Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Publication
Articles 1 - 20 of 20
Full-Text Articles in Psychology
Teaching Children With Autism To Make Independent Requests Using An Echoic-To-Mand Procedure, Michael L. Tomak
Teaching Children With Autism To Make Independent Requests Using An Echoic-To-Mand Procedure, Michael L. Tomak
Dissertations
Mands are a vital skill for the development of a child’s communicative repertoire and are typically a major focus of early intensive behavior interventions (EIBI). Naturalistic teaching is more efficient than Discrete-Trial Training (DTT) for teaching mands (Jennet, Harris, & Delmolino, 2008); and therefore, the present study used crucial components from naturalistic teaching to teach mands in a discrete-trial format, using an echoic-to-mand procedure. This intervention increased the children’s independent vocal requests. Initially, they learned to mand for items in sight and eventually for those out of sight.
Stimulus Fading On Teaching Receptive Identification, Dennis Pomorski
Stimulus Fading On Teaching Receptive Identification, Dennis Pomorski
Honors Theses
Many of the skills needed to live happily and independently are not in the repertoires of children diagnosed with autism, and they do not learn these skills through exposure to others (MacDuff, 2001). One of the skills children diagnosed with ASD struggle to develop is receptive identification. There is often a risk of prompt dependence or failure to transfer stimulus control to the desired stimuli when using LTM prompting methods. Children with autism spectrum disorder may require a different approach in developing a receptive language repertoire. The purpose of this study was to teach a child diagnosed with ASD receptive …
Teaching Echoics To A Student With Autism: Video Model Vs Live Model, Dana Waddell
Teaching Echoics To A Student With Autism: Video Model Vs Live Model, Dana Waddell
Honors Theses
Learning a language is not always an easy task for all children. Typically, language is a skill that comes naturally very young in a child’s life, but for children with autism, the path to learning language is very different. The first stages of learning language involve many skills, one of which are called “echoic skills,” because the child directly echoes a sound a person elicits. This is fundamental to learning language, especially in children with autism. The field of behavior analysis has conducted great amounts of research on this topic and has found that using technology in therapy sessions can …
Using A Progressive Time Delay To Increase Mands In A Child With Autism, Brielle Babcock
Using A Progressive Time Delay To Increase Mands In A Child With Autism, Brielle Babcock
Honors Theses
Mands are a building block for all communication and are therefore important to teach to individuals who do not consistently use mands. Skinner defined a mand as a “verbal operant in which the response is reinforced by a characteristic consequence and is under the control of relevant conditions of deprivation or aversive stimulation” (Hall & Sundberg 1987). By providing individuals with a way to express their desires and needs, individuals display less problem behaviors. A functional form of communication is imperative to typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorders alike. The goal of the current study was to …
Increasing The Echoic Repertoire Of A Child With Autism Using An Imitation And Echoic Sequence, Rose Bridges
Increasing The Echoic Repertoire Of A Child With Autism Using An Imitation And Echoic Sequence, Rose Bridges
Honors Theses
A prerequisite to many things in life is the ability to communicate. Although this may mean many different things, such as verbal language, sign language, written language, and even icons, there must be some form of communication that may be utilized to get needs across. Many young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are non-verbal, however there are also many children with ASD who have the ability to say words but are still not independently speaking. Reinforcing approximations to word sounds has been previously used as an effective way of increasing the child’s verbal repertoire (Shane, 2017). The present study …
Matching-To-Sample Using A Tablet, Karina Salazar-Ponce
Matching-To-Sample Using A Tablet, Karina Salazar-Ponce
Honors Theses
Kids with autism tend to have a difficult time with one-to-one correspondence matching. Matching-to-sample is the process of pairing an identical stimulus to its corresponding stimulus, for example, matching a physical object to its corresponding picture. This is an important skill because it is the first step in teaching individuals with developmental delays visual discrimination skills and generalization of matching. The use of technology is beneficial because it helps with attending in instructional learning. Technology is also becoming more advanced and is being used more in classrooms. The purpose of this study was to teach matching-to-sample using a tablet. There …
Increasing Waiting And Turn-Taking Among Preschool Aged Children With A Verbal-Delay Diagnosis, Alexa Hill
Increasing Waiting And Turn-Taking Among Preschool Aged Children With A Verbal-Delay Diagnosis, Alexa Hill
Honors Theses
The goal of this thesis was to create and implement an intervention that used errorless teaching and focused on increasing a sharing and waiting response for a student who had a verbal delay diagnosis. The two students involved in the project were both two-year-olds who attended an early childhood special education (ECSE) classroom with other preschool-aged children who had similar diagnoses. A single-subject simple baseline design was used and involved several phases designed with multiple responses to show the effectiveness of icons to facilitate sharing among two non-verbal students. Each response was prompted (when necessary) and they were all reinforced …
