Association for Behavior Analysis International

This poster presentation provides information on a single subject research study comparing two procedures for demonstrating passage of time when using computer-based video prompting by four young adults with moderate intellectual disability. A task component, which is integral to many daily living and vocational tasks when presented through video technology, is the passage of time. The purpose of this study was to evaluate performance of students when completing daily living tasks that required the task step of waiting as time passes. Specifically, passage of time was represented through video prompts while the camera continuously recorded using: a) visual disappearance (counting down) of time on a color coded timer (Time Timer); or b) a close-up view of the target step (e.g., substance boiling, soiled item soaking in dish water) while time passed. An adapted alternating treatments design was used with four students with moderate intellectual disability to evaluate two video-based procedures for presenting passage of time as the video played. Results indicate that gains were made by each participant when using both video procedures and that both procedures were equally effective in promoting completion of task steps requiring the passage of time.

New children change family dynamics and families accordingly try to adapt to the new situation. If the baby has special needs, this adaptation period can be trying, especially for mothers. The research about the experiences of mothers provides unique findings concerning their support (Hallahan & Kaufmann, 2009). The goal of this poster presentation is to understand the experiences of 20 Turkish mothers of children with ASD. This study has been conducted utilizing a phenomenological approach, which is a type of qualitative methodology that aims to explore an individual's personal experiences. Data were collected using metaphors, which are a valuable data collection tool for gathering deep and new insights into educational studies (Jensen, 2006). Participants completed the question "Autism is similar to/the same as", because by writing what autism means for them and why. This data will then be analyzed via descriptive analysis. The results will be discussed in terms of implications for future research and practices. We are expecting this study to provide new knowledge about the perspectives of mothers in different countries like Turkey. Jensen, D. F. N. (2006). Metaphors as a bridge to understanding educational and social contexts. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 5 (1), 1-17.

Connected Kids is a program focused on training parents to use developmental and behavioral strategies to improve social communication skills for their child with autism spectrum disorder. Children who participate in the program are between 2 and 6 years of age. Participants in this presentation will learn about the program, including the curriculum and strategies that were used to work with the parents and their children. The presentation will include examples from several families who have participated in the program.

Research on the use of technology to support individuals with ASD has demonstrated great promise; however, few studies include diverse or non-English speaking students (Kasari & Smith, 2013; West, 2013). Odom et al., (in press) conducted a review of technology for secondary students with autism and of the 14 studies included, only two reported cultural diversity of participants and none indicated linguistically diverse participants. In order to improve research to practice for diverse individuals with autism it is important to identify what research has been implemented with diverse populations and the effectiveness of the research. While it is helpful that research-based practices for individuals with autism are being identified, there is concern that these practices may not be effective for some culturally and linguistically diverse individuals, or may need substantial adaptations to demonstrate effectiveness (West, 2013). The current review extends previous reviews of technology by targeting studies that include culturally and/or linguistically diverse participants with ASD from pre-kindergarten through adulthood. Implications for individuals with ASD, families, and practitioners will be discussed. In addition, suggestions for future research will be provided.

Self-Management strategies have been successfully used in daily living and employment situations for persons with ASD. In employment settings, developing self-management programs promote job independence and often free up the worker from external guidance and instruction. These strategies provide self-monitoring and control over work performance socialization, hygiene and essential living skills. Self-management procedures are flexible, effective, and easy to implement for individuals with ASD. They give the person more control over their life, increase generalization, and decrease dependency on others.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by impaired social interaction, communication and repetitive or stereotyped behavior. Autism is quite common all over the world as well as in Turkey. The education of children with autism in Turkey is decided by The Counselling and Research Center (CRS) which is a special education committee. Children with special needs who are expected to reach the goals of primary school curriculum are directed to the related institutions and organizations by CRS. Children who are not able to reach the goals of primary school curriculum attend to the special education institutions. There are different institutions that apply the methods of ABA-based education to children with autism in the field of special education in Turkey. The purpose of this poster presentation is to provide information regarding how to apply ABA-based education in one of these institutions in Turkey. In addition, it includes the performance of a child with autism who has been attending to this institution and studying ABA-based education since 2012. This study is expected to be useful for international literature by being an example about ABA-based education in Turkey.

