Association for Behavior Analysis International

Functional Communication Training (FCT) is a common treatment for problem behavior Carr & Durand (1985) and it is defined as a procedure that reinforces a functionally equivalent communicative response. The current study investigated the efficacy of FCT to reduce disruptive behavior maintained by escape avoidance; verify the efficacy of a alternative fading out procedure used by Lalli, Casey, & Kates (1995), to teach the participant to tolerate, engage and complete the task independently. Participants were three children between three and six years old, diagnosed with autism, that never had received any previous behavior treatment and were regularly attending to a mainstream school for at least one year. The sessions were conducted at a particular clinic. An experimental functional analysis was conducted to assess the function of disruptive behaviors for all the participants. The functional analysis was composed of three experimental conditions: A - Demand; B - Control; and C - Attention condition. All functional analysis and intervention sessions were 5 min induration, and data on disruptive behavior were collected using 10-s momentary time sampling. In the Functional Communication Training (FCT) condition, each participant was taught to request a pause to perform tasks through verbal responses. Teaching the non verbal response. A fading out procedure was implemented. The task execution response was taught and a gradual decrease of the prompt was implemented, from highest to lowest: FP - total physical prompt, DL - partial physical prompt, DG - gestural prompt and I - independent response. A naive experimenter were asked to conduct the same procedures of condition 1 and 2. Functional analyses results showed that the there was a considerably greater number of disruptive responses emitted by the three participants in the demand condition.The results showed all the participants presented a decrease in disruptive behavior after the acquisition of a verbal response to request a pause to perform tasks. The results also indicated the participants acquired responses for the task execution, reducing the emission of verbal pause requests and maintaining a low number of disruptive behavior. The generalization test of the verbal response (mand) and the non-verbal response (do the task) to a naive experimenter, it was verified that for all the participants there was generalization of the verbal and non verbal responses.

Selective eating is common among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It can in some cases threaten the physical development of the child, as it requires a variety of nutrients from different sources. In a single-case experimental design (SCED) a 5.6 year old boy with ASD who displayed food selectivity and only ate pasta, french fries, vegetables and fruit received a food choice intervention in order to increase his consumption of food containing protein. The target behavior was to eat meatballs during family dinner. In the baseline condition the boy could pick any amount of meatballs he wanted from a bowl in the middle of the table, whereas in the experimental condition the boy was asked to choose between two bowls containing different amounts of meatballs. An ABAB design was used to demonstrate experimental control over the target behavior. The boy displayed an increased consumption of meatballs and thus protein during the SCED’s two experimental conditions, which proved the effectiveness of the intervention.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of social story intervention using video self - modeling and discrete trial teaching intervention using text card on social communication skills of children with autism spectrum disorder. The subjects of the study were six boys with autism spectrum disorder between the ages of 5 and 7 years. This study used alternating treatments design with initial baseline phase , final best-treatments phase and maintenance and the frequency of greeting, requesting, pecentage of responses were estimated through the sessions. The results of this study were as follows: First, DTT using text card was effective to acquire social communication skills for children with autism spectrum disorder with acquisition deficits and social story intervention using video self-modeling was effective to increase the social communication behavior for the children with performances deficits. Second, the children received the social story intervention using video self-modeling performed faster than the children received DTT using text card. Third, all subjects showed the maintenance effect of acquired skills after withdrawal of best effective intervention. Fourth, the effect of intervention was generalized during follow-up sessions except greeting behavior. The subjects received social story intervention using video self - modeling showed a higher level of generalization than the subjects received DTT using text card. These results indicated that DTT intervention using text card is effective for social communication skills for children with autism spectrum disorder with defects acquiring social communication skills and social story intervention based on video self-modeling was effective for social communication behaviors for the children with autism spectrum disorder with defects skill performances.

