Psychology Commons^™

Teaching Siblings To Encourage And Praise Play: Supporting Interactions When One Sibling Has Autism, Holly R. Weisberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sibling relationships may be strained when one sibling is typically developing (TD) and one has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). TD siblings have been taught to encourage play in their siblings with ASD but there is limited literature examining the impact of intervention on the quality of the siblings’ relationships. In this study, we taught four TD siblings to encourage and praise play skills in their siblings with ASD as well as self-monitor those play skills. We measured changes in social-communicative behaviors during siblings’ interactions. All TD siblings learned the targeted play skills and increased social-communicative behaviors. Only …

The Effects Of Acceptance And Commitment Training With Behavioral Skills Training On Educators' Skill Acquisition: A Systematic Review, Shalayah Gaines

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACTr) uses at least one of six self-management skills to alter the function of covert behaviors and teach staff to change or persist in behaviors in the moment to pursue long-term positive reinforcement. While ACTr addresses the private events that impact work performance, it does not provide educators with the skills to implement the procedures with integrity. Behavioral Skills Training (BST) is an evidence-based strategy that teaches educators to implement skills with integrity. However, BST does not address private events that impact work performance. The benefits of ACTr address the limitations of BST and vice versa. …

The Effects Of Presession Conditions On Behavior During A Brief Functional Analysis, Dung Haylie Le

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated that patterns of responding during a no-interaction condition of a functional analysis (FA) may predict FA outcomes. Thus, behavior analysts may use an initial no-interaction condition to identify problem behavior maintained by social reinforcement when time and resources are limited. However, in a clinic setting, most functional analyses are conducted in between or immediately after instructional sessions or structured play. Therefore, the proposed study was designed to examine the differential effects of presession conditions of naturally occurring activities (work versus play) at a clinic setting during a modified brief functional analysis. Results showed that presession conditions …

Teaching Children With Autism To Tact Private Events Based On Common Properties, Madisyn Quidort

Theses and Dissertations

Skinner (1957) proposed that people learn to talk about private events in several ways. This study sought to examine the plausibility of one of those mechanisms: common properties. Skinner asserted that children learn tacts for public stimuli through normal interaction with their caregivers. When a child experiences a private stimulus that shares some feature with a previously learned public stimulus, the child generalizes the tact to the private sensation because there is a common property between the two stimuli. Three children with autistic disorder were taught 6 to 9 sensation tacts (e.g., prickly, cozy, tight) depicted in videos (e.g., a …

An Analysis Of Behavior Management Strategies Used Within Parent-Child Interaction Therapy To Facilitate Verbalizations By Children With Developmental Disabilities, Megan Barnes

Masters Theses, 2020-current

We examined the effects of the procedures recommended for interventions using the Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) protocols on child verbalizations. The effects of the procedures of Child-Directed Interaction (CDI) were examined in a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants design. Two seven-year-old participants with developmental disabilities and language delay experienced a baseline condition followed by two experimental conditions during a free play environment. A range of child toys were rotated systematically throughout the study. The total number of therapist-child interactions remained consistent across all experimental conditions. The experimenter received bug-in-the-ear feedback about her use of the therapy components in order to …

Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder In Adulthood: The Often Overlooked Subdivision Of Individuals In The Autism Community, Kayla L. Piacquadio

Honors Student Research

Awareness surrounding the increasing prevalence of autism spectrum disorder and Asperger syndrome has become much more widespread in recent times. Children are diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum more than ever. However, the key here is the word “children.” We focus on the behavior, development, and well-being of our children for good reason.

While the oversaturated focus on children is entirely justified, this focus overshadows a minority within the autism community that deserves the same attention and recognition. This minority group consists of the adults who have gone years without a formal diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder or Asperger …

Don't Make Me Say "I Love You": A Dive Into The Complicated Discourse Surrounding Applied Behavior Analysis, Campbell K.C. Kurlander

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This paper investigates the empirical evidence and discourse surrounding a popular therapy for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) known as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). While studies over the past 60 years have shown ABA to be a highly effective therapy for decreasing unwanted behaviors and increasing compliance in people with autism, many autistic adults have expressed that the therapy had long-term harmful effects on their mental health and wellbeing. Using a combination of works written by autistic voices and psychological studies, I argue for a reconsideration of the benefits and costs of ABA, and emphasize the importance of including actual autistic …