Association for Behavior Analysis International

This poster reviews over 2� years of data examining the effects of contingent exercise (CE) in decreasing aggressive behavior in a 9 year old, male with severe autism. At the time of baseline, the child displayed an average daily rate of 110 episodes of aggression, with a range of 26-301 episodes per day. Experimental FA results suggested the behavior was maintained by negative reinforcement. Initially, aggression was elicited by specific demands and a reduction in aggression was observed with a differential reinforcement plan, but not to an acceptable level (average 54 per day). A contingent exercise plan paired with escape extinction was implemented and successfully dropped aggression to zero or near zero rates for 130 sessions (a six month period). During the protocol fade, aggressive behaviors increased in frequency and began to occur in response to circumscribed sets of demands. This and the display of a number of other behaviors during treatment indicated a compulsive component to his aggression. The CE plan was continued during trials of SSRI medication which proved successful. This case provides support for a CE plan paired with a SSRI in treating aggression that may have a compulsive component.

Approximately 70% of youths in the juvenile justice system have been diagnosed with at least one mental health condition. As more children are being diagnosed with high-functioning autism, a greater emphasis is being placed on teaching these individuals social skills and strategies for coping with distressing situations. While contingency management strategies alone may provide some support, the inclusion of approaches utilized by clinical behavior analysts may prove fruitful. One such approach, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), focuses on decreasing avoidance and escape of unpleasant situations while building repertoires related to observing one's environment and verbal behavior, identifying and establishing reinforcing outcomes, and making choices that lead to those outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of an ACT approach to treating children with autism and other emotional behavioral disorders. Nine students from a school utilizing a specialized ACT curriculum andnine students from a behavior disorder classroom (control) participated in this study. The ACT school was provided with 180 days of ACT-based lessons and included a contingency-based token economy while the control classroom continued treatment as usual. Each school recorded the GPA, attendance, and self-report scores on the AAQ-II and AAQ-K for each student. Results indicated that students in the ACT group increased their scores of psychological flexibility, attendance, and GPA over that of the control group. Implications for the field and directions for future research will be discussed.

JumpStart is a parent empowerment and education program, conducted in both English and Spanish, for families of children diagnosed or at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder under the age of six. JumpStart includes in-vivo coaching in pivotal response treatment (PRT) and guided observations of interventionist-child sessions. This study looks at the change in parent Fidelity of Implementation (FOI) and child responsivity of multiple 4-week JumpStart sessions with both English-speaking groups and Spanish-speaking groups. This study also looks at the differences between those changes in parent FOI and child responsivity with English-speaking groups receiving both in-vivo coaching and guided observation and Spanish-speaking groups only receiving guided observation. Pilot data have looked at the differences between Spanish-speaking intervention sessions conducted in English and guided observation conducted in Spanish (i.e., guide translating the interventionist-child interactions) and Spanish-speaking intervention sessions being conducted entirely in Spanish (Matthews et al., 2013). This study will not only include Spanish-speaking sessions conducted entirely in Spanish, but it will also include more participants. Current results have suggested that the English-speaking groups, participating in both guided observation and in-vivo coaching, had no significant difference in FOI and child responsivity compared to the Spanish-groups, participating only in the guided observation.

Many students of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) arrive to JRC with a history of refractory and severe aggression or self-injurious behavior as well as behavior that interferes with educational instruction and community integration. Treating these dangerous behaviors in the least intrusive manner possible places significant demands upon the behavior analyst's skills and ingenuity. We will present cases where the use of JRC-created technology proved to be helpful in augmenting effective treatment of dangerous and interfering behavior. With the help of JRCs Electronics Department, behavior analysts have created unique devices to help decrease students/clients most problematic behaviors, in combination with their behavioral intervention plan. Such JRC-created technology includes: academic completion token operated television, sensor-connected music devices, multicolored lighted discrimitive stimuli to address vocal behavior (volume), in-seat behavior and delayed access to identified reinforcers. Each students behavior data displayed on a standard celebration chart and treatment technology will be presented.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have delays in both motor development and the recognition of non-verbal expressions of emotion. The objective of this study was to examine emotion recognition in ASD using emotional nonverbal body postures, body and facial expression combinations, and simple and complex facial expressions. Relationships between motor skills and emotion recognition ability were also examined. Thirty children with ASD (M = 110.27 months) completed three computerized, forced-choice matching experiments that assessed their recognition accuracy of emotional expressions from bodies (match a sample body expression to a target body expression), faces (match a facial expression to its textual label), or combinations of faces and bodies (match a sample facial expression to a target body posture). The MABC-2 was used to assess motor performance. MABC-2 standard scores were significantly correlated with body expression recognition, r = .589, p < .01; with combined facial and bodily expression recognition, r = .607, p < .01; and with complex facial expression recognition, r = .622, p < .01. These findings suggest that a relationship exists between motor performance and emotion recognition across modalities, which could guide future researchers for designing early intervention treatment programs for children with ASD.