Eating issues are a major problem for a lot of children with ASD. It can be a real challenge for their health and for their inclusion to the community at the short, middle or long term. This problem’s resolution has a great social significance for improving the lives of the persons. A functional assessment coupled with a questionnaire on eating habits was implemented in 2 children with autism of 5 and 6 years to increase for one, the amount of food ingested, and for the other, the food diversification. The coupling of these 2 types of evaluations made it possible to set up effective programs in both cases to decrease the number of challenging behaviors and to increase the amount of food or the number of accepted different foods by a better definition of the program steps in the food exposure, the shaping, and the acquisition criteria. It would be interesting to use the food habit questionnaire for other situations in order to assess its effectiveness in developing food-related programs.

Feeding disorders can range from mild (e.g., food selectivity by taste or texture) to severe (e.g., total food refusal). If left untreated, feeding disorders can result in serious health ramifications, including malnutrition, growth delays, and developmental delays. Recent studies comparing commonly used occupational therapy (OT) treatments (sensory integration therapy and a modified sequential oral sensory approach) and empirically supported behavioral treatments found behavioral treatments to be more effective for all participants while both OT treatments were ineffective for all participants. The purpose of this study is to compare a modified version of another commonly used OT treatment, food chaining, to an empirically validated behavioral treatment, simultaneous presentation plus nonremoval of the spoon, to treat food selectivity in three children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

This research is for a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder who can not perform appropriate calculation when asked to add and subtract in words (For example, "+" is replaced by the word "add"). The signs of addition and subtraction and words expressing them was learned by T-IRAP, which is a computer task, and then it was investigated whether an appropriate calculation could be performed. T-IRAP displays stimuli at the top and center of the monitor and it involves a task to seek appropriate selection ("same" or "different") based on the relationship between the two stimuli. Participating child did 32 sentence problems expressing additions and subtractions in words before T-IRAP, immediately after T-IRAP, 2 weeks after and 1 month after implementation. As a result, the number of correct answers before T-IRAP implementation was 20, but immediately after implementation, after 2 weeks and after 1 month all questions were answered correctly. In other words, by using T-IRAP, learning the relationship between signs of addition and subtraction and also words expressing them, makes it possible for a child with the disorder to perform appropriate calculations.

Literature suggests that Early Intervention (EI) is the most effective intervention program to increase behavioural outcomes of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Solomon et. al. (2007) reported that although the methods of early intervention programs available to children may vary, they all share a few characteristics: Early, Intensive, and one-on-one intervention. While researchers continue to “perfect the formula of early intervention”, a number of studies have demonstrated positive outcomes for parent-implemented EI approaches to address behavioural problems, parent-child interactions, and to facilitate communication. In a first study of its kind, we share outcome data from a 6-week ABA-based and parent-implemented EI program at a private clinic in Bangalore, India. Thirty children between 18 months to 60 months old and their caregivers enrolled in the program. The teaching goals were designed in the areas of co-operation, play, visual performance, motor imitation skills, social interaction, behavioral skills, receptive and expressive language. The parents were taught errorless teaching procedures for skill acquisition along with behaviour management strategies. The result of the program demonstrated significant gains for children across all domains, supporting the existing literature. This is an especially important outcome for a country such as India which has few trained professionals, very limited knowledge and awareness about ABA and a growing recognition of the prevalence of ASD and need for EI.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in social interaction, language, and communication as well as restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. Multimodal communication intervention (MCI) focuses on children's natural speech productions that children are taught to develop their own communication skills via nonsymbolic and symbolic forms of expression to communicate with others. After receiving training from professionals, caregivers with limited experience can be taught to implement communication intervention correctly. However, culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional (CLDE) children with ASD and their families who speak native languages other than English usually do not receive sufficient and appropriate services and supports. To understand CLDE children’s cultures and special needs, collaborating with parents is an important component of a successful special education program. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of cultural and family factors on parent-mediated multimodal communication intervention for children with ASD. The participants were four families who spoke more than one language and shared more than one culture at home. The parents' implementation of the intervention strategies and the children's communication behaviors were evaluated in a multiple-probe design with baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases, as well as generalization phases across all phases. One cultural background survey, a parent interview, and the short coaching surveys were conducted to understand each family's acculturation, cultural background, and parent feedback to provide culturally appropriate parent coaching. Parents implemented learned strategies with the children and got feedback from the coach during each parent coaching session. This presentation will present the results of parents' implementation of intervention components, children’s communicative outcomes, and social validity. Limitations and suggestions for future research will be discussed.

