Non-word repetition and vocabulary in Kuwaiti Arabic-speaking children with down syndrome and typically developing children.

Overview: Non-word repetition (NWR) is one of the most effective predictors of language impairments in children as it has been found to correlate with various language measures and the association between NWR and vocabulary is well documented in typically developing (TD) studies. However, there is a dire need for investigations of language skills in Kuwaiti Arabic individuals with Down Syndrome, and this study set out to fill a gap in this field.

Method: In this paper, we compare the vocabulary and NWR skills of a group of 48 individuals with DS aged 6-20 years to a group of 44 TD children aged 3-10 years matched on nonverbal IQ.

Deictic Relational Responding and Perspective-Taking in Autistic Individuals: A Scoping Review.

skills are crucial for successful social interactions and some autistic individuals seem to demonstrate great difficulty in this area. The concept continues to generate clinical and research interest across mainstream psychology and within behavior analysis. Within behavior analysis, relational frame theorists have argued that deictic relational responding is critically involved in perspective-taking.

Examining Procedural Variations of Delivering Competing Stimuli in the Treatment of Stereotypy.

Competing stimulus assessments (CSA) are effective tools for identifying stimuli that compete with automatically reinforced behavior. However, Jennett et al. suggests there are cases for which non-contingent access to competing stimuli are insufficient at decreasing target responding and additional treatment components may be necessary.

Single- vs. combined-category preference assessments for edible, leisure, and social-interaction stimuli.

A concern when conducting combined-category preference assessments is the potential for displacement effects, a shift in the preference ranking from highly preferred to moderately or less preferred for stimuli in two of three stimulus categories (e.g., edible, leisure, or social-interaction).

Concurrent schedules of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior in the treatment of problem behavior without extinction.

Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) without extinction is an effective intervention for reducing problem behavior maintained by socially mediated reinforcement, particularly when implementing dense schedules of reinforcement for appropriate behavior. Thinning schedules of reinforcement for an alternative response may result in resurgence of problem behavior. Resurgence may be of particular concern in the treatment of problem behavior without extinction because problem behavior that resurges is also likely to encounter reinforcement and thus can be expected to maintain.

The Women in Behavior Analysis Hall of Fame: Description and 2021 Inductees.

The inaugural Women in Behavior Analysis Conference (WIBA) was hosted in 2017 to highlight the accomplishments of women in the field of behavior analysis, provide opportunities for early career behavior analysts to obtain mentorship, and encourage meaningful discourse about gender issues in the field. In 2021, WIBA created the Hall of Fame to identify and honor outstanding women who have contributed to the field. Four stellar and important women were inducted into the inaugural class: Eve Segal, Bea Barrett, Martha Bernal, and Judith Favell.

Response effort and resurgence.

This study provides an initial translational examination of response effort and resurgence. Eleven typically developing adults and five adolescents with autism served as participants across two experiments. Participants received points for touching moving stimuli on a computer screen.

Teaching Joint Attention: Assessing Generalization and Maintenance of Effects using Multiple Exemplar Training.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of multiple exemplar training and social reinforcement on the maintenance and generalization of joint attention initiations across toy classes. Three children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) participated. After analyzing samples of joint attention initiations from neurotypical peers, a composite score was developed and used to evaluate joint attention initiations of the children with ASD.

Mitigating Racial Inequity by Addressing Racism in the Criminal Justice System: A Behavior Analytic Approach.

Racial inequity in the U.S. criminal justice system is a long-standing problem that has recently garnered international attention.

Assessing and Treating Anxiety in Individuals with Autism.

Anxiety is a cluster of responses that can involve both operant and respondent behavior, which can be both public and/or private in nature, and occurs when an upcoming aversive stimulus is signaled. Despite the reported high comorbidity of autism and anxiety, there has been very limited research on how to directly assess and treat anxiety, especially with individuals who have limited communication skills. In Study 1, anxiety was assessed in five individuals with autism, ranging in age from 10 to 19 years old.

Examining stereotypy in naturalistic contexts: Differential reinforcement and context-specific redirection.

This study examined stereotypy in naturalistic classroom contexts (i.e., academic programming, leisure skill acquisition) with differential reinforcement of contextually appropriate behavior (DRA).

Patterns of Contagious Yawning and Itching Differ Amongst Adults With Autistic Traits vs. Psychopathic Traits.

Both individuals with diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and individuals high in psychopathic traits show reduced susceptibility to that is, yawning after seeing or hearing another person yawn. Yet it is unclear whether the same underlying processes (e.g.

A comparison of brief and extended session duration functional analyses.

Many behavior analysts do not conduct a functional analysis (FA) prior to treatment in a clinical setting (e.g., Roscoe et al.

Noncontingent reinforcement: Arbitrary versus maintaining reinforcers for escape-maintained problem behavior.

Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) involves the delivery of maintaining reinforcers on a time-dependent schedule and often includes extinction. However, arbitrary reinforcers may be equally efficacious during NCR without extinction for treating escape-maintained problem behavior. The purpose of this study was to extend previous research on NCR by evaluating the relative efficacy of NCR without extinction and comparing maintaining versus arbitrary reinforcers for 4 individuals with escape-maintained problem behavior.

