Comparing development-matched and age-matched play targets: A replication and extension.

Previous research has supported selecting development-matched targets rather than age-matched targets to teach play skills to children with autism spectrum disorder. However, few studies have been conducted, and replications and extensions of this research are needed. The current study replicated Pane et al. (2022) by comparing the acquisition of development-matched and age-matched play targets when teaching play skills to four children with autism. No contrived prompts or consequences were used to teach play skills in either condition. Extensions included identifying targets via a newer version of the Developmental Play Assessment, targeting different play categories, assessing additional imitation skills, and conducting a caregiver assessment to identify socially valid toys, play actions, and vocalizations based on each participant's common experiences and preferences as well as their caregiver's values and preferences. As in Pane et al., participants demonstrated a higher level of scripted play actions in the development-matched condition.

Evaluation of a discrimination training procedure for establishing praise as a reinforcer.

We evaluated the effects of a discrimination training procedure for establishing praise as a reinforcer for three children with autism spectrum disorder. After establishing two praise words as discriminative stimuli and two nonsense words as S-deltas, we evaluated whether the stimuli then functioned as reinforcers by presenting each stimulus as a consequence for a new response. The results demonstrated that previously neutral praise words functioned as reinforcers and nonsense words did not. As in previous studies on establishing reinforcers, the effects were transitory, and praise words did not continue to function as reinforcers after repeated exposure without discrimination training. Recommendations are provided for future research and maintaining reinforcement effects.

Identifying and Training Skill Acquisition Protocol Development: A Preliminary Investigation.

According to the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB), services commonly provided by behavior analysts include writing and revising protocols for teaching new skills. To our knowledge, there are currently no published, peer-reviewed articles or texts focused on developing skill acquisition protocols. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a computer-based instruction (CBI) tutorial on acquisition of skills related to writing an individualized protocol based on a research article. The tutorial was developed based on a variety of expert samples recruited by the experimenters. Fourteen students enrolled in a university behavior analysis program participated in a matched-subjects group experimental design. The training was separated into three modules on protocol components, identifying important information in a research article, and individualizing the protocol for a learner. Training was self-paced and completed in the absence of a trainer. The training included the following behavioral skills training components: instruction, modeling, individualized pacing, opportunities to actively respond and rehearse skills, and frequent specific feedback. The tutorial resulted in a significant increase in accuracy of protocols during posttest when compared to a textual training manual. This study contributes to the literature by applying CBI training procedures to a complex skill, as well as evaluating training in the absence of a trainer, and provides a technology for clinicians to learn effectively and efficiently to write a technological, individualized, and empirically based protocol.

Maintaining On-Task Behavior of Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Absence of an Instructor.

Despite the vast amount of research on increasing independence for individuals with autism spectrum disorder, there is a lack of research on techniques for fostering independent on-task behavior and accuracy in the absence of an instructor. Though increasing distance of the instructor and altering reinforcer delivery have been shown in a few studies to produce independence in the absence of an instructor, no study to date has compared the effects of systematic fading and complete removal of an instructor. In the current study, we evaluated the effects of three conditions on the on-task behavior and accuracy of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: instructor present (instructor with participant and conditioned reinforcers delivered within session ), instructor absent (instructor not with the participant and no within-session conditioned reinforcers), and instructor fading (gradual, systematic fading of instructor and thinning of within-session conditioned reinforcers). Across all three participants, the intervention was effective in maintaining criterion levels of on-task behavior and accuracy. Responding generalized to novel instructors and remained high during maintenance evaluations for all participants. Clinicians rated the procedures as having high social validity.

Using Video Prompting to Teach Leg Shaving to Women with Disabilities.

This was the first study to evaluate procedures for teaching leg shaving to individuals with disabilities. Using a video prompting teaching package in a concurrent multiple baseline design across participants with different diagnoses (i.e., paraplegia, Down Syndrome, and intellectual disability), all participants learned to shave their legs and maintained responding two weeks post-intervention.

