Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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

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

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 …

Parent Mediated Instruction Of Functional Skills For Children With Autism, Brian K. Mason

Culminating Projects in Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy

This study adds to the literature on successful parent mediated behavioural intervention using a manual plus brief consultative model to assess outcomes for parent competency and child skill acquisition. Parent participants of young children with autism spectrum disorder, were asked to choose three functional skills to teach their child. A multiple baseline design across a set of behaviours was used to analyze no intervention, parent manual only, and parent manual plus brief behavioural consultation and their relationship with parent competency and child skill acquisition. Following baseline, parents were introduced to an instructional manual on the implementation of ABA teaching strategies. …

A Comparison Of Simple-Conditional, Conditional Only And Combined Blocking Procedures In Teaching Individuals With Autism Conditional Discriminations, Elizabeth J. Holmes

Culminating Projects in Psychology

Many behavioural intervention programmes use the simple-conditional method, involving first simple and then conditional discriminations, to teach conditional discriminations, such as receptive labelling, to individuals with autism. Other methods utilised with such individuals include the conditional-only method, involving only conditional discriminations. These methods have been compared in the past (Grow, Carr, Kodak, Jostad, & Kisamore, 2011). Results show that more errors are associated with the simple-conditional method and more reliable, efficient results with the conditional-only method in comparison. Combined-blocking procedures have also been shown to be effective in teaching conditional discrimination (Saunders & Spradlin, 1989, 1990, 1993).

This study compared …