Typical children benefit from asking questions. However, children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) ask fewer questions than their typical counterparts. This research examined the efficacy of improving question-asking behavior in 8 children with ASD, ages 3–4 years old. In contrast to previous research, children received no tangible reinforcement and were trained to ask questions that focused on the actions of a person. The study was conducted in four phases: baseline, instruction, generalization, and post-test. Using interactive video, participants were taught to ask a video actor "What are you doing?", then generalize the question-asking behavior to a live actor. The data were analyzed with both visual analysis and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Results revealed that children did not produce questions at baseline. However, after exposure to the intervention, their question-asking behavior improved with a significant treatment effect during instruction (p = .031) and generalization (p = .041). Results also indicated that children gained vocabulary as a result of asking questions. This research demonstrates that children with ASD can be trained to ask person-oriented questions without task-contingent rewards. Further implications suggest that children with ASD may be intrinsically motivated to engage in a reciprocal language exchange.

Although by definition a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) involves atypical social interactions, communication deficits, and restricted or stereotyped behaviors, children with ASD also show other, co-occurring behavior problems that require the attention of behavior analysts. To examine these behaviors, this study used the Parental Concerns Questionnaire (McGrew et al., 2007) to measure the level of severity of 12 behavioral concerns for a sample of 361 children with ASD, ages 2-21. Results showed a range of behavior problems with social interactions and attention span being rated by parents as the most severe. Factor analysis with varimax rotation was performed on the 12 behavior items to analyze the correlations between them and reduce them to their underlying dimensions. Two factors were extracted from these behavior problem variables: Psychiatric Behaviors and Autism Characteristics. These findings provide some descriptive data on the type and severity of co-occurring behavior problems for children with ASD. In addition, the identified symptom clusters that underlie these behavior problems may be used to better target treatment and service use to specific types of behavior problems for children with ASD.

The National Research Council (2001) recommends early intervention when it comes to educating individuals with autism. While the National Research Council does not recommend a specific intervention methodology, the State of New York Health Department (1999) and The United States Surgeon General support the use of applied behavior analysis (ABA) for students with autism. Several researchers have reported incorporating methods of ABA when teaching students with autism (Babel, Martin, Fazzio, Arnal, & Thomson, 2008; Fazzio, Martin, Arnal, & Yu, 2009; Salem et al., 2009; Thiessen et al., 2009) because these specific principles have been proven successful in instructing individuals with autism (Green, 1996; Lovaas, 1987; Smith, 2001). This presentation will trace the steps as a BCBA-D seeks community partners to meet the needs of early intervention in the south side of Chicago. While facing life threatening obstacles, the BCBA-D remains dedicated to her mission.

A four-year-old preschool student with developmental disabilities was referred for assessment for excessive non-compliant behaviors. His preschool teachers made the initial referral at the beginning of the academic year citing severe disruptive behaviors including screaming, crying, elopement, grabbing classroom items, and defiance towards his teacher instruction. A teacher interview was conducted as an indirect assessment of the problem behavior along with observations by two University of Cincinnati graduate students, which led to the hypothesis that the disruptive behavior was maintained by escape from demands. The graduate students then conducted a brief in vivo functional analysis to confirm this hypothesis. Sessions were carried out across all conditions suspected to maintain the problem behavior as determined through both indirect and direct assessment. A confirmatory analysis was then carried out for the two conditions displaying the highest rate of the targeted behavior. Results indicated that the disruptive behavior was maintained by escape from demands, and a functionally related intervention plan focused on Functional Communication Training (FCT) was developed based on these results to reduce the disruptive behavior in the school setting.