Stability of preference and reinforcing efficacy of edible, leisure, and social attention stimuli.

Behavior analysts have developed an extensive technology of assessing preferences, but little research has evaluated the extent to which preferences change over time. In this study, monthly paired-stimulus edible, leisure, and social preference assessments and bimonthly reinforcer assessments were conducted over a 1-year period with 4 individuals with developmental disabilities. Across participants, short-term (i.

Does teaching an omnibus mand preclude the development of specifying mands?

When problem behavior is controlled by a synthesized reinforcement contingency, a simple omnibus mand that yields access to all reinforcers simultaneously has been shown to effectively replace problem behavior. The question arises as to whether teaching an omnibus mand will preclude the acquisition of specifying mands for each of the combined reinforcers. In this study, after 3 students diagnosed with autism acquired an omnibus mand ("My way, please") that yielded all identified reinforcers simultaneously, specifying mands (e.

Nonword Repetition Skills in Gulf Arabic-Speaking Children With Developmental Language Disorder.

Purpose This study examined the performance of Gulf Arabic-speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD) on a Gulf Arabic nonword repetition (GA-NWR) test and compared it to their age- and language-matched groups. We also investigated the role of syllable length, wordlikeness, and phonological complexity in light of NWR theories. Method A new GA-NWR test was conducted with three groups of Gulf Arabic-speaking children: school-age children with DLD, language-matched controls (LCs), and age-matched controls (ACs).

Functional analysis and generalized treatment of disruptive behavior during dental exams.

Patient disruption during dental visits can impede treatment and may result in invasive approaches to care. The current study evaluated the efficacy of graduated exposure with and without extinction to decrease disruption during dental treatment for 4 young men with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Modified functional analyses confirmed that disruption was maintained by escape from dental demands for all four young men.

Sensitivity to Changing Environmental Conditions across Individuals with Subtype 2 Automatically Reinforced and Socially Reinforced Self-injury.

Automatically reinforced Subtype 2 self-injurious behavior (ASIB) has been characterized as showing insensitivity to competing reinforcement contingencies in the contexts of both functional analyses and in treatment using reinforcement alone (Hagopian, Rooker, &Yenokyan, 2018). One question is whether this insensitivity is specific to Subtype 2 ASIB as response class in these contexts or whether it is represents a generalized response tendency of the individual that is evident across other response classes. To examine this question, we compared responding on a single-operant task under changing reinforcement schedules for three individuals with Subtype 2 ASIB, relative to a comparison group of three individuals with socially reinforced SIB (which is characterized by sensitivity to changes in reinforcement contingencies).

Murray Sidman: A life of giving.

Murray Sidman's contributions to the science of behavior span many areas including avoidance behavior, coercion and its effects, stimulus control, errorless learning, programmed learning, stimulus equivalence, and single-subject methodology. He was also a great mentor to many and helped shape the discipline we now call behavior analysis. In this memoriam, we briefly highlight his scholarly legacy and share some personal anecdotes.

Increasing item engagement and decreasing automatically reinforced problem behavior within a modified competing stimulus assessment.

A competing stimulus assessment (CSA) is commonly used to identify leisure items for use in treatments designed to decrease automatically reinforced problem behavior. However, this type of assessment may not yield useful information if participants do not readily engage with leisure items. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a modified CSA that included additional treatment components (i.

An evaluation of differential reinforcement with stimulus fading as an intervention for medical compliance.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit noncompliance during medical exams. One intervention used to address this concern is differential reinforcement. Although differential reinforcement includes extinction, it may not be feasible or safe to implement extinction during medical exams.

Negative reinforcer magnitude manipulations for treating escape-maintained problem behavior.

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of different magnitudes of escape for compliance relative to the magnitudes of escape for problem behavior in a concurrent-schedule arrangement. Three individuals who exhibited escape-maintained problem behavior participated. A large differential magnitude condition (240-s escape for compliance, 10-s escape for problem behavior) was compared to equal (30-s escape for compliance and problem behavior) and moderate differential magnitude (90-s escape for compliance, 10-s escape for problem behavior) conditions.

Comparing the reinforcing efficacy of tokens and primary reinforcers.

Token economies are one of the most commonly used behavior-analytic interventions. Despite literature supporting the use of tokens as tools for behavior change, little is known about the efficacy of tokens compared to that of the items for which they are exchanged. Results of previous research comparing the reinforcing efficacy of tokens and primary reinforcers have shown that both produce similar effects on responding.

Evaluation of an indirect assessment for identifying tasks for functional analysis.

Although a demand analysis is helpful for identifying potential establishing operations for the functional analysis (FA) demand condition, it may not always be practical due to time constraints. A potential alternative is the Negative Reinforcement Rating Scale (NRRS), an indirect assessment tool that may serve as a time efficient alternative to a demand analysis. The experimenter assessed the reliability and validity of the NRRS for 5 individuals with autism spectrum disorder who exhibited problem behavior.