Positive reinforcement is effective in reducing inappropriate behaviours, while increasing appropriate and adaptive behaviours. In this study, we demonstrated the use of positive reinforcement, by a speech therapist within the participant’s speech therapy session. The intervention was developed using a consultative model, along with a Board certified Behavior analyst using telehealth. The intervention was developed address out of seat and screaming behaviours in a 3 years and 9 months old child with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The participant was enrolled in an autism centre in Kerala, India where he was receiving Occupational Therapy (OT), Speech Therapy (ST) and Individual Education Program. The intervention was implemented by a speech therapist in the regularly scheduled speech therapy session, where the therapist collected ongoing data, and also videotaped the session for review and feedback. A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the outcome of the intervention. Inter-observer agreement (IOA) data were collected for 100% of the sessions. IOA was calculating by dividing the number of agreements by the sum of the number of agreements and disagreements and then multiplying by 100%. For the sessions, IOA was 100%. The results indicated that the intervention was effective in reduction of the two target problem behaviour.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) acquired school readiness skills through parent-implemented video modeling intervention using iPad. Two preschool children with ASD participated in this study. We used multiple baseline design across stimulus sets to evaluate the intervention effect. We created videos about school-readiness skills such as rules for engaging in collective action or making friends. In the baseline, the child watched a video which are not presented the corrected answers and the therapist asked the child what to do in such a scene. In the training1, the appropriate answer in a sentence were presented after video and the child was asked to read the answer. In the training2, the child watched a video modeling video which were presented the appropriate answers on an iPad with parent. When the child answer appropriate answer, the parent presented the verbal praise. At the baseline and training1 phase, all children had low correct rates. However, all children increased their correct response rate following training2 and maintained the correct response at follow up. The results suggest that parent-implemented video modeling intervention using iPad can be an effective procedure for acquiring school readiness skills.

Engineering technologies have provided various perspectives for the social intervention in children with autism spectrum disorders. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether the motion capture system (MCS) could quantify the social interactions between an adult and two typically developing children (age 5, respectively). This experiment consisted of a single session including two types of phases: testing and interaction. In testing phases, the children wore a specialized cap which acquires the information about head position, and then freely played with several toys in the circle with a diameter of approximately four meters. The adult was pinned to a predetermined position and took little initiative in that play. In interaction phases, the adult exhibited positive affect such as smiling, laughing, and playful vocal tone to provide reinforcement for the child’s social-communicative responses. After interaction phases, the children engaged in increased levels of social behavior although the observable distances between the children and the adult on the testing phases were almost the same level through the session (the MCS data is under analysis). The results may suggest that a wide variety of social behaviors other than making an approach are available for typically developing children.

Telepractice parent coaching facilitates communication between therapists and parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and provides the potential to decrease the discrepancy between demand for behavioral intervention services and families’ ability to access those services. The purpose of this single case multiple probe design was used to evaluate the effects of telepractice coaching on child communication skills in a multimodal communication intervention with parents of children with ASD. Three parent-child dyads and one parent-child triad participated in the study, with child ages ranging from 3 years to 15 years. The study design included three main phase changes in each level, including baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases. The generalization data was conducted across all three phases. All parents completed 10 to 12 coaching sessions ranging in duration from 30 to 60 minutes one time per week via a telepractice platform. The coach provided weekly feedback to parents after data analyzation of a video-recorded parent-child interaction. Results of the functional relation between parents’ fidelity and intervention, correlation and effects between parents’ fidelity and the child’s behavior, study limitations, and implications will be discussed.