A translational evaluation of component skills for the establishment of multiply controlled intraverbals.

Intraverbal behavior is a type of verbal behavior in which the response form has no point-to-point correspondence with its verbal stimulus. However, the form and occurrence of most intraverbals is under the control of multiple variables. Establishing this form of multiple control may depend on a variety of preestablished skills. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to evaluate these potential prerequisites with adult participants using a multiple probe design. The results suggest that training was not required for each putative prerequisite. In Experiment 2, probes for all skills were conducted following convergent intraverbal probes. The results showed that convergent intraverbals only emerged when proficiency of each skill was demonstrated. Finally, Experiment 3 evaluated alternating training of multiple tact and intraverbal categorization. The results showed that this procedure was effective for half of the participants.

Training medical students to teach safe infant sleep environments using pyramidal behavioral skills training.

Medical personnel play a critical role in caregiver safe infant sleep education. However, training outcomes in the safe infant sleep training literature have been mixed. Promising approaches that warrant further investigation are the use of behavioral skills training and pyramidal training. The current study consisted of two experiments. Experiment 1 extended Carrow et al. (2020) and Vladescu et al. (2020) by teaching medical students safe infant sleep practices using behavioral skills training. Discriminated responding was examined across trained and untrained environmental arrangements using a multiple-baseline design. All participants arranged safe sleep environments following behavioral skills training. In Experiment 2, we used pyramidal behavioral skills training to train medical students to teach others safe sleep practices. Results indicated high procedural integrity scores following training and generalization of skills.

Training Staff to Create Equivalence-Based Instruction Materials in Qualtrics.

Staff training is an important line of research to ensure that clinicians in the field of applied behavior analysis provide quality services. One approach to providing training involves the use of asynchronous training materials in which the trainer and trainee do not need to be physically present at the same time. This allows for training despite limited numbers of trainers or geographic restrictions. The purpose of this study was to train participants to create equivalence-based instruction (EBI) materials in Qualtrics, a commercial survey software package. In the first phase of the study, participants experienced a training package consisting of a video model and task analysis that described how to create EBI materials. Phase 2, evaluated whether the EBI materials created in Phase 1 led to equivalence-based responding. Results indicated that the training was effective for training staff and that staff found the training socially acceptable. Results also demonstrated that the EBI materials resulted in the learning of the trained and derived relations. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40732-021-00497-4.

A comparison of development-matched and age-matched targets on play skills of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Although neurotypical children often spend the majority of their time engaged in play activities, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can present with substantial delays in the development of play skills, requiring intensive intervention. Although targets for language and basic learning skills are often selected based on the development of neurotypical children (e.g., Sundberg, 2008), little research has been conducted on methods for selecting play skill targets. The current study compared acquisition of play skills that were development-matched (DM) and age-matched (AM) with 4 children diagnosed with ASD. Targets were selected based on the results of the Developmental Play Assessment (DPA; Lifter, 2008). No contrived prompts or consequences were used to teach play skills in either condition. Generalization was programmed for by teaching with 3 sets of toys in both conditions. All participants demonstrated acquisition of DM play targets and generalization to novel toys; none of the participants acquired AM play targets.

Evaluating the Effects of Computer-Based Instruction on Trial-Based Functional Analyses Procedures.

Children who engage in problem behavior are often educated in the public schools. A trial-based functional analysis (TBFA) is an experimental functional analysis whereby conditions are embedded into scheduled activities of the school day to identify environmental variables responsible for problem behavior. To be included in this process, it is important that staff are trained effectively and efficiently. Computer-based instruction (CBI) offers several advantages as a staff training tool including less training time, less required supervision, and permits self-paced and individualized training. The efficacy of CBI on procedures of TBFA to practitioners remains unknown. We evaluated the efficacy of CBI teaching procedures of TBFA with 20 practitioners. Results indicate that CBI is an effective and efficient staff training procedure as post-test scores increased following the CBI training across participants with a mean training duration of less than an hour. Three practitioners successfully implemented four conditions of a TBFA with a confederate following CBI training. Following completion of the study, respondents ranked procedures of the CBI as socially valid.

