Association for Behavior Analysis International

As students with severe disabilities transition from school to adult services, it becomes increasingly important that they have the skill to complete and transition to activities independently; however, it is common for adolescents with autism and severe disabilities to have a difficult time learning to independently complete tasks without the support of an aide or teacher. One tactic in the literature that has shown to be effective in teaching independent activity and transition skills is picture schedules. With the advancement in technology, traditional low-tech picture schedules have become more advanced. While research has demonstrated the effectiveness of picture schedules, it has not evaluated the effectiveness of traditional low-tech schedules to more high-tech schedules with individuals with severe disabilities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of two different visual activity schedules. An alternating treatments design was used to compare traditional, low-tech static picture schedules to high-tech picture schedules presented on an iPad. Three adolescents with severe intellectual disabilities participated in the study. The data will be analyzed by comparing the learn units to criterion for each condition, the impact both interventions have on increasing independent responding, and student preference for treatment will be evaluated.

The use of descriptive praise is widely recommended practice with children diagnosed with autism. Nevertheless, comparison studies have indicated that students' performance on skill acquisition and maintenance tasks are similar regardless of whether descriptive or general praise is provided. The present study sought to further examine the effects of different praise statements on student preference for descriptive versus general praise statements by using a concurrent chains arrangement. Three toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders participated in the study. Participants selected initial link stimuli associated with either descriptive, general, and no praise terminal conditions, and skill acquisition targets were then taught according to the respective condition. Researchers measured participants' preference by recording the cumulative number of choices for each initial link. The results indicate that children did not display differential preference for either type of praise. The results are discussed in terms of variables that may affect praise as a conditioned reinforcer and general practice recommendations in favor of descriptive praise.

The ability to discriminate between and among stimuli involves a complex set of skills that many individuals with autism have difficulties acquiring, generalizing, and maintaining. Use of differential reinforcement (i.e., reinforcement for responding to the S+ and not to the S-) is a common means of teaching discriminations between stimuli; however, criterion levels of responding may not be attained solely through the application of differential reinforcement. In the current study we examined the use of stimulus re-presentation (i.e., not removing the stimulus array until the learner changed their response to the S+) on acquisition of a visual discrimination task. An 11 year old boy with autism, who had previously been unable to acquire reliable simple discriminations in a separate protocol, participated. Using a combination of stimulus re-presentation and differential reinforcement, he learned to reliably respond to the S+ across three pairs of targets. The results support stimulus re-presentation as viable supplemental tool for teaching discrimination skills. Results will be discussed in terms of the possible negative reinforcement contingency (i.e., not terminating the work demand until correct responding is emitted) utilized by stimulus re-presentation in conjunction with the positive reinforcement contingency (i.e., delivery of a preferred edible) utilized by differential reinforcement.

Because so few programs for individuals diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) address family mental health along with treatment for the individual diagnosed with ASD, the examined program provides a unique platform to assess the interaction between behavioral-based mental health interventions and behaviorally-based programming for children and families affected by ASD . Some behavioral-based mental health interventions with empirical support include Behavioral Activation for depression, Exposure Therapy for trauma, and Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy for obsessive compulsive disorders. Some parents of children with ASD in the examined program requested individual mental health therapy for anxiety, depression, and/or OCD. Individual and family therapy included one of the evidence-based behavioral mental health interventions. The researchers used a withdrawal to examine the impact of family mental health intervention on parent fidelity to treatment and child treatment outcomes when combined with parent coaching, and behavioral interventions for autism.

Education is one of the fundamental human rights for all children. The right is equal for children with disabilities (CWD) also. So, integrating the children with Autism spectrum Disorder (ASD) into special education, mainstream education and ECD program is therefore a human rights and social justice issue. In Bangladesh the number of special school and inclusive school are very few. Although there are some special needs schools in the main Dhaka city areas, some of them are for the children with ASD. Due to insufficient constructive physical environments, low special educated teachers in this field and low trained up and poor education and learning opportunities make the quality of the teachers are not so high. The present study was a qualitative phenomenological study due to exploratory nature. Researcher wanted to get as much information as possible that come as close as possible to knowing what it is like. How much the problems they face? The study aims to explore the experience and perception of the teachers who are teaching the children with ASD at autism schools. Its purpose is also to develop hypothesis, concept and theory according to teachers view. This study shows that majority of the participants have satisfactorily knowledge about autism and the management of children with autism spectrum disorder at schools. They have included various challenges when teaching the children with autism spectrum disorder at schools. Some same activities of autism schools are use of choice board, drawing, singing, play, group play, self care activities like brushing, combing, dressing, etc. various challenges include aggressive behavior, repetitive behavior, stereotype behavior, compulsive behavior, Sensory processing dysfunction, Literal and visual thinker, sexual behavior, Low space of class room and play ground, parents attitude, schools rules, limited resources, Limited opportunities of training etc. for these kind of challenges they include various suggestions like Always engaged the child in purposeful activities, Avoid noisy child from working environment, Support each other in all activities, Negative rewards when necessary to avoid unwanted behavior, some times singing therapy plays a important role to get their attention, and support from supervisor and specialist. They also include that different professionals has their own different roles in schools settings.