Several research studies have demonstrated the success of using preferences as reinforcement for children with autism and other developmental disabilities (Roane, et. al., 1998). However, children with autism often become obsessed with just one or small set of items, which can relate to higher levels of challenging behaviors (Mancil, 2009). Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of manipulating levels of response effort on choosing between most preferred and less preferred items. A multi-element design was used to test five levels of response effort that considered amount of force and difficulty to access preferred items. Data was collected via iPad® during 1-hour sessions. Prior to manipulating levels of response effort, preference assessments were conducted keeping response effort levels equal across items to obtain a ranked order of items. Assessments were conducted for each of the response effort conditions also. The amount of response effort was systematically manipulated across preferences rankings of items. Results indicate that participants chose less preferred items when response effort was increased for more preferred items. In addition, the change in response effort did not have to be a large change. Minimum increases resulted in a move to a lesser preferred item. This study potentially impacts planning for more complex systems and natural environments considering the complexities within any given behavioral economic system.

Children with a diagnosis of autism frequently have major deficits in their ability to perform a wide range of skills necessary for routine daily activities. These deficits in functional living skills often limit the individual's options to participate in many family and community activities. The present study demonstrates the effectiveness of a parent-based intervention to teach functional living skills to a 10-year-old boy diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Data were collected on the Basic Living Skills, Home Skills and Community Participation Skills protocols of the AFLS assessment. The boys' parents then implemented a teaching program to develop their sons' skills in each of those areas. Data are presented following 12 and 24 months of intervention. The data demonstrate that the boy made significant progress in many skill areas of the assessment. Follow-up data will also be presented that will demonstrate that those new skills were maintained and that additional functional skills continue to be acquired.

The present study assessed the duration of functional engagement for several novel low-affect rated independent leisure activities taught to two adolescent boys with Autism with limited communication skills. Initially 10 randomly selected independent leisure activities were introduced and indices of happiness were rated on an affect scale. Three leisure activities, considered to be low-affect items based on the ratings assigned on the affect scale, were chosen for instructional targets. Systematic exposures were conducted followed by a second affect rating to determine if familiarity increased affect independent of pairing. Items that did not reach high affect criteria were paired systematically in a fading procedure to increase duration of functional engagement and increase affect. A forced choice preference assessment was given at the start and conclusion of the study for utilizing the same items and the results were compared to the ranking from the affect scale to determine if indices of happiness or unhappiness correlate to preference based on choice-making. Results indicated that the target items rated as low-affect when paired with the high-affect items were systematically shaped by demonstrating a significant increase in affect in the post assessment. Forced choice assessment results indicated that the three low affect items that were initially frequently not selected were selected more frequently in post assessment.

Few univocal data is available in studies on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) on the proportion of children who also present challenging behaviors (CB). However, those behaviors seem to be an obstacle to optimal efficacy of early intervention. The current study concerns the assessment and the intervention on CB in young children with ASD and includes four objectives: 1) Carry out a valid French adaptation and establish norms for the Developmental Behavior Checklist Under-4 for children between two and five years old (group of 480 children), 2) Describe the percentage of children with ASD who present CB before having early intervention and study factors that may be linked with those behaviors (group of 150 children), 3) Follow the trajectories of children on CB during four years, 4) Evaluate the effects of a model of supervision (training, coaching on functional evaluation and positive behavior support) on public rehabilitation centers that deliver EIBI in community settings. This poster presents the preliminary data for objectiveone andtwo on approximately 200 children.

