Assessing the Effects of Observational Conditioning and Response-Contingent Pairing on the Vocalizations of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display impairments in communication, such as limited echoic behavior, few vocal-verbal responses, and a lack of functional communication. One potential way to foster the acquisition of vocal responses in individuals with disabilities is by conditioning vocalizations as reinforcers. Conditioning procedures include stimulus-stimulus pairing, response-contingent pairing (RCP), operant discrimination training, and observational conditioning (OC).

Empirically Deriving Omission and Commission Errors for Relapse Tests: A Demonstration of Reverse Translation.

Most studies examine treatment relapse by programming contextual changes with perfect treatment integrity or with omission errors in the absence of a context change (i.e., all alternative responses placed on extinction).

Facilitating the emergence of intraverbal tacts in children with autism spectrum disorder: A preliminary analysis.

Intraverbal tacts are an example of multiply controlled verbal behavior. More specifically, they are verbal responses under control of both a nonverbal (visual) stimulus (e.g.

On the role of operant contingencies in the maintenance of inappropriate mealtime behavior: An epidemiological analysis.

Functional analysis is the primary assessment used to determine the function of inappropriate mealtime behavior in children with feeding disorders. Based on single-case experimental design studies and recent reviews, the prevalence of negative reinforcement alone in the maintenance of inappropriate mealtime behavior appears to be much greater than positive reinforcement alone. We conducted a retrospective consecutive-controlled case series to determine the generality of previous findings.

Procedures for determining and then modifying the extinction component of multiple schedules for destructive behavior.

As a component of reinforcer schedule thinning following functional communication training, multiple schedules of reinforcement produce desirable rates and patterns of communication responses as an alternative response to destructive behavior. However, reinforcement schedule thinning is a gradual process that can take many sessions to obtain therapeutic goals. The desired outcome is that manding occurs only during signaled intervals of reinforcement with a sufficiently lean terminal schedule of reinforcement availability and low rates of destructive behavior.

An evaluation of trial-based functional analyses of inappropriate mealtime behavior.

Functional analyses allow clinicians to develop treatment targeting the variables maintaining a child's inappropriate mealtime behavior (Bachmeyer et al., 2019). Extended functional analyses can be inefficient, potentially delaying the onset of treatment.

On the Efficacy of and Preference for Signaling Extinction in a Multiple Schedule.

Previous basic research has shown that signaling the extinction component of a compound schedule can be aversive and nonpreferred. However, such discriminative stimuli are common when thinning schedules of reinforcement in practice, and they provide several advantages to clinicians. A limitation of previous applied studies on different arrangements of discriminative stimuli is that researchers have used identical stimuli to signal the availability of reinforcement across conditions that do and do not signal extinction, often doubling exposure to the stimulus signaling the availability of reinforcement.

Efficiency and preference for alternative activities during schedule thinning with functional communication training.

Functional communication training is an effective treatment for decreasing socially reinforced destructive behavior (Carr & Durand, 1985). Clinicians frequently use multiple schedules to thin the reinforcement schedule (Hanley et al., 2001).

Evaluating the generality and social acceptability of early friendship skills.

The development of prosocial skills is considered pivotal to childhood development. The friendship unit of the Preschool Life Skills program teaches early prosocial skills likely to facilitate socially desirable behaviors in young children; however, the friendship unit is the most understudied unit and has produced modest, inconsistent outcomes across children. The current study aimed to evaluate procedures necessary to (a) teach friendship skills to 4 children, with and without developmental disabilities, in an applied context and (b) promote the use of these skills with a same-aged peer.

Effects of differential observing responses on observational learning across multiple contingencies.

Whether a child with autism spectrum disorder will exhibit observational learning may depend on their attention to and the stimulus modalities of the observed contingency. We used multiple-probe and repeated-acquisition designs to test observational learning across a diverse set of contingencies, which included hidden edible, hidden toy, hidden video, tact, receptive identification, and intraverbal contingencies. During preteaching, 2 children with autism spectrum disorder showed observational learning with some contingencies.

Assessment of children's and caregivers' preferences for treatments for escape-maintained problem behavior.

This study assessed children's and caregivers' preferences for various arrangements of negative reinforcement, including differential negative reinforcement of an alternative behavior (DNRA), noncontingent escape (NCE), and escape extinction. In the first treatment comparison, the DNRA and NCE treatments similarly decreased problem behavior, but all 3 children preferred DNRA. By contrast, 3 of 4 caregivers preferred escape extinction, likely due to increased compliance in this condition.

Tolerance of face coverings for children with autism spectrum disorder.

Healthcare professionals and government officials have advised the use of personal protective equipment, such as face masks and face shields, to assist with limiting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). Due to the prevalence of challenging behavior associated with other medical routines, the present study evaluated a treatment package composed of graduated exposure, prompts, reinforcement, and escape extinction on tolerance of wearing a face covering for up to 5 min for 12 children with ASD in a systematic replication of Cox et al. (2017) and Sivaraman et al.