The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) was established in 1968 as a peer-reviewed, psychology journal, that publishes research about applications of the experimental analysis of behavior to problems of social importance. The journal was created by Donald Baer, Sidney W. Bijou, Todd Risley, and Montrose Wolf. The JABA has been published quarterly (Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter) on a regular basis since 1968. In this study, papers published in JABA for 45 years were examined in terms of autism spectrum disorders. For this purpose, first of all papers published in JABA for 45 years were examined individually and determined the number of papers by years. Then papers were classified according to types and research studies were determined after this classification. Research studies were examined in terms of participants and studies conducted with participants with autism spectrum disorder were included. Dependent variables were investigated in terms of communication, social interaction and repetitive behaviors and independent variables were investigated in terms of evidence-based interventions included in the report of National Autism Center (2009).

We developed and tested a sequence for teaching self-monitoring skills to an adolescent male with autism. The primary goal was for the participant to learn to identify occurrences and non-occurrences of his own behavior so that he could eventually accurately monitor his own DRO for problem behavior. Assessment 1 tested his ability to answer yes and no questions regarding common actions of others. Adults were videotaped performing common actions such as jumping, standing, walking, reading etc. Video clips of these actions were presented to the participant and he was asked yes/no questions such as, Is he walking? and Is she reading? He was able to answer over 80% of these questions correctly on the first assessment and 100% on the second assessment. In Assessment 2, we assessed his ability to answer yes and no questions regarding his own common actions and to score those responses on a data sheet. We created videos of the participant engaged in common actions such as sitting and standing. He watched 2 minute video clips of these actions. Approximately every 30 seconds, he was prompted by a vibrating pager to look at the video clip and to record the correct action by marking a box under a picture on the data sheet corresponding to the action. He was not able to accurately record these actions on the data sheet. These results serve as baseline data. During intervention, we will assess the effects of using verbal instructions, gestural prompts, manual guidance, and reinforcement on accurately recording the occurrences of his own behavior viewed on these video clips. Once the participant reaches criterion on this phase, we will then assess his ability to accurately record the occurrences of his own problem behavior as an intervention for reducing that behavior.

The HANDS in Autism Interdisciplinary Training and Resource Center was founded in 2004 to extend the outreach and training offered by the Christian Sarkine Autism Treatment Center at Riley Hospital at Indiana University Health and the Indiana University School of Medicine. The mission of the HANDS in Autism Center is to continually evolve a model system of outreach, education, and training that will facilitate the development of local capacity within schools, districts, and communities in serving individuals and families affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities (DD). This mission is accomplished through two primary goals: 1) bridging across multiple environments (educational, medical/clinical, home/community) to establish a common language regarding ASD/DD and collaborate in creating comprehensive, proactive programming across settings; 2) training professionals and caregivers across settings to provide individualized programming based on best practices and data-driven decision making. Across 10 years, over 800 trainings have been conducted and greater than three thousand people have been educated with materials and resources disseminated to diverse and ever expanding audiences through web-based, toolkit, and hard copy formats. A systematic evaluation of the design, implementation, outcomes, evolution, and recommendations on transportability and replication of programs will be explored.

Intraverbals are responses that have no point-to-point correspondence or formal similarity with the verbal stimuli that evoke the response (Cihon, 2007). Children with autism spectrum disorders often have difficulty acquiring language skills; of particular relevance, those that involve answering questions related to their safety or well-being. While text prompts (i.e. presentation of the written target word) have proven to be an effective method for training intraverbal responses, it has been recommended that conditional discriminations be incorporated to ensure correct responding regardless of the formal similarity to the initial or ending part of the discriminative stimulus. An eleven-year-old boy with autism was exposed to two training conditions consisting of a progressive prompt delay using either (a) text prompts or (b) text prompts embedded within a conditional discrimination task. The conditions were presented in an alternating treatment design. Results showed that text prompts embedded in conditional discrimination tasks were more efficient in establishing accurate responding to personal/safety information questions, were associated with lower levels of problem behavior during training, and moreover, were more efficient in establishing accurate responding to personal/safety information questions across novel staff and settings.