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| Assessing and Treating Noncompliance of Young Children |
| Tuesday, June 1, 2010 |
| 9:30 AM–10:50 AM |
| Texas Ballroom Salon A (Grand Hyatt) |
| Area: EDC; Domain: Applied Behavior Analysis |
| Chair: Amanda Karsten (Western New England College) |
| CE Instructor: Mandy Rispoli, Ph.D. |
| Abstract: Educators and caregivers have an ongoing need for assessment and treatment strategies appropriate to the task of increasing compliance of young children. Data-based papers presented in this symposium will examine strategies for addressing noncompliance of children ranging from 7 months to 6 years of age. The first paper examines the effects of continuous access to preferred stimuli on infant compliance during a tummy time exercise. The second paper evaluates the relation between targeted precursor behavior (i.e., appropriate response to name) and compliance with teacher instructions. The third paper describes functional analysis outcomes and subsequent changes in compliance when treatment components including extinction, reinforcement, and provision of caregiver "rationale" statements are manipulated. The final paper describes a method for rapidly comparing treatments for noncompliance during brief outpatient therapy. Parent-reported treatment preferences and procedural fidelity for caregiver implementation of intervention procedures will also be reported. |
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| The Effects of Continuous Access to Preferred Stimuli on Infant Behavior During Tummy Time |
| HEATHER J. KADEY (SUNY Upstate Medical University), Henry S. Roane (State University of New York, Upstate Medical University) |
| Abstract: Placement of infants on their backs during sleep has been credited with decreasing episodes of SIDS; nevertheless, this positioning may be associated with a range of undesirable side effects, including plagiocephaly and negative effects on muscle tone. Positioning infants in a prone position for “tummy time” is a common recommendation to ensure appropriate infant development and to combat the effects associated with infants spending extended periods of time in a supine position. However, tummy time may be associated with inappropriate infant behavior such as crying and noncompliance. In the current investigation, we provided continuous access to a preferred stimulus within the context of a reversal design to decrease negative vocalizations and increase the duration of a 7-month-old infant’s head being elevated during tummy time. Interobserver agreement data were collected on over 30% of sessions and averaged over 90% for both dependent variables. The results will be discussed in terms of using preferred stimuli to reduce the aversive qualities of tummy time for typically developing infants. |
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| Improving Compliance by Teaching Preschoolers to Respond Effectively to Their Name |
| LAUREN BEAULIEU (Western New England College), Gregory P. Hanley (Western New England College), Kevin C. Luczynski (Western New England College), Aleasha A. Roberson (Western New England College) |
| Abstract: We evaluated the effects of teaching preschool children to respond effectively to their name (i.e., stopping their activity, looking up towards the teacher, and saying “yes”), on their compliance with a variety of typical instructions provided by classroom teachers. We used a multiple baseline across groups with 12 preschoolers of typical development to determine the effects of teaching these precursors on classroom compliance. We also used a between-subjects design to determine the extent to which gains in compliance maintained for the children who received precursor training. Interobserver agreement was collected for more than 60% of observations, and averaged 92% across all measures. Results showed that compliance increased as a function of teaching precursors for all children. Data also showed that the effects maintained to some extent. Implications for promoting preschooler compliance in the classroom will be discussed as well as the next set of evaluations necessary to develop a curriculum to prevent the development of intractable noncompliance in young children. |
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| Further Evaluation of Antecedent Interventions on Compliance: The Effects of "Rationales" to Increase Compliance Among Preschoolers |
| KATIE A. NICHOLSON (Florida Institute of Technology), David A. Wilder (Florida Institute of Technology), Janelle Allison (Florida Institute of Technology), Oneina E. Abellon (Florida Institute of Technology), Renee Saulnier (Florida Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: Functional analyses were conducted to identify reinforcers for noncompliance exhibited by six young children. Next, the effects of rationales, or statements describing why a child should comply with a caregiver-delivered instruction, were evaluated. In experiment 1, three participants received the rationales immediately after the therapist’s instruction. In experiment 2, three additional participants received rationales immediately before the therapist’s instruction. The results indicate that rationales were ineffective for all six children. Extinction increased compliance for one child; contingent access to preferred items with or without response cost increased compliance for the other participants. Although levels of problem behavior varied within and across participants, they were generally higher in the rationale and extinction conditions. |
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| A Rapid Treatment Analysis of Compliance in Young Children |
| SORAYA SHANUN KUNNAVATANA (University of the Pacific), Matthew P. Normand (University of the Pacific) |
| Abstract: The purpose of this study was to use an alternating treatment design to rapidly determine the most effective treatment for noncompliance in five children (ages 3-6 years) and to train caregivers to implement the treatment during a 90-minute outpatient meeting. Three treatments were assessed: fixed-time delivery of attention, high-probability instruction sequence, and a three-step guided compliance procedure. The sessions took place in a university clinic and the parents acted as therapists during assessment and treatment. Three follow-up sessions were conducted in the child’s home to further assess the effectiveness of the prescribed treatment and to evaluate the level of treatment integrity evidenced by the parents. Parents also were asked to choose the treatment they preferred following the multi-element analysis and again following a review of the data from the analysis and report treatment satisfaction during follow up sessions. Data indicate that the rapid treatment analysis produced differentiated levels of compliance for four of the participants. Overall, compliance increased following the analysis and parents implemented the treatments with integrity. Parent-reported preferences for treatment changed following review of the multi-element analysis data for two participants and overall satisfaction with the prescribed treatments was high. |
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