Association for Behavior Analysis International

For the past several years, awareness for the ABA services has been increased dramatically in Korea. Although limited, few BCBA approved programs have launched, and the number of BCBAs/BCaBAs has been increased up to approximately 30. Much efforts are made to improve direct services, educational system, treatment delivery and staff-training. In this symposium, 4 different research projects are presented, and the topics are need assessment, FA, staff-training and face perception. Although these topics are not quite related, their results provide useful information for service delivery, on-going research and treatment outcome study in Korea. Specific implications and suggestions are discussed and practical issues will be shared.

High percentages of individuals with developmental disabilities and autism spectrum disorders engage in problem behaviors, yet effective treatment has not been provided in Korea. As a first step to establish suitable and efficient service system for problem behaviors, need assessment among direct caregivers appears necessary. The purpose of this study is to investigate the common strategies currently in practice for remediating problem behaviors in Korea and unmet psychological, educational and practical needs among caregivers. The participants included parents, teachers and para-professionals (n=172, n=324, n=474, respectively). The results are as follows. Most frequently observed problem behaviors were noncompliance and tantrum. Teachers evaluated problem behaviors more severely with slightly higher stress levels compared to other groups. Next, majority of teachers and para-professionals were willing to spend a short-term training program to enhance their ability to deal with problem behaviors. All 3 groups recognize behavior therapy as the most effective method for remediating behavior problems, yet are using different methods to deal with them in real life setting, mainly due to lack of resources. They also expressed the need for building effective consultation and referral system and systematic support to use them in their settings.

Functional Analysis (FA) is an assessment for identifying the underlying function of the problem. Despite of its utility, its use has been limited due to costs and lack of experts. Instead, Questions About Behavior Function (QABF), an indirect assessment utilizing the parents reports, has been commonly used. Nonetheless, the interchangeability of two measures has not been investigated enough. The purpose of this study is to identify the interchangeability of the FA and the QABF. Twenty four participants with Developmental Disabilities(DD) aged from 4 to 16 were recruited. Data of 16 participants who completed both measures and assessed same problem behaviors were analyzed. Each functions of behaviors identified from the QABF was compared to the one from the FA for each participants. Also, the correlations between the results of FA and QABF were conducted. As a results, congruency between the measures were found only in 3 participants(18.75%). The correlation between the measures was highest on the Attention function(r = .333) and lowest on the Tangible function(r = .004). These results indicate that the incongruity exists between direct(FA) and indirect(QABF) measures, suggesting that the use of both measures are recommended to identify the function of problem behaviors. Practical difficulties and concerns are further discussed.

Applied Behavioral Analysis(ABA) is an evidence-based treatment for persons with problem behaviors among developmental disabilities(DD) population. Typically, ABA service is provided individual bases to maximize its effectiveness. Due to high costs associated with ABA, however, there is a need for more cost-effective short-term staff training, especially in Korea where limited resources are available. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a short-term staff training to improve behavior among individuals with DD in a residential facility. A 4 week short-term staff training was administered by an ABA specialist weekly bases. Training focused on conducting functional analysis for problem behaviors, developing and implementing function-based assessment Additionally, homework was given along with feedbacks on each staff's compliance. Data on the individual's degree of problem behaviors, staff's stress and quality of life and knowledge of behavior principles were collected through the self-reported questionaires before and after the intervention to examine the effects of the training. The results showed that significant difference in pre and post scores on knowledge of behavior principles. No differences were found in other measures. The implications and limitations of this study, with directions for future research, are also discussed.

Persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD) are characterized by deficits in face perception. Recent studies have investigated an underlying mechanism of this characteristics by utilizing the adaptation paradigm which is based on norm-based coding model. These studies found that persons with ASD showed diminished aftereffects in identity, gender, and emotion perception. The purpose of this study is to investigate race-contingent aftereffects of persons with ASD compared to those of typically developing (TD) people using the adaptation paradigm. Ten children with ASD and 9 TD children were participated in this study. Morphed anti-emotional faces (happy and sad) of Asian and Caucasian were randomly presented for 4000ms as the adaptor. After the adaptation phase, participants were shown the neutral face of the same identity as the adaptor and asked to choose the most appropriate label of emotion for the face. The results showed significant interaction effect between the group (ASD and TD) and the race(Asian and Caucasian). Further analyses revealed that the aftereffects of TD group was marginally larger for Asian than the Caucasian face. No difference of size of aftereffect between races were found in ASD group. This suggests atypical race-contingent aftereffect in ASD group. Implications and limitations are further discussed.