Identifying potential reinforcers is common practice in working with clients. An iPad® is frequently identified as a preferred stimulus; however, relative preference and reinforcer effectiveness of different applications within the iPad® have not been systematically evaluated. A paired stimulus assessment is being conducted, following procedures identical to those described by Fisher et al. (1992), with a 12-year-old female with autism spectrum disorder and moderate intellectual disability. A list of 16 free apps that do not require internet was generated using information gathered from a structured interview with caregivers, the Reinforcer Assessment for Individuals with Severe Disabilities (Fisher et al., 1996). Caregivers and therapists familiar with the client rank-ordered these apps according to predicted client preference. Currently 37.5% of pairs (i.e., 45 of 120) have been evaluated, measuring participant selection and consumption. A concurrent operants paradigm, following procedures outlined by Piazza et al. (1996), will be conducted to evaluate the reinforcing effects of the high-, middle-, and low-preferred apps identified by the preference assessment. These procedures have been shown to predict the relative reinforcing effectiveness of stimuli identified by a forced-choice stimulus preference assessment. This adaptation permits practitioners to systematically evaluate different mobile applications in a model that parallels established practice.

For practitioners in Applied Behavior Analysis, one of the greatest barriers to effective practice is parental resistance. Resistance is described as failure or hesitation to implement the strategies suggested by the practitioner. In most settings, the exposure the behavior analyst has with the client is limited; meaning that implementation is dependent on those with more frequent contact. Regardless of how effective a behavior analyst's strategies could potentially be, without proper support and implementation of others, particularly parents, optimal behavior change will not occur. Despite the common nature of this issue, behavior analysts may not readily address the parents' behavior of resistance, as they would the behavioral concerns of the client. Resistance may be due to a number of a variables such as complexity of the intervention, the available time and resources of the parents, response effort, and the absence of contingencies to support the behavior, all of which behavior analysts commonly address with their clients. In this poster, the author will elaborate upon the issues of parental resistance and provide potential solutions in terms of common behavioral practices.

Autism is the most prevalent of a subset of the disorders organized under the umbrella of pervasive developmental disorders. After the publication of Andrew Wakefield's paper in lancet, many critiques deny this connection even without looking in to the matter. The British Medical Journal even put an editorial regarding this issue. BMJ 2010; 340:c1807. But ayurveda has ample of evidences to believe this connectivity. Dysbiosis, yeast growth of the gut, nutritional deficiencies, enzyme deficiencies, essential fatty acid deficiencies, Gastro esophageal reflux disease, indigestion, inflammatory bowel, chronic constipation & its cascade are few of them to note. The purpose of this paper is to present the observed changes in the behavioural symptoms of autistic babies after a gut management protocol which is a usual programme of our autism treatment plan especially after dysbiotic changes after antibiotic administration. Is there any correlation between changes (if significant) in gut symptoms and behavioral problems of autistic babies especially after a dysbiosis induced by antibiotics. Retrospective analysis of the case sheets of autistic patients admitted in Vaidyaratnam P.S. Varier Ayurveda College hospital, kottakkal, kerala, india from September 2010 are taken for the data processing. Autistic patients are used to come to this hospital as a part of their usual course of treatment. We investigated 40 cases diagnosed as autistic by clinical psychologists from different institutions who had dysbiosis induced by antibiotics. Significant change in gut symptoms before and after treatment p<0.05 in most of its components Significant change in behavioral symptoms before and after treatments p<0.05 in most of the components Correlation between gut symptoms change and behavioral symptoms changes after treatment is + 0.86 Conclusion Selected Polyherbal Ayurveda treatment has significant role to play to make changes abnormal behaviors in autistic babies and has a positive correlation with changes in gut symptoms induced by dysbiosis of antibiotic intake.

Noncompliance with essential healthcare routines (e.g., hair cuts, dental visits) is a widely reported problem in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (Allen, Stanley, & McPherson, 1990). This problem is exacerbated when essential healthcare routines involve the use of sharp objects (e.g., scissors, dental scrappers) that have the potential to cause physical injury to children who exhibit noncompliance or avoidant behaviors during the procedure. Two studies were conducted to (a) assess the prevalence of noncompliance with essential healthcare routines in an early childhood education program and (b) evaluate the effects of reinforcement-based procedures on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of compliance with essential healthcare routines with seven children. Whereas treatment was necessary to produce increases in compliance for five children, mere exposure to a simulated environment increased compliance for two children. Although generalization of compliance in the actual healthcare environment was only observed for two children, decreases in negative vocalizations, problem behavior, and the use of physical restraint in the actual setting was observed across all subjects.