As repetitive vocalizations are common in students with autism spectrum disorders, it is important that educators working with this population understand the function of these behaviors and how to intervene. The current study was designed to extend prior studies examining the evocative effects of establishing operations with attention-maintained repetitive vocalizations. Participants included two boys with autism spectrum disorder receiving services in home-based programs. An ABAB treatment design was used to measure the effects of providing pre-session attention on levels of challenging behavior during subsequent intervention conditions. Findings revealed that, for both participants, pre-session access to attention acted as an abolishing operation. Additionally, combining pre-session access to attention with extinction led to further decreases in the challenging behavior of both participants, demonstrating an abative effect. Results of this study can provide educators with strategies to modify interventions in order to abolish or delay attention-maintained motivating operations. Limitations, social validity, implications for educators, and additional resources will be provided.

While the efficacy of early intensive behavioral intervention programs (EIBI) is well documented, there are few studies on the access and the quality of these programs in real-life settings, such as in complex public care systems. The experience of families with children with ASD who are attempting to access these services is challenging throughout their trajectory, which suggests research has to better describe the factors that influence their effectiveness in order to enhance the quality of the services. Immigrant families are among the most vulnerable to these challenges, particularly due to cultural and language differences as well as several other risk factors related to their immigration. This presentation describes an evaluation of the quality of the service trajectory of EIBI by 24 immigrant families in Quebec (Canada) in the semi-structured interview (qualitative data) and by 43 immigrants families in a quantitative questionnaire based on the ETAP model (Evaluation of the trajectory in autism for parents — EIBI version). Results on collaboration between parents and therapists (one specific indicator of the ETAP model) and the need of psychological support for parents during the early childhood services trajectory (from the diagnostic to school) will be discussed.

Restricted and repetitive behaviors are a core feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); however, limited research is available on complex forms of higher order restricted and repetitive behaviors (H-RRB). H-RRB are rooted in a rigid adherence to a cognitive state or rule and frequently manifest as specific interests, compulsions, insistence on sameness, rituals, and routines (Turner, 1999). To date, no known research explores restricted behavior related to access to a specific location. In the present, on-going case study, the effects of a treatment to decrease location specific H-RRB are evaluated. The participant is a 14-year-old female with limited verbal approximations and an ASD diagnosis. At home, the participant spent the majority of her time in a specific area of the kitchen, including sleeping in this location. A changing criterion design is used to demonstrate the effects of a differential reinforcement and contingent demand intervention to decrease time spent inside of the target location while simultaneously expanding the size of the target area. Results show the intervention has resulted in an increase in time spent outside the target area, including outside of the kitchen, and successful fading of the size of the target location, while maintaining low rates of problem behavior.

Though pediatric feeding challenges such as food selectivity are common in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders, there is little research examining methods to efficiently teach caregivers to implement the feeding interventions. This study evaluated the effects of written instructions and flow charts on caregiver implementation of their child’s feeding protocol for two families with children with autism and food selectivity. Results showed that one caregiver implemented the protocol with high fidelity with the flow chart, and the other caregiver required a slight modification to the flow chart to implement the protocol with high fidelity. These findings are surprising because a visual representation and alteration of written instructions was effective in teaching caregivers to carry out complex interventions with their children. The findings of this study could have important implications for caregivers of individuals with food selectivity, as it shows potential for simpler and more efficient methods of caregiver training.