Comparison of sounds and words as sample stimuli for discrimination training.

A portion of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty acquiring conditional discrimination. However, previous researchers suggested that the discrimination of nonverbal auditory stimuli may be acquired more efficiently (Eikeseth & Hayward, 2009; Uwer, et al., 2002).

An evaluation of a renewal-mitigation procedure for inappropriate mealtime behavior.

Renewal, the increase in behavior during extinction following context changes, may be particularly concerning during intervention for feeding disorders because context changes are often necessary for intervention generality and maintenance (Podlesnik et al., 2017). In the current study, we tested for renewal and evaluated a renewal-mitigation procedure when we transferred intervention from a therapist to a caregiver, from clinic to the home, and changed the foods the feeder presented.

Remote teaching of publication-quality, single-case graphs in Microsoft Excel.

Microsoft Excel is ubiquitous, cost-effective, and can be used to create publication-quality single-case design graphs. We systematically replicated the GraphPad Prism video tutorial by Mitteer et al. (2018) to teach 24 master's students to create multiple-baseline graphs using Excel 2016.

Further Evaluation of Teaching Behavior Technicians to Input Data and Graph Using GraphPad Prism.

We replicated and extended Mitteer, Greer, Fisher, and Cohrs (2018) by examining the effects of a video model on inputting data into GraphPad Prism, which is a necessary skill for graph construction. We used a concurrent multiple-probe-across-behavior design with two behavior technicians to assess data-input and graphing skills separately prior to and during access to relevant video models. We evaluated the generality of the training procedures by assessing both skills during data-input-plus-graphing sessions without access to the video models.

Using telehealth to provide outpatient follow-up to children with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder.

The COVID-19 global health crisis compelled behavior analysts to consider alternatives to face-to-face services to treat children with feeding disorders. Research suggests telehealth is one method behavior analysts could use to initiate or continue assessment of and treatment for feeding disorders. In the current paper, we conducted pilot studies in which we analyzed chart records of patients with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder; who graduated from an intensive, day-treatment program; and transitioned to an outpatient follow-up program.

Computer-based training to teach observers to accurately score problem behavior using fast forwarding at 5x normal speed.

The current study evaluated whether a computer-based training program could improve observers' accuracy in scoring discrete instances of problem behavior at 5x normal speed using a multiple-baseline design across subjects. During pretraining and posttraining, observers attempted to score multiple examples of problem behavior at 5.0x without feedback.

Evaluation of an Omnibus Mand in the Treatment of Multiply Controlled Destructive Behavior.

Functional communication training is a commonly used and effective treatment for socially reinforced destructive behavior. However, when a functional analysis suggests that destructive behavior is multiply controlled (e.g.

Pediatric Prevention: Feeding Disorders.

Applied behavior analysis has the most empirical support as intervention for pediatric feeding disorders, when a child does not eat or drink a sufficient quantity or variety of food to maintain proper nutrition. Interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial for diagnosis, referral, and management of pediatric feeding disorders because the etiology is complex and multifactorial. Thus, our aim is to provide information about how to recognize a feeding disorder, to delineate the environmental variables implicated in the etiology and maintenance of feeding disorders, and to provide recommendations for prevention and intervention for feeding disorders based on the applied-behavior analytic literature.

Caregivers can implement play-based instruction without disrupting child preference.

Young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder often require systematic teaching to learn new skills, and caregivers can teach their children by embedding learning opportunities in a play-based context. However, researchers have not evaluated procedures to train caregivers how to implement a combination of strategies designed to establish rapport and early language skills while maintaining play as a preferred context. Caregiver-child dyads composed of 2 mothers and their sons were recruited to participate.

Using e-learning modules to teach ongoing-visual inspection of functional analyses.

Despite the effectiveness of function-based treatments, most clinicians do not conduct functional analyses (FA). The time required to conduct an FA is a major barrier preventing their use. One way to increase FA efficiency is to discontinue the analysis as soon as it has produced clear results.

Treating food selectivity as resistance to change in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Change-resistant behavior, such as rigid and selective food consumption, is a core symptom of autism that can have significant negative consequences for the child (Flygare Wallén et al., 2018; Levy et al., 2019).

Resurgence following differential reinforcement of alternative behavior implemented with and without extinction.

In the clinic, differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) often involves programming extinction for destructive behavior while reinforcing an alternative form of communication (e.g., a functional communication response); however, implementing extinction can be unsafe or impractical under some circumstances.

Emergent completion of multistep instructions via joint control.

Teaching procedures that facilitate the emergence of novel responses allow for increased efficiency, which is critical when providing early-intervention services to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Three 5- and 6-year-old children diagnosed with ASD participated. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated functional control over the effects of teaching echoic rehearsals on the emergence of completing novel two-step instructions via joint control and obtained generalization and maintenance of the effects in an applied, nontraining context.