There has been growing interest in designing supportive environments for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities, specifically Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Increased awareness of the needs of individuals with behavioral challenges allow interventions to begin when designing a supportive environment. Additionally the right to effective treatment comprises creating centers that focus on least to most restrictive strategies, so that a continuum of behaviors can be addressed. Sharing the architectural and behavioral decision making processes which have led to environmental manipulations that successfully assist clients and staff can circumvent trial and error that could otherwise occur. Decisions to cut-costs may be fiscally successful in the short term, but increasing durability by investing in higher quality materials or improved design, can reduce future costs in the long term. This poster outlines the design changes in the intensive treatment wing of a center for inpatient ASD treatment and research. After these factors were outlined key stakeholders at the center, such as staff, administrators and architects were surveyed to evaluate what features of the design they believe are effective in assisting the behavioral treatment plans. Additional investigation should supplement this emergent research area so that more rigorous quantitative methods of analyses can be utilized.

The Nevada Association for Behavior Analysis (NABA) hosts an annual conference in October which focuses on the diversity of behavior analysis with presentations in experimental, applied, and theoretical areas. The conference offers continuing education credits for BACB credentialed individuals as well an ethics workshop and poster session. The conference has established a reputation for providing an intimate, single-track experience for speakers and attendees alike. In addition to the conference, NABA is active in legislative affairs that affect our behavior analytic training sites (e.g., UNR, UNLV), practicing professionals, and consumers of our services. NABA has filled a void in voicing issues that affect our field at a regional level. We are proud to say that we have accomplished a great deal in furthering our commitment to quality education and practice in our state. Our overall mission is to promote intellectual exchange and professional development in the field of behavior analysis.

Three children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder were initially exposed to a baseline assessment that evaluated their ability to emit autoclitic mands, distorted tacts, and generate creative textual behavior. Using a multiple baseline design across behaviors within participants and then replicated across participants, each child was provided with differential reinforcement for correct responses of a subset of stimuli, while others were simply probed for emergent generalization. Each child was subsequently capable of demonstrating the emission of the targeted directly reinforced behaviors independently following most-least prompting procedures, and eventually produced generalization to the non-reinforced tested stimulus exemplars. These data support the utility of teaching complex forms of verbal operants to children with autism, and suggest that future research begin to establish repertoires that incorporate the subtle nuances of language that are common among most members of the verbal community

In Qubec (Canada), rehabilitation centers for persons with intellectual disabilities or autism are mandated to provide EIBI services for young children with autism spectrum disorders (MSSS, 2003). These services were implemented quickly (Dionne & al., 2014). Different strategies, including university education and practice guidelines (FQCRDITED, 2010), have been deployed to support the implementation of these services. Few studies have reported information on the implementation of these services (Gamache et al, 2011; Mercier & al., 2010; Dionne & al, 2014). It seems that a great number of children are receiving those services in mainstream childcare settings and that different intervention strategies based on applied behavior analysis are used in this context (Dionne & al., 2014; Gamache & al., 2011). Since the program has been in place for more than a decade, it was of interest to examine some aspect of the implementation of these EIBI services offered in mainstream childcare. This communication will focus on the perceptions of practitioners about their own knowledge and ability to use specific intervention procedures during EIBI session in childcare settings. Those data are part of a larger research project. Method: A total of 67 respondents were recruited in three rehabilitation centers providing EIBI to young children with ASD. They completed a questionnaire about their self-perceived knowledge of ASD characteristics and their knowledge and ability to use intervention procedures. Results: Respondents report having a good knowledge of ASD characteristics. They also report having a good knowledge of several of the proposed intervention strategies: DTT, visual strategies, PECS, modeling, social stories, positive behavioral support, peer modeling, task analysis, shaping. Results concerning their ability to apply the procedures are linked to their knowledge of these interventions. Finally, they consider themselves competent to use those intervention procedures in different childcare contexts: one on one, group, during lunchtime, snack or outside activities.