Application Of Response-To-Intervention In A Pre-Kindergarten Special Education Classroom, Justin J. Daigle
Application Of Response-To-Intervention In A Pre-Kindergarten Special Education Classroom, Justin J. Daigle
Dissertations
Lovaas (1987) applied behavior analysis to the treatment of autism and demonstrated a 47% “recovery” rate. He also reported that around 10% of the population that received his services made little-to-no improvement. The present study used a response-to-intervention framework to systematically identify and treat students in an early childhood, special-education classroom who were in danger of falling within that 10%. This study set out to identify, classify, and differentiate the treatment based on the student’s response to the standard classroom intervention. Improvements in multiple students’ rates of acquisition based on this system were recorded. This indicated a possibility of improved …
Web-Based Stimulus Preference Assessment And Reinforcer Assessments For Videos, Hugo Curiel
Web-Based Stimulus Preference Assessment And Reinforcer Assessments For Videos, Hugo Curiel
Dissertations
Stimulus preference assessments and reinforcer assessments are integral components of positive reinforcement-based interventions. Web-based brief multiple-stimulus without replacement (MSWO) preference assessments have recently been shown to be effective in identifying preference hierarchies for videos (Curiel, Curiel, Li, Deochand, & Poling, 2018). The purpose of the current studies was to replicate Curiel et al.’s web-based MSWO assessment and assess the reinforcing function of the highest and lowest identified stimuli using novel web-based reinforcer assessments. Study 1 employed single-operant arrangements (SOAs) and Study 2 employed concurrent-operants arrangements (COAs) to assess the absolute and relative reinforcing function of the identified stimuli, respectively. The …
Teaching Students Who Have Difficulty Mastering Lmitation, Jennifer Mrljak
Teaching Students Who Have Difficulty Mastering Lmitation, Jennifer Mrljak
Dissertations
Some children with autism are unable to acquire imitation despite receiving early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) meant to teach that and other important skills. Many EIBI programs use physical-prompting hierarchies either as a component of the discriminative stimulus or the correction procedure following an error (Lovaas, 1981; Maurice, Green, & Luce, 1996). But even after lengthy exposure to these teaching techniques, some children still do not acquire imitative repertoires. In the present study, working with students who were not acquiring imitative repertoires, we started with shaping the initial imitative responses as a method to gain stimulus control and then introduced …
Increasing Vocalization And Echoic Stimulus Control, Logan Wurster
Increasing Vocalization And Echoic Stimulus Control, Logan Wurster
Honors Theses
Deficits in verbal behavior can be harmful to children’s growth and development of other crucial skills and can also increase problem behavior (Eldevik, Eikeseth, Jahr, & Smith, 2006; Charman, Magiati, & Howlin, 2007; Cividini-Motta, 2014). Results from previous research show that vocal imitation training, stimulus-stimulus pairing, rapid motor imitation, and mand-model approaches have been successful in teaching echoic behavior. However, there is little evidence to show that these methods are successful for children who are making little to no verbal responses. (Carroll & Klatts, 2008; Bennett & Yoon, 2000; Greer & Ross, 2003; & Hawkins & Schuster, 2007). The purpose …
Assessing The Effects Of Interactive Video Modeling On The Fidelity Of Implementation Of Skill-Acquisition Procedures, Steven Sparks
Assessing The Effects Of Interactive Video Modeling On The Fidelity Of Implementation Of Skill-Acquisition Procedures, Steven Sparks
Dissertations
Behavior-analytic study has led to many advances in staff training over the last several decades. The effectiveness of modeling, role-play, and video modeling are well demonstrated in scientific literature but these techniques are often time consuming for those conducting the training which often leads to their being quite costly. Interactive video modeling is an alternative that is potentially more cost and time efficient. This type of modeling consists of embedding response opportunities in traditional video models that require the trainee to answer questions in order to complete the video. Being required to answer the embedded questions causes the trainee to …
The Effects Of Electronic Data Collection, Immediate Graphic Feedback, And Automated Scheduled Prompts On Data Collection Adherence, Cody Morris
Masters Theses
While data are essential to behavior analysis, collecting the type of data that behavior analysts often require can be a labor-intensive and time-consuming task. There have been many attempts to reduce the amount of time and effort required to collect behavioral data; most research in this area has been focused on computerized or electronic ways to do this (Dixon, 2003). While electronic data collection seems to be gaining popularity within applied behavior analysis, many obstacles still exist. The purpose of this project was to design a data collection system that is cost-efficient, adaptable, easy to use, and effective at increasing …
Descriptive Analysis Of Activity Transition Data In An Intensive Autism Treatment Center, Ashley Marie Kotsiris
Descriptive Analysis Of Activity Transition Data In An Intensive Autism Treatment Center, Ashley Marie Kotsiris
Masters Theses
