Teaching children with autism to respond to disguised mands.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulty inferring the private events of others, including private verbal behavior (e.g., thoughts), private emotional responses, and private establishing operations, often referred to as "perspective taking" by the general psychology community.

Teaching children with autism to tell socially appropriate lies.

This study used a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the use of rules, role-play, and feedback for teaching 3 children with autism spectrum disorder to tell socially appropriate lies when (a) presented with an undesired gift and (b) someone's appearance changed in an undesired way. The intervention was effective in teaching use of socially appropriate lies, and generalization to untrained people and gifts or appearances was observed.

Are park proximity and park features related to park use and park-based physical activity among adults? Variations by multiple socio-demographic characteristics.

Background: Parks are valuable resources for physical activity (PA) given their widespread availability and low cost to maintain and use. Both proximity to parks and the availability of particular features are important correlates of PA. However, few studies have explored multiple measures of proximity simultaneously or the specific facilities associated with park use and park-based PA among adults, let alone differences across socio-demographic characteristics.

A systematic replication of teaching children with autism to respond appropriately to lures from strangers.

We evaluated the effects of behavioral skills training in the home for teaching children with autism to abstain from going with strangers and immediately inform a familiar adult of the stranger's attempt to lure them in the natural environment. All participants learned to respond correctly to lures in the home and demonstrated concomitant changes in untrained natural settings. In situ training and an added incentive were necessary for 1 participant.

Planning for health: a community-based spatial analysis of park availability and chronic disease across the lifespan.

The purpose of this study was to explore the spatial relationship between park availability and chronic health conditions (CHCs) across age groups in Kansas City, MO. Multinomial logistic regression examined the association between having a park within one-half mile from home and the likelihood of having 0, 1, or 2 or more CHCs. Among respondents aged 40-59, those without a park within one-half mile from home were more than twice as likely to have 2 or more CHCs compared to respondents that had a park nearby.

Association of street connectivity and road traffic speed with park usage and park-based physical activity.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine associations between street connectivity and road traffic speed and neighborhood residents' use of parks and park-based physical activity.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Kansas City, Missouri.

Exploring the distribution of park availability, features, and quality across Kansas City, Missouri by income and race/ethnicity: an environmental justice investigation.

Background: Parks are key community assets for physical activity, but some evidence suggests these resources are not equitably distributed.

Purpose: This study examined disparities by income and race/ethnicity in the availability, features, and quality of parks across Kansas City, Missouri.

Methods: All parks and census tracts (CTs) were mapped using geographical information systems, and park features and quality were determined via audits.

Teaching children with autism to seek help when lost in public.

Children with autism may not develop safety skills (e.g., help-seeking behaviors) without explicit teaching.

A review of research on procedures for teaching safety skills to persons with developmental disabilities.

Safety skills are an important but often neglected area of training for persons with developmental disabilities (DD). The present study reviewed the literature on teaching safety skills to persons with DD. Safety skills involve a variety of behaviors such as knowing how to cross the street or what to do in case of a house fire.

Comparison of data-collection methods in a behavioral intervention program for children with pervasive developmental disorders: a replication.

Cummings and Carr (2009) compared two methods of data collection in a behavioral intervention program for children with pervasive developmental disorders: collecting data on all trials versus only the first trial in a session. Results showed that basing a child's progress on first-trial data resulted in identifying mastery-level responding slightly sooner, whereas determining mastery based on all trials resulted in slightly better skill maintenance. In the current replication, no such differences in indication of mastery or maintenance were observed when data were collected on all trials or the first trial.