Begin intervention early in life is one of the main factors that contribute to the success of the intervention for children with autism. There is now a great deal of knowledge about how to identify toddlers with autism by the age of 2. Despite the importance of early diagnosis, this new context is imposing a great pressure over services in Quebec, and many children with autism receive no or very little service before entering school. To reduce the number of children in the waiting list for EIBI and provide initial services for families, some public agencies have implemented an education program for parents of children with autism with a frequency of 1 hour per week, offered during the year that precedes the intensive services. However, this local intervention has shown little effects over the intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviour of young children with autism. The current study provided an alternative intervention using naturalistic therapeutic techniques from the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM). Seventeen children from age 2-5 to 3-5 were randomly assigned to the ESDM experimental group or to the control group, in which toddlers received a local intervention. Both groups received 1 hour of intervention per week for a year. The interventions were applied by special educators provided by a public agency, and parents received training to continue intervention along the week. Results demonstrated that toddlers that received the ESDM improved significantly more than the control group. On average, toddlers from the ESDM group gained 11.4 points of IQ and children at the control group lost on average 1.62 points of IQ. Differences were also found on adaptive and problem behaviors.

A multiple-baseline across four students with ASD was implemented to determine the effects of activity schedules on appropriate engagement. During baseline, an adult said ?Go play.? The investigators followed the participant for a duration of six minutes and no consequences were provided for the presence or absence of appropriate engagement. During the intervention phase of this study, each participant followed the activity schedule that was housed in a binder. The classroom teacher began the intervention by stating, ?It?s time to do your schedule.? After the classroom teacher provided the instruction, the participant opened the binder to the first page and walked to the first piece of equipment that was pictured. Once the participant completed the activity with the specified playground equipment, the participant turned the page in the binder to see the next piece of equipment that was photographed. The participant then traveled to the designated area and completed the activity with the specified playground equipment. This cycle continued for six activities with different equipment until the completion of the activity schedule. All four students exhibited low levels of appropriate engagement during baseline. Introduction of the activity schedules resulted in immediate changes in levels of appropriate engagement.

A multiple baseline design across students was used to investigate the effectiveness of using PowerPoint to teach sight words. Three students diagnosed with autism, who attending a public elementary school located in Montgomery County Public Schools, participated in this study. Flash cards were used as a pretest/baseline phase. After a couple sessions of teaching using PowerPoint, a post-test were conducted to investigate the effectiveness of PowerPoint. Ten sight words were selected based on each student's IEP, and they never learned these words before. Results showed that using PowerPoint aided students greatly in improving their reading sight words.

Increasing behavior specific praise and opportunities to respond (OTR) in a classroom increases the likelihood that students will engage in learning activities and socially appropriate behavior (Sutherland, Wehby, & Copeland 2000). This study focused on increasing para-educators use of positive praise and OTR in small group reading lessons. A single-subject ABAB study was completed in three sites, which included students with a diagnosis of autism, grades K-4. Para-educators self-recorded their praise and OTR by listening to an audio recording. Researchers recorded the frequency of behavior-specific praise statements and OTR for each reading session across all phases. Participants on-task behavior was recorded using 10-second momentary time sampling across all phases, using video recording. Results indicate that para-educators increased praise and OTR. Results indicate a successful intervention, with a mean increase of para-educators academic praise from .5 in A1 to 27.4 in B2, social praise from 0 in A1 to 20.7 in B2 and OTR from 34.5 in A1 to 57 in B2. Students on-task behavior increased from 58.8 in A1 to 69.95 in B2

In this study, a reversal design was used to examine the effects of NCR with positive reinforcement on attention maintained aberrant behaviors in a school-aged child with autism in an inclusion setting. A brief functional analysis indicated that the behaviors were found to be primarily maintained by attention. The intervention comprised the presentation of preferred edible items and specific praise on a fixed time schedule that was gradually faded. The results indicate that the intervention was effective in reducing attention maintained behaviors in the form of elopement and/noncompliance and off-task behaviors. Implications for practice have been discussed.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of using video modeling to teach adolescents with autism to purchase a smoothie using speech generating devices. A non-concurrent baseline design acrossthree participants was utilized. A point-of-view video model depicted the participant navigating to the correct page on their speech generating device (SGD), entering the restaurant, and completing all components of the task-analysis before exiting the store. After viewing the video model while in the community, the participants were given a direction from their teacher to buy a smoothie. Data collected during baseline revealed that the participants completed an average of 35% of components in the task analysis for buying a smoothie at a chain restaurant independently. Following intervention, allthree participants successfully acquired the skill to use a speech generating device to order and purchase a smoothie by completing an average of 88% of components independently. Additionally, all participants maintained this skill without viewing the video model before purchasing a smoothie by completing an average of 93% of components independently.

