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| Emerging Research in the Area of Developmental Disabilities and Autism |
| Monday, May 29, 2006 |
| 1:30 PM–2:50 PM |
| Chicago A-F |
| Area: AUT; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Sara M. Olsen (Florida State University) |
| Discussant: Mae R. Barker (Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (Univ. FL, Jacksonville)) |
| Abstract: Since its humble beginnings, Applied Behavior Analysis has been on the cutting edge in providing effective treatments for developmental disabled and autistic populations. As the field has grown, so has the innovative work with all populations. The current session looks to highlight 3 studies on emerging research in the area of DD and Autism research. |
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| The Effects of Schedule Thinning on the Maintenance of Prerequisite Attending Skills in a Child with Autism. |
| JENNIFER CAMPBELL (Florida State University), Jessica Tomasi (Florida State University) |
| Abstract: Prerequisite attending skills, including eye contact and sitting still, are essential skills needed when using discrete trial training to teach targeted skills to children with autism. In this study, a multiple baseline across behaviors design was used to gain compliance to the commands “Look at me” and “Sit down” with a six year old male with autism. During baseline compliance for both eye contact and sitting targets were at a mean of 40%. During intervention compliance was initially reinforced on an FR1 schedule. Subsequent trials were thinned as training continued. Compliance met and exceeded the goal of 80%, and performance maintained as the reinforcement schedule was thinned. |
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| Behavioral Interventions for the Engagement of Inappropriate Sexual Behaviors by Children with Developmental Disabilities or Autism: A Review of the Literature. |
| JESSICA TOMASI (Florida State University), Marco D. Tomasi (Florida State University), Jon S. Bailey (Florida State University) |
| Abstract: A problem often faced by families and service providers of individuals with developmental disabilities and/or autism is engagement in inappropriate sexual behaviors. We examined the literature of the past thirty years relevant to the treatment of inappropriate sexual behaviors. Special attention was paid to the treatments selected by the authors, the effects of the treatments, and the strengths/weaknesses of the methodologies used. Implications for areas of future research and application were also discussed. |
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| Stimulus Discrimination Training: A Tale of Two Students. |
| DAWN ALLISON BAILEY (Florida State University, BMC), William Voss (Florida State University, BMC), Marsha Druggan (Florida State University, BMC), Judi O'Neil (Behavior Management Consultants, Inc.) |
| Abstract: Simple discriminations are crucial for completion of many functional skills which are involved in a wide variety of daily living activities. Many individuals with severe disabilities have difficulty acquiring simple discriminations with standard training procedures, such as differential reinforcement. In these experiments, a modified Wisconsin General Teaching Apparatus (as described by Graff & Green, 2004) was used to teach discrimination to two students with autism. The first experiment involved teaching a student to identify and choose reinforcers using two procedures, standard differential reinforcement and graduated prompting procedures for one set of stimuli and a stimulus control shaping procedure (in which the differences between training stimuli and the reinforcer accessibility were faded along set criteria) for another stimulus. The data suggest that the stimulus control shaping procedure was more effective in teaching the discrimination. In the second experiment another student was taught discriminations using both “flat” presentations of stimuli and using the WGTA for presentations of stimuli. All other training variables remained constant. Use of the WGTA resulted in faster acquisition of the discriminations. Data shown below are from experiment one only due to limited space. |
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