Estimates of children with autism who have no speech range from 10-30% (Koegel et al., 2009; Tager- Flusberg et al., 2013). Awasthi (2017) examined the role of intraverbal fill-in training in inducing first instances of speech. 46 participants between ages 1.8-12.2 years were on mand training for 2-18 months using signs with paired vocals. The introduction of the Intraverbal training using animal sound and contexual fill-ins led to evocation of vocals in 37 (80%) participants. Mean IOA on vocal type was 89% and and treatment integrity score was 88% (range 67-100%) The mastery crietria of 7 stable vocals was met within 2 weeks by nine participants, while the remaining took longer intervals. Vocals emerged across operants however the continuation of mand training, IBI training & maturity could have been confounding variables. The findings suggest that Intraverbal fill in training should be added early on in programs intended to evoke first instances of speech in non-vocal children with autism.

Automatically maintained stereotypy, or repetitive behavior, is common among children with autism spectrum disorder. This study described the treatment of automatically maintained stereotypy for a 2-year-old girl with autism. The child’s father implemented all intervention sessions. The initial intervention consisted of prompting for appropriate engagement, differential reinforcement for appropriate engagement, and extinction. The efficacy of the intervention was evaluated using an alternating treatment design. The treatment evaluation indicated the initial intervention was not effective in reducing automatically maintained motor stereotypy. The researchers then conducted a competing stimulus assessment. The initial intervention with a competing stimulus was effective in reducing motor stereotypy. Intervention effects persisted following the removal of the differential reinforcement and extinction components. The results indicated that the use of a competing stimulus with the initial intervention was effective in reducing automatically maintained stereotypy. The findings suggest the importance of identifying items that compete with automatically maintained stereotypy, to the extent possible, in order to effectively reduce stereotypy. Implications for practice and directions for future research will be discussed.

The present study determined requirements of children and parents of children with ASD on home safety skills and implemented family training program. The present study was designed as an experimental mixed method research and was conducted in three stages. The first two stages focused on determining the requirements of families related to home safety skills; while the final stage implemented program addressing the individual requirements of families. The study was conducted on a total of 16 parents, eight of which were assigned to the control group and eight assigned to the experimental group. The quantitative data collected was analyzed using a Mann-Whitney U-test and a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. A significant difference was identified between the pre-test and post-test scores of parents in the experimental group, whereas no significant difference was noted between the pre-test and post-test scores of the parents in the experimental group and the control group. During the focused group interviews with the parents after the intervention, the parents stated that the in-home skills education had been entertaining, that they gained the ability to prepare education programs related to home safety skills for their children, that they had become advocates regarding the rights of their children.

Applications of Behavior Analysis, Contextual Behavioral Science and Functional Contextualism are often used directly with intellectually disabled adult to improve autonomies, decrease problem behaviors and increase quality of life, but rarely applied to the whole system, including staff management and to promote data based clinical decision. We tested various applications of Multiple Exemplars Training and Relational Training to increase compliance in subjects with moderate to mild intellectual disabilities, to increase pro-sociality and participation in staff members and more direct training, such as deictic relational training to increase social skills and Perspective Taking. In the first study, we compare a standard procedure of contingency contracting and token economy with a similar procedure with the introduction of MET, providing broaden interaction for people with poor compliance and limited participation in healthy activity in a facility for intellectually disabled people.?Preliminary findings suggest that the introduction of MET is consistent with better long terms outcomes at six-months follow-up, and broaden extension of the effect to response never directly reinforced.?In the second study, we test the effect of deictic frame training to promote acquisition of Perspective Taking and to reduce challenge behavior in three adults with intellectual impairments.?After the training participants successful complete false belief tests and show a reduction of problem behaviors, an increase in prosociality and compliance with the activity proposed in the ALF.?Some consideration about future extended applications through behavior system analysis is also provided.