Children with autism often display challenging behaviors (e.g., tantrums, aggression, etc.) when transitioning between activities. Most of the current literature focuses on antecedent interventions for increasing compliance during transitions (e.g., visual schedules, two minute transition warnings, etc.). There is a minimal number of studies examining how environmental variables may affect transitions. This study was a descriptive analysis that examined different environmental variables and their effects on transitions. Observations were conducted with four children diagnosed with autism. A transition-tracking sheet was used to gather specific descriptive data during transitions. Results suggest that two-minute warnings were not correlated with more successful transitions, …
Increasing Vocalizations In Children With Autism, Nicholette Christodoulou
Increasing Vocalizations In Children With Autism, Nicholette Christodoulou
Honors Theses
This study focuses on increasing vocalizations for students with Autism spectrum disorder. A three-part intervention was used to attempt to establish an echoic repertoire in students who had little to no vocalizations. Both students attended an early intervention classroom with a special education school. Students were selected from their classroom if they showed little to no vocalization or echoic skills. The goal during the first phase was to collect all sounds being made by the student to increase the overall number of vocalizations being made. This was done by continuous reinforcement using edible reinforcers. In phase two, the student’s dominant …
Sensor-Enabled Reduction Of Stereotypy, Aaron Brzezinski
Sensor-Enabled Reduction Of Stereotypy, Aaron Brzezinski
Honors Theses
The goal of this study was to create and implement an intervention to reduce stereotypic behavior in a child with Autism. The participant was chosen based on a high occurrence of target behavior and was recruited through his treatment center. The target behaviors were selected based on the subjective evaluation of his treatment provider and parents. The dependent variable in this study was hand-flapping. The independent variable was DRO training that included a buzzer and a chime noise contingent on the presence or absence of stereotypy respectively. A Microsoft Kinect© 2.0 was used to track occurrence of target behavior and …
Assessing The Effectiveness Of A Picture Exchange Communication System On Increasing Manding And Vocal Speech In Identical Twin Adults With Autism, Laura C. Hilton
Assessing The Effectiveness Of A Picture Exchange Communication System On Increasing Manding And Vocal Speech In Identical Twin Adults With Autism, Laura C. Hilton
Dissertations
This study examined the effectiveness of a Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) on increasing manding (i.e., making requests) and spontaneous vocalizations. Participants were a set of identical twin adult women, both with a diagnosis of autism. The main dependent variable was the number of mands emitted by the participants while utilizing PECS. During each phase of training, participants had to meet a specific criterion before receiving a preferred item. Once the participants met the criterion for each phase of PECS training, a new phase began. Spontaneous vocalizations were tracked during each phase of training to determine if, as previous studies …
Autism Project: Case Study Evaluating Behavioral Interventions For The Self-Injurious Behavior Of Biting, Brittani Rohrig
Autism Project: Case Study Evaluating Behavioral Interventions For The Self-Injurious Behavior Of Biting, Brittani Rohrig
Honors Theses
Self-injurious (SIB) behavior is a common problem among the autism population, and often those who engage in SIB have done so since a very early age. There was a nine-year-old boy named Jack who was diagnosed with ASD and engaged in the self-injurious behavior of biting his hand. A functional analysis was conducted and it was found that the behavior was multiply controlled across three main conditions: alone/play, demand, and attention. The goal of this case study was to review previous interventions that did not eliminate the target behavior, analyze and revise the current protocols in place, and eliminate the …
An Attempt To Establish Approval As A Learned Reinforcer, Kelly T. Kohler
An Attempt To Establish Approval As A Learned Reinforcer, Kelly T. Kohler
Dissertations
Approval does not function as a powerful reinforcer for many children with autism, making it difficult to reinforce appropriate behavior in a functional and consistent manner. The current study first assessed the effects of establishing approval (“Nice,” accompanied by a smile and nod) and nonsense words as discriminative stimuli, with the intent that they might also become learned reinforcers. We conducted several experiments to assess the effectiveness of approval as a reinforcer, including tests on learning new responses (receptive, expressive, freeoperant, and simple simultaneous discriminations) and tests on the performance of previously mastered responses (receptive and expressive responses). Despite the …
A Comparison Of Two Variations Of A Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing Procedure On Novel And Infrequent Vocalizations Of Children With Autism, Andrew J. Bulla
A Comparison Of Two Variations Of A Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing Procedure On Novel And Infrequent Vocalizations Of Children With Autism, Andrew J. Bulla
Masters Theses
Despite the growth in a behavioral technology for the treatment of autism, a small population of individuals with autism fails to develop functional language. One procedure used for inducing vocalizations in non-verbal children is a stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) procedure. In an SSP procedure a vocalization is paired with a reinforcer over a period of time to establish the vocalization as a learned reinforcer, and any utterance of the target vocalization is believed to be automatically reinforced thus increasing the frequency of the vocalization. Past research has yielded mixed results with the SSP procedure, and more research is warranted to identify …