Teaching Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder to Mand "Why?"

For most children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), manding for information is an important skill that must be systematically taught. Although previous studies have evaluated interventions for teaching other mands for information, to date no studies have demonstrated effective procedures for teaching the mand "why?" The purpose of the present study was to teach 3 children with ASD to mand "why?" under relevant establishing operation conditions in 3 distinct scenarios. A trial-unique multiple-exemplar procedure was used to promote generalization and increase the value of information provided across trials. All 3 participants learned to mand "why?" in all 3 scenarios within a mean of 18 sessions (range 14-21 sessions), demonstrated generalization to novel stimuli and settings, and maintained this skill over time. Social validity for the intervention had an overall mean of 5.88 (range 1-7).

The influence of observations and ratings on implementation of discrete trial instruction.

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder are often taught using discrete trial instruction. Because of low trainer-to-staff ratios commonly found in human service settings, research is needed to find an efficient method to train staff to implement discrete trial instruction with little to no in-vivo training by a qualified trainer. One such technique is observing and rating the behavior of another individual. The resulting improvement in the observer's own behavior is referred to as the observer effect. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of conducting behavioral observations and ratings on staff implementation of discrete trial instruction. Staff trainees viewed videos of the implementation of each step, rated the accuracy of implementation, and conducted the procedure with a confederate consumer. The procedure was effective, and the effects extended to novel skills.

Effects of exposure to prompts on the acquisition of intraverbals in children with autism spectrum disorder.

The current experiment is a systematic replication of previous studies that evaluated the efficiency of echoic and tact prompts on the acquisition of intraverbals (i.e., French-to-English translations) following exposure to each prompt type. We extended these studies by (a) evaluating participants' language skills on standardized assessments, (b) incorporating descriptive praise for correct responding, (c) presenting trials via voice recording, and (d) evaluating teacher preference for each prompt type as a social validity measure. All participants learned at least one set of intraverbals faster with the procedure that was most recently used during teaching. These findings suggest that results from previous prompt comparison studies might be a function of previous exposure to prompt types and that it might be possible to manipulate learning histories such that a particular prompt type becomes more efficient.

Establishing a Generalized Repertoire of Initiating Bids for Joint Attention in Children with Autism.

The current study evaluated whether multiple-exemplar training, auditory scripts, and script-fading procedures could establish a generalized repertoire of initiating bids for joint attention in four young children with autism. Stimuli drawn from each of three experimenter-defined categories were used during teaching to program for generalization of initiations of bids for joint attention from trained stimuli to novel stimuli. A fourth category was reserved for assessment of across-category generalization of bids for joint attention. The four categories were (a) visually enticing toys, (b) unusually placed items, (c) environmental sounds, and (d) pictures. Assignment of categories for teaching and assessment of generalization was counterbalanced across the participants. Three different auditory scripts were used during intervention for each of the training stimuli to program for response generalization. All four children learned to initiate bids for joint attention. After scripts were subsequently faded and reinforcement was thinned, bids for joint attention were maintained and also generalized to novel stimuli and settings.

Teaching the Mand "When?" to Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

People diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may need specific teaching to learn mands for information. Unfortunately, little research has been published on methods for teaching the mand "When?" to this population. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend previous research by teaching 3 children diagnosed with ASD to mand "When?" by teaching multiple topographies of the mand, measuring mand variability, assessing social validity, interspersing a previously acquired mand for information, using multiple-exemplar training, employing a different experimental preparation, and including participants with different skill sets. All participants (a) learned to mand "When?" only during establishing operation trials (not during abolishing operation trials) within 8 teaching trials, (b) generalized manding with novel items and a novel person and setting, (c) maintained a previously learned mand for information, and (d) maintained skills at follow-up. Upon mastery, 2 participants varied mand topography. Respondents rated the intervention as having high social validity.

