Association for Behavior Analysis International

The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend the findings from Luczynski and Hanley (2013) by evaluating the effects of implementing the Preschool Life Skills program to increase communication skills and decrease problem behavior in 17 boys and girls ranging from 3 to 5 years old. During baseline sessions, all behavior was reinforced. During Preschool Life Skills training, children were taught appropriate communication skills using a combination of modeling and social reinforcement. A concurrent, multiple-probe, multiple baseline design was used in combination with a between groups design to analyze the effects of the Preschool Life Skills training on both childrens performance of skills and occurrences of problem behavior. Results show improvements for all participants once Preschool Life Skills training was implemented. These results, as well as modifications required to implement the Preschool Life Skills training program with these participants, will be discussed in terms of applied practice and recommendations for future research.

Previous research has shown that both fixed-time reinforcement delivery and the high-probability (high-p) sequence can be effective to increase compliance. However, previous studies on these topics have used two different topographies of instructions: compliance with relinquishing a preferred item, and compliance to completing a non-preferred task. Previous research has shown that fixed-time reinforcement delivery may only be effective with the latter type of instruction. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of the fixed-time delivery of reinforcement and the high-p sequence on both topographies of instruction using reversal designs. Results show that neither a fixed-time reinforcement schedule nor the high-p sequence was effective at increasing compliance with either topography of instructions, which is inconsistent with previous research on noncompliance. Differential reinforcement of compliance was effective to increase compliance with the low-p instruction. Implications and suggestions for future research with regard to the different topographies of instructions are discussed.

Noncompliance is reported to be a major problem by parents and teachers. To date, functional analyses of noncompliance and subsequent treatment procedures have been restricted to single response topographies (e.g., cleanup or matching task). The current study evaluated a modified functional analysis of noncompliance consisting of attention, escape, and control conditions across multiple response topographies (i.e., physical, gestural, and vocal) with three 6-year-old children with autism. Subsequently, an additive intervention consisting of (a) tokens and (b) guided compliance or time-out was implemented systematically across the response topographies to measure generalization within and across response types. Results showed that the function of noncompliance was consistent across response topographies within participants but varied across participants. Additionally, generalization within response types and across (to the vocal response type) was observed with 2 of the 3 participants without direct intervention when the intervention was applied to physical and gestural response types; however, no generalization occurred with the third participant. These findings suggest that for some individuals compliance may be a response class and offer an efficient method for increasing compliance to multiple response types.