Autism spectrum disorders is a life long developmental disorder that is characterized by limitations in communication and social interaction, daily life, and restrictive and repetative interest and behaviors. Systematic instructionis needed for teaching many skills and behaviors to children with autism spectrum disorders. Safety skills is one of the skill area that should be taught to the children with autism. Safety skills can be considered as the skills used at home and in the social life. This skills can also be included in the training schedules as per their occurrence time and frequency. However, the number of studies in this field is limited and most of them are conducted with mentally retarded children. They are related with opinions about teaching safety skills and the effectiveness of safety skills training. But there are very few studies investigating the opinions of parents and faculties in teaching safety skills to the children with autism and how these skills can be taught. In the descriptive studies that collect the views of parents or teachers about the safety skills, questionaries are generally used. This study aims to determine the views of the parents and faculties about the safety skills training. In this regard semi-structured interview technique is going to be used. Preleminary results showed that parents find sfaety skill training very important. They also explain that they do not know how to develop objectives and how to prove training about these skills. Faculties reported that teaching teacher candidates how to teach safety skill is very important and should be part of courses realted with systematic instruction.

Small group instruction provides teachers with opportunities to embed social interactions and related behaviors during academic tasks, as well as assess observational learning of other students academic targets. Six, 4-year old children with social-communication delays were divided into three dyads and taught functional classroom words (e.g., glue, cup) using constant time delay (CTD) during center rotations in a public preschool classroom. Instructive feedback on peers interests (e.g., favorite toy, snack) was provided following prompted and unprompted correct responses. Sharing reinforcers was taught during small group instruction using a system of least prompts (SLP). A multiple probe design across behaviors replicated across three dyads was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the CTD procedure to teach functional classroom words during a small group instructional arrangement and assess acquisition of non-target words and incidental social information about a peer. All participants learned to read target words, consistently shared during instructional sessions, and acquired some of the instructive feedback targets.

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) characteristically show both acquisition and performance deficits in social competence. As such, children with ASD face daily challenges when navigating the social demands of school, home and community settings. Teaching of social competence to children with ASD has been a main focus of researchers since the application of behavior analysis by Dr. Ivar Lovaas in the 1960s. While the principals of behavioral analysis remain the same, current practices for teaching social competence to children with ASD strive to facilitate social interaction skills that are spontaneous, generalized and maintained. The present study sought to extend the current research on LEGO Therapy for children with ASD. Specifically, the researchers used a single-subject multiple baseline design to evaluate the effects of LEGO therapy on: (a) the spontaneous initiation of social interaction with peers, (b) the increase in duration of social interaction with peers, and (c) the decrease of stereotypical autistic behaviors. Data provide support for the use of LEGO Therapy. Implications for practice in community and school settings are discussed.

Although several literature reviews have been completed in the past regarding equine assisted activities, few are specific to individuals with Autism, and none utilize best practice criteria to determine if equine assisted activities can be viewed as a recommended practice, or if it is eligible for consideration as an evidence-based practice. Many different structures exist for intervention; however, those with single-subject research methodology are identified and critiqued using a systematic framework for evaluation.

Children with autism demonstrate an array of behavioral and functional difficulties including well documented problems in motor coordination, socialization, communication, attention, sleep patterns and self-regulation. Clinical evidence suggests that these areas of difficulty will respond positively to language and motor stimulation, particularly when combined with Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy. This presentation will introduce participants to the functional efficacy of multi-modal interventions as well as discussing recent research on their effectiveness with children with autism.

Various methods of functional behavior assessment (FBA) have been found useful for developing hypotheses about environment-behavior relations. Changes to the IDEA in 1997 and 2004 increased use of FBA in school settings. There has been a concomitant increase in research on FBA in schools. We reviewed the literature on school-based FBA to determine (1) the extent to which best practice recommendations could be gleaned and (2) needs for future research. We identified 165 published studies documenting use of FBA in a schools setting. Across studies there were a total of 394 participants, 22.8% of whom had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. We will present results of our literature review documenting (a) types of FBA used in school settings, (b) involvement of researchers versus practitioners in the conduct of FBAs, (c) relation between diagnosis and type of FBA used, and (d) publication trends over time. We highlight the need for more documentation of effective use of FBA in school settings. We also provide recommendations for best practice based on currently available research.