Enhanced social engagement in children with autism has been demonstrated to correspond with improvement in diversified skill areas including communication, play and academic performance (Hobson & Lee, 1998; Lee, Odom & Loflin, 2007). Specifically, social engagement has been directly linked to the introduction of motivating variables such as independence, context and transition (Joosten, Bundy & Einfield, 2012). This study focused on evaluating context and transition as motivating operations to increase independent walking from the bus to school building in children with Autism. Capitalizing on the potentially strong impact of children walking from less preferred departure from buses with their hands being held by instructors, an instructional component was systematically added to determine the effect of researcher presence, who delivered one instruction, "do not hold their hands, if you feel they will not be at risk". An AB design across instructions was utilized. Baseline measures yielded 22% independent walking and 78% dependent walking. Within two weeks of the treatment phase, after instruction to allow independent walking, independent walking rose to 86% of the children with 14% of the children requiring handholds. Data will be graphically presented based on collection of 2 to 3 times per week for 2 months.

We evaluated a procedure for bringing tacting under convergent control of both a visual stimulus (e.g., a picture of a red square) and an auditory stimulus (e.g., "What color?" or "What shape?"). We conducted two differential reinforcement baselines in which a visual stimulus with multiple components was presented (e.g., red square or yellow triangle) and one of two auditory stimuli were provided as either (a) an expressive task or (b) a receptive task (with color cards and outlines of shapes presented as comparison stimuli). Responding during both baselines suggested that the tact or selection response was initially under restricted stimulus control. Next, a differential observing response (DOR) was used to establish correct responding within the receptive identification task. However, convergent control was not transferred to the expressive task despite the inclusion of the DOR. Thus, we returned to the receptive identification task; however, this time the participant was prompted to tact the comparison stimulus as he handed the therapist the card. Stimulus control was then transferred from the receptive task to an expressive task (e.g., "Hand me the shape" to "What shape?") and correct responding maintained in the absence of any prompts. Convergent control was also demonstrated across new colors and shapes as well as items when differential reinforcement was in place for correct responding.

During the last 12 months, there have been several updates to systematic reviews evaluating the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) intervention literature. The National Autism Center (NAC) just completed the second iteration of the National Standards Project (NSPII). The National Professional Development Center (NPDC) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) each completed a follow up systematic review. Each of the systematic reviews evaluated the quality of group design and single-case design studies using unique methodologies. Additionally, the reviews determined the presence or absence of beneficial intervention effects on participants. The three systematic reviews varied in inclusion and exclusion criteria. For example, the AHRQ did not include single-case studies with fewer than 10 participants. Despite methodological differences, common findings included identification of interventions derived from applied behavior analysis. The current presentation provides a summary and comparison of the systematic reviews and the possible impact such reviews have on evidence-based practice for ASD.

Food selectivity or picky eating is often seen in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and can lead to severe nutritional deficiencies along with various food refusal behaviors. Food selectivity can be specific to food texture, color, shape, presentation, type, brand, or container. Often food selectivity is treated using escape extinction, which is considered an aversive procedure. A preference assessment and parent interview determined the child?s food repertoire consisted offour different foods in total (beefaroni, fish crackers, dry cereal, and yogurt) and the child was selective by brand and texture. A treatment package involving non-aversive procedures included shaping, systematic desensitization, paired choice and social praise was then implemented. After 9 months of treatment, the child's food repertoire increased fromfour items to more than 50 items, and the child is readily accepting more than 10 different dinnertime meals. Additionally, food refusal behavior decreased to rates of 0 during intervention and significantly decreased during meal times at home. The importance of a non-aversive, interdisciplinary approach for treating food selectivity in children with autism spectrum disorder will be highlighted.

Many factors can contribute to the development and maintenance of challenging behaviors such as aggression and self-injurious behavior. However, a primary factor that relates to challenging behaviors in children with developmental disabilities is language deficits. This study evaluated the effects of language acquisition on challenging behavior on children with disabilities. This study looked at decreasing challenging behavior and increase language acquisition by manipulating the relevant motivating operations. Children in this study were assessed to identify the environmental conditions under which challenging behaviors were observed by conducting a functional analysis. A three phase process was developed to verify the relevant motivating operations. Thereafter, an individualized intervention was developed and implemented to address the challenging behavior exhibited by each child and replace it with the relevant communication. Treatment was evaluated using a multi-element design. Results indicated that pre-session manipulation of MOs decreased challenging behaviors, improved language acquisition and created an effective learning environment.