbal, mais especificamente crianças com autismo, podem se beneficiar de um ensino sistematizado dos operantes verbais e de programas que promovam sua generalização. O comportamento verbal é um comportamento operante mantido por consequências mediadas por um ouvinte que foi previamente treinado pela comunidade verbal a responder a tais estímulos verbais. Dentre os operantes verbais, três foram de particular interesse para esta pesquisa: ecoico, tato e mando. O objetivo da presente pesquisa foi examinar os efeitos do treino de tato para itens de lazer de alta e de baixa preferência na emergência do mando para esses mesmos itens. Participaram desta pesquisa cinco alunos com autismo (P1com 14 anos, P2 com 12 anos, P3 com 10 anos, P4 com 6 anos e P5 com 5 anos) que frequentam uma escola de educação especial. Os participantes foram expostos um de cada vez às condições experimentais e o comportamento foi observado na condição de teste de mando, ensino de tato e na sequência observado os efeitos deste ensino na emergência de mando. Os estímulos experimentais (itens de lazer e comestíveis) foram selecionados a partir de indicação dos pais e professor, seguido da avaliação de preferência por Escolha Forçada. Ao final do procedimento de ensino, os participantes adquiriram tato para itens de alta (AP) e de baixa preferência (BP). No pós-teste de mando os participantes demonstraram emergência deste operante com uma frequência maior de respostas para itens de AP. Os resultados sugerem que a emergência de mando com uma frequência maior de respostas para itens de AP possa estar relacionada às operações motivacionais, uma vez que os itens de AP poderiam exercer função mais reforçadora do que os itens de BP, o que traz implicações práticas para o ensino do comportamento verbal.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T14:18:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Roberta Maia Marcon.pdf: 786825 bytes, checksum: 17ff39c24c5b9b198943e9b875f41af5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-17 / This study intention was to experimentally investigate the control by antecedent events, such as control to respond to discriminative stimulus or by motivating operation, and also by consequent events on the verbal response from three people: two males and a female, diagnosed with schizophrenia, aged 26 and 53 years. It was applied functional assessment strategies through direct and indirect observation, as well as by functional analyses or function analyses methodology. The latter implicates in the environmental events manipulation, especially in four conditions: attention, control, escape demand and alone. These conditions were manipulated in the presence of motivating operation, identified based on context variables, and operation in the presence of positive and negative reinforcement (attention conditions and escape demand). Functional analyses data indicated that bizarre vocalizations were issued with high frequency conditions attention and escape demand; showing the control to respond to establishing or reinforcement operation. For the control condition it was possible to decrease the effect from changing the reinforced stimuli effectiveness from the establishing operation. However, bizarre vocalizations were not emitted as the reinforcement stimulus were offered regardless it occurred or not, as reinforcement operation was not used. When alone, the bizarre vocalizations were abolished, evidencing the control to respond to the presence of abolishing operation and without reinforcement operation. Based on this study information, the conclusion is that the control exercised by antecedent events explains the control exercised from consequent events. This is because in different antecedent conditions, the probability of bizarre vocalization changes, justifying the necessity to analyze with same relevance the control from antecedent and consequent events as response to experimental manipulation as in this context. The functional analysis was complementary to the functional assessment from direct observation, which data were not enough to elucidate controlled events to bizarre vocalization. In addition, it was complementary to the functional assessment by direct observation that, although with enough data to indicate manipulations, these are from an experimental strategy. For this reason it was justified the use of functional analysis methodology from empiric studies about the control from the antecedents from behavior, including bizarre vocalizations from people with schizophrenia. / O presente estudo objetivou investigar experimentalmente o controle exercido pelos eventos antecedentes seja o controle do responder pelo estímulo discriminativo ou pela operação motivadora , e também pelos eventos consequentes sobre as respostas verbais de três pessoas: duas do sexo masculino e uma do sexo feminino, com diagnóstico de esquizofrenia e idades entre 26 e 53 anos. Com essa finalidade, empregou-se estratégias de avaliação funcional por observação indireta e por observação direta e a análise funcional ou metodologia de análise funcional. Esta última envolveu a manipulação de eventos ambientais em quatro condições principais: atenção, controle, fuga de demanda e sozinho. Essas condições foram manipuladas na presença de operação motivadora, identificada com base em variáveis de contexto, e na presença de operação de reforçamento positivo e negativo (condições atenção e fuga de demanda). Os dados da análise funcional apontaram que as vocalizações bizarras foram emitidas com alta frequência nas condições atenção e fuga de demanda, sendo evidenciado o controle do responder pela operação estabelecedora e pela operação de reforçamento. Na condição controle foi possível deduzir o efeito de alterar a eficácia do estímulo reforçador pela operação estabelecedora. Contudo, as vocalizações bizarras não foram emitidas haja vista que o estímulo reforçador foi disponibilizado independentemente da ocorrência das mesmas, por estar ausente uma operação de reforçamento. Na condição sozinho as vocalizações bizarras foram suprimidas, sendo evidenciado o controle sobre o responder quando na presença de operação abolidora e ausência de operação de reforçamento. Com base nos dados deste estudo conclui-se que o controle do responder exercido pelos eventos antecedentes melhor elucida o controle exercido pelos eventos consequentes. Isso porque na presença de diferentes condições antecedentes as vocalizações bizarras alteraram sua probabilidade de ocorrência na operação de reforçamento, o que justifica a importância de se analisar, com igual relevância, o controle pelos eventos antecedentes e consequentes sobre o responder em manipulações experimentais no contexto aplicado. Cumpre ressaltar que a análise funcional mostrou-se complementar à avaliação funcional por observação indireta, cujos dados não se mostraram suficientes para elucidar eventos controladores das vocalizações bizarras. Também mostrou-se complementar à avaliação funcional por observação direta que, embora forneça dados suficientes para delinear manipulações, estas se dão por meio de uma estratégia com a estrutura de um experimento. Isso justifica o uso da metodologia de análise funcional em estudos empíricos acerca do controle exercido pelos antecedentes sobre o comportamento, incluindo vocalizações bizarras de pessoas com diagnóstico de esquizofrenia.

This diploma thesis deals with the developement of communication skills in children with autistic spectrum disorder. The aim of this work is to explain the development of these skills by Verbal Behavior of Applied Behavioral Analysis (VB ABA), specifically in the field of children's request (manding). The thesis contains a theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part is focused on the description of the basic principles of the Applied Behavioral Analysis as well as the approach Applied Behavioral Analysis - Verbal Behavior which is based on this science. In more detail, the thesis explains the manding technique and the principles of motivation, whose understanding is essential for this technique and for all VB ABA intervention. Author's research follows the progress in the manding of two children with autistic spectrum disorder during the eight-month VB ABA intervention. Also the thesis analyzes the factors that could have influenced the teaching of mands, in particular the role the child's motivation in the effective development of manding skills. A certain section of the practical part of the thesis is extracted into the annexes as a non- public part of the work in order to preserve children's anonymity. The extraction of sensitive data into the worksheets is made possible by the Dean's...

Feedback is discussed in many disciplines. In behavior analysis, it has been discussed in terms of its functions, many coming to different conclusions. The present study evaluated whether therapists' preferred temporal and format of feedback shifted or changed during acquisition or maintenance of skills implementing a tact program using a token economy system after a brief exposure to all possible feedback combinations. Three participants completed a questionnaire before they were exposed to a feedback sampling phase and preferred feedback phase. Preferred way of recieving feedback was asked at the beginning of each session. Two out of three participants switched preferences after achieving mastery of task. Task mastery may make feedback delivered at the end of a session more desirable while task acquisition may make feedback delivered at the end of a trial more valuable. Limitations and future research were discussed.