Trial-based functional analyses (FA) have increasingly been employed to determine the variables maintaining problem behavior (Bloom, et. al., 2011), and have generally shown correspondence with results from traditional FAs (Larue, et. al., 2010). The current study utilized a trial-based FA to assess problem behavior when walking near and leaving a playground. During a caregiver lead pre-assessment, a 3-year-old boy with autism, eloped towards a playground. When the caregiver attempted to remove him from the playground, he would flop to the ground. We next conducted an analysis where trials alternated between the therapist walking the child past a playground, the child being prompted to leave the playground following access, and a control trial in which the child had free access to the playground. Results showed elopement occurred almost exclusively when the therapist walked the child near the playground and flopping occurred almost exclusively when the therapist prompted the child to leave the playground. We then taught the boy two functional communication responses to functionally replace the childs elopement and flopping. Elopement and flopping decreased to near-zero levels in their respective test conditions. These two forms of problem behavior represent symmetrical operants reinforced by the same consequence (i.e., access to playground equipment).

Anxiety-related concerns are prevalent in individuals with ASDs, with estimates indicating that approximately 60% meet diagnostic criteria for a specific phobia (De Bruin et al., 2007; Muris et al., 1998). Exposure-based empirically supported treatments (ESTs) exist for specific phobias in typically developing individuals (Davis & Ollendick, 2005), yet little has been done implementing these ESTs in those with ASDs. Aaron, a 16-year-old male with autism and intellectual disability, had a history of engaging in self-injury, aggression, and anxious behaviors contingent upon loud noises, specifically young children who were screaming or crying loudly. A direct assessment of anxiety/noise avoidance and noise FA were conducted based upon procedures by McCord et al. (2001). After relaxation skills training, a multiple baseline across noise stimuli was used to evaluate a Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior (relaxation skill use) + Extinction + Systematic Desensitization/Stimulus Fading intervention. Heart rate and behavioral data were collected. Inter-observer agreement was collected for 50% of the sessions and was greater than 89.5%. Outcomes indicated that the intervention was effective in decreasing anxious behaviors, problem behaviors, and heart rate during exposure sessions with incremental decibel increases. These results generalized to another noise stimulus and were maintained across in-vivo generalization session in the clinic, home, and community settings.

According to Green (2001), it has been demonstrated that teaching simple visual discrimination has been shown to help cultivate the development of conditional discriminations. Green (2012) also stated that some individuals with autism show difficulty in acquiring conditional discriminations, but these individuals can acquire conditional discriminations after training on simple discriminations. The purpose of this study was to teach visual discrimination to a child who is diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The child has not demonstrated visual discrimination and has delayed progress through the classroom curriculum. Visual discrimination was taught using a most-to-least prompting hierarchy with no vocal discriminative stimuli. The relevant research has shown that teaching this child simple visual discriminations will help to acquire conditional discriminations. Research in stimulus control labs have developed methods for establishing simple and conditional discriminations but are rarely applied in practice. This study should contribute to the growing research of teaching visual discrimination in an applied setting.

The ability to discriminate stimuli in the environment is a prerequisite skill necessary to acquire other crucial learning skills (Green, 2001). A pre-test showed that children in an early intervention pre-school classroom could not discriminate auditory stimuli, though they did demonstrate basic visual-discrimination skills. Prior research has shown that children with autism learn to discriminate non-verbal stimuli more quickly than verbal stimuli (Eikeseth & Hayward, 2009). The current study uses a basic auditory-discrimination procedure to foster more complex discrimination skills. The children were first taught basic auditory-discrimination skills using contrasting sounds. Once that skill was acquired vocal stimuli were added. Data was collected on the children's performance on listener-responding procedures. This study adds to previous research that suggests an intermediate step is sometimes needed to establish receptive-language skills in children with developmental disabilities (Chow, 2010). Acquiring these skills will increase the rate of learning and allow the children to progress though the curriculum.