Effects of computer-based training on procedural modifications to standard functional analyses.

Few studies have evaluated methods for training decision-making when functional analysis data are undifferentiated. The current study evaluated computer-based training to teach 20 graduate students to arrange functional analysis conditions, analyze functional analysis data, and implement procedural modifications. Participants were exposed to training materials using interactive software during a 1-day session. Following the training, mean scores on the posttest, novel cases probe, and maintenance probe increased for all participants. These results replicate previous findings during a 1-day session and include a measure of participant acceptability of the training. Recommendations for future research on computer-based training and functional analysis are discussed.

Teaching On-Task Rollerblading and Ice-Skating to a Child with Autism.

The present study used a multi-component intervention package to teach on-task rollerblading and ice-skating to a boy with autism. Intervention consisted of response prompts, stimulus prompts, multiple-exemplar training, and a conditioned reinforcement system. The participant learned to remain on-task while rollerblading in a circular route marked by cones for up to 26 min. Both stimulus and response generalization of skating were demonstrated in a variety of non-training settings, including ice-skating at a rink.

An assessment of differential reinforcement procedures for learners with autism spectrum disorder.

Differential reinforcement procedures may promote unprompted correct responding, resulting in a quicker transfer of stimulus control than nondifferential reinforcement. Recent studies that have compared reinforcement arrangements have found that the most effective arrangement may differ across participants. The current study conducted an assessment of differential reinforcement arrangements (i.e., quality, schedule, and magnitude) and nondifferential reinforcement to identify the most effective arrangement for each participant. The assessment phase showed that the quality arrangement was the most efficient for all participants during auditory-visual matching. Next, a validation phase was conducted to evaluate whether the assessment would predict the most effective arrangement across multiple skills. The results from the assessment phase were validated for all participants for the same skill. However, the results were only validated for one participant during the other skills (i.e., tact and intraverbal). The results are discussed in light of previous research and future areas of research.

Evaluating function-based Social Stories™ with children with autism.

Social Stories™ are often used with children with autism to provide information about appropriate behaviors in specific contexts. Although Social Stories™ often target reduction of problem behavior, there is limited research evaluating function-based Social Stories™ based on the results of experimental functional analyses. This study used a brief functional analysis to assist in developing a Social Story™ that matched the function of the target behavior for two boys with autism. The differential effects of a Social Story™ that matched the function of the behavior, a Social Story™ that did not match the function of the behavior, and a Social Story™ that described baseline were compared in an alternating treatments design. Results indicated that (a) the function-based Social Story™ plus functional communication training (FCT) was effective in decreasing target problem behavior and increasing target mands for both participants, (b) both participants selected the function-based Social Story™ during treatment preference evaluations, and (c) both participants maintained low levels of target problem behavior and maintained target mands when the Social Stories™ were removed.

Evaluating the Emergence of Reverse Intraverbals in Children with Autism.

Verbal behavior plays a fundamental role in the development of complex social and communication skills. Many children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder exhibit profound deficiencies in intraverbal repertoires and the development of social relationships. Recent studies that investigated the effects of intraverbal training on the emergence of reverse intraverbals produced mixed results (e.g., Perez-Gonzalez et al., Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 40:697-701, 2007)). In the current study, a multiple-probe design across four participants with autism was used to evaluate the effects of intraverbal training on the emergence of reverse intraverbals. Intraverbal training consisted of multiple exemplars taught concurrently, bidirectional stimulus-response teaching formats, general case analysis, reinforcement, and a constant prompt delay (CPD) procedure. Participants were trained on intraverbal targets and probes were conducted to assess emergence of untaught reverse intraverbals. Three participants demonstrated the emergence of reverse intraverbals as a result of the intraverbal training procedures. Social validity and maintenance of target responses and emergent reverse intraverbals were assessed.