FuturoSchool is a system of evaluation, intervention and parental training for individuals with autism based on applied behaviour analysis. It has a capacity of 12 students receiving 1-to-1 behavioural services during 22 hours of intervention per week. Students work in natural environments alongside neurotypical children, including mainstream school classrooms, municipal swimming pools, music academies and fitness centres. Our team also provides home-based parental training. Since 2012, FuturoSchool undergoes a behavioural assessment every year with the goal to ensure the correct application of behavioural principles and ongoing professional development of staff. These endeavours are led by a senior and junior supervisor, BCBA-D and BCBA respectively, who are responsible for the overview of the service delivery including staff training. Other team members are currently in the process of becoming certified in behaviour analysis or being registered as behaviour technicians. Our devoted team faces an environment where behaviour analysis is not fully accepted, where people with autism are not welcomed in regular classrooms, where access to sports and cultural activities is restricted and where autism remains largely unknown. The development of FuturoSchool as an evidence-based structure will be discussed with data of yearly evaluations and major achievements of our students and team members.

Applied Behaviour Analysis is the basis of medically necessary treatments for individuals with autism. Although research for the effectiveness of such programmes is abundant for pre-school and school-age children, data on the use of behaviour analytic methods with adults are still scarce. This is the case especially in countries with a few Board Certified Behavior Analysts and behaviour-analytic service-delivery settings and of course for inclusive employment settings. In FuturoSchool, Paris, one of the few behaviour analytic providers in France, some of the students that we have served throughout the years are now full-grown adults and therefore need to be included in a professional environment. For this, a partnership was developed with a retail company where students were trained by store employees in everyday tasks under the direct supervision of staff trained in behaviour analysis including a BCBA. Two case studies will be discussed in detail illustrating progress towards independence, barriers that need to be accounted for and the overarching principles in our endeavours to include young adults in mainstream work settings.

Telehealth has the potential to boost service accessibility, especially for families living in remote areas or countries with few Board Certified Behavior Analysts, while maintaining treatment quality. Vaincre l’Autisme, founded in France in 2001, is an association of families of people diagnosed with autism that offers behaviour analytic services in a country where psychoanalysis is still more widely accepted. In 2004, Vaincre l’Autisme inaugurated FuturoSchool in Paris, an innovative structure where 12 students diagnosed with autism receive 22 hours of behaviour-analytic services per week at a 1:1 ratio. Given the significant success of students receiving these services, an increased demand for training professionals and serving families living outside Paris arose. To meet this need, UpToYou was created in 2016 and piloted with four families. Outcomes so far show that parental training delivered through telehealth is highly successful, leading to important gains for children with autism. Service characteristics, encountered barriers and ways to overcome these will be discussed, while service-recipients’ progress will be illustrated through the presentation of one case study.

When designing the conditions for the Interview-Informed Contingency Analysis (IISCA) Hanley and colleagues (2014) implemented 5 consecutive 5-minute conditions, alternating between control and test conditions, with a manipulation of the Motivation Operation (MO) every 30 seconds in the test condition. This, however, did not account for any delays in emotional regulation on the part of the participant that are commonly found in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Nuske et al, 2017). This study aimed to address this deficit by extending the length of IISCA conditions to 10-minutes each with a manipulation of the MO every 60 seconds. In addition, when implementing corresponding skills-based intervention as outlined by Hanley and colleagues (2014), this study extended upon the prior research by including both the training of specific mands as an interim step prior to teaching gaining attention and also including the teaching of mindfulness (Fletcher & Hayes, 2005) when introducing compliance with contextually appropriate behaviour.

Hanley and colleagues (2014) successfully assessed and treated the problem behaviour of 3 children with a primary diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through the use of the Interview-Informed Contingency Analysis (IISCA) and corresponding skills-based treatment in a clinic setting. Through this skills based training, they taught a synthesized mand for the “my way” condition and went on to teach a tolerance response to denial of reinforcement and compliance with increasingly more complex demands in the form of contextually appropriate behaviours. However, they did not incorporate specific mand training within their initial steps, which may result in a faulty mand repertoire. This study attempted to replicate the traditional IISCA outlined by Hanley and colleagues (2014) with a young male with ASD in a school setting and extended the skills based treatment to include specific mand training using a voice-output device prior to introducing a tolerance response and compliance with contextually appropriate behaviour.