Matching-to-sample is a skill that generally needs to be acquired early on in discrete trial training curriculum in order for children to learn more complex discrimination skills and progress to other educational goals (Fisher, 2007). When a child makes an incorrect response during a matching-to-sample procedure, most commonly least-to-most prompting (e.g. progressing from modeling the response to physically prompting) is used until the target response occurs (Fisher, 2007). The problem is that prompting may not require the individual to attend or discriminate between the stimuli and/or may cause prompt dependence. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect on correctness of responding during a matching-to-sample task by increasing attending to stimuli in children diagnosed with autism. An observing response (DORs) was used to prompt participants to make discriminated responses between three stimuli while making a match-to-sample response. The child was required to touch the sample stimulus and corresponding comparison stimuli before the opportunity to respond independently was presented. Using an AB design, trials to mastery criterion (three consecutive sessions of 80% or better) was assessed. This intervention may provide the behavior analysis community with more evidence and support on observing responses to promote discrimination and attending to stimuli when teaching matching procedures.

Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) has become widely accepted as a highly efficacious treatment option for children with autism. A substantial number of studies have shown significant improvements in participants who received Discrete Trial Training (DTT). However, studies with large numbers of participants consistently report a proportion of students who fail to make much progress with the standard EIBI treatment package. A concern, therefore, of everyone providing early intervention should be to determine why these children do not make adequate progress. Theories and rationales for slow progress are numerous. Some children may have lower cognitive abilities, some may exhibit high rates of interfering problem behaviors, and some appear to lack effective reinforcers, along with other barriers to learning. This poster will discuss the authors attempts to isolate certain characteristics that may be indicative of long-term success or failure in an EIBI program. Data were analyzed from children who were placed into desirable academic settings following graduation from a DTT classroom, and compared to data from children who transitioned to less desirable, more restrictive settings. Discussion of the key differences, and further research into this area, should allow the field to determine how to best help the typical low performers.

Past research on activity schedules have suggested that independent activity schedules increase on-task and on-schedule behavior for children with autism (MacDuff et al. 1993). This study will be conducted in an Early Childhood Special Education Delayed (ECSE) classroom with two children diagnosed with autism. These children demonstrated several skills with adult prompts but these skills did not generalize to unprompted conditions. This study focuses on the use of gradual guidance and activity schedules to help increase independence. In the first phase, the children will be taught to complete closed-ended tasks independently. The second phase introduces the activity schedule with one task. Finally, the third and fourth phases introduce a two-sequence schedule and three-sequence schedule respectively. The independent activity schedules are predicted to increase the childrens on-task behavior and generalize to different sequences and new activities. This study will add to the body of research on the advantages of using independent activity schedules to increase on-task behaviors and generalize acquired skills.

The present study evaluates the effects of intervening activities on duration of noncompliance and frequency of challenging behavior during activity transitions in children with autism. Two students in an early childhood developmental delays classroom participated in this study. The study began with a preference assessment to identify preferred activities and continued with an assessment of challenging behavior during transitions between activities to identify the types of activity transitions that are challenging for these children. For each of the participants, the highest frequency of challenging behavior occurred during transitions from high-preference to low-preference activities. The study continued with an investigation of the effects of providing an intervening activity for ending high-preference activities and transitioning to low-preference activities. Noncompliance durations during transitions from high-preference to low-preference activities were reduced as a result of the intervening activity condition. Possible interventions for challenging behavior during transitions for children with autism are discussed in detail.

Simple and conditional discrimination repertoires are critical components of many skills necessary for daily functioning, including communication, academic, and daily-living skills (Green, 2001). When visual discrimination is not under instructional stimulus control it can result in a delay in the acquisition of new skills. The purpose of this study was to teach simple and conditional visual discrimination to children with autism without using vocal discriminative stimuli and by introducing one stimulus at time, by first presenting only the stimulus designated as correct (S+) and slowly introducing distractor stimuli (S-) to increase the complexity of the task. The procedure was implemented with children who have been enrolled in a special education preschool classroom for at least 6 months and who have not demonstrated visual discrimination under instructional stimulus control and who are showing extremely delayed progress through the classroom curriculum. The procedure used a variety teaching methods based on the learners progress. Trial-and-error, within-stimulus prompt fading, and physical prompts were all used to aid in the acquisition of discrimination skills.