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| Int'l Symposium - Using Empirically-based Developmental Research to Guide EIBI Intervention Outcomes and Techniques |
| Tuesday, June 1, 2004 |
| 10:30 AM–11:50 AM |
| Back Bay B |
| Area: AUT; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Douglas S. Lee (Behavioral Solutions, Inc.) |
| Discussant: Douglas S. Lee (Behavioral Solutions, Inc.) |
| Abstract: . |
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| Comparing and Contrasting the Effect of Compliance and Comprehension Training in Non-compliant Children with PDD |
| LAURA PELLETIER (EIBI Program, Lethbridge), Gary D. Unser (EIBI Program, Lethbridge), Ray M. Hoffarth (EIBI Program, Lethbridge), Douglas S. Lee (Behavioral Solutions, Inc.) |
| Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine and implement an effective intervention to resolve noncompliant behavior. Children included in the treatment group were identified either by a parent or EIBI therapist for behavioral difficulties attributed at least in part to compliance. Research by Kaler and Kopp (1990) showed that in a normal developing population of children compliance and comprehension are positively related. In our study, each child was required to perform a number of simple motor actions in which they had previously demonstrated competence. The behavioral repertoires included objects (nouns), prepositions, and actions (verbs) that they had previously mastered. Children who met criteria on the compliance test (Brumfield & Roberts, 1998) were dropped from the study at this point. Children remaining were randomly divided into 2 training groups. Group 1 returned to work on increasing the proficiency of the individual task sets involving comprehension. Group 2 worked on the parallel compliance training. Once children met criteria in their respective training groups, they were returned to the testing phase in which they were subjected once again to a compliance test. |
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| Teaching Autistic Children to Understand the Role that Looking Plays in Revealing Another’s Desired Goal |
| GARY D. UNSER (EIBI Program, Lethbridge), Laura Pelletier (EIBI Program, Lethbridge), Ray M. Hoffarth (EIBI Program, Lethbridge), Douglas S. Lee (Behavioral Solutions, Inc.) |
| Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of eye-gaze training to teach children to correctly infer goal-directed behavior. Autistic children as opposed to normally developing children demonstrate difficulty inferring goal-directed behavior in other persons (Baron-Cohen, Campbell, Karmiloff-Smith, Grant, and Walker, 1995). For the study five children with autism were provided with intensive behavioral intervention in the child’s home by trained therapists. Therapy was based on using differential reinforcement to train children to correctly infer goal-directed behavior based on eye-gaze (Montgomery, Bach and Moran, 1998). This method of training may be useful in teaching children with PDD to make decisions and to act upon them based on appropriate social cues and information. The implications and results of training and subsequent child responses to eye-gaze will be discussed as well as the ease of implementation. |
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| Using Multiple Exemplars to Teach Children with PDD to Use Appropriate Descriptors |
| DOUGLAS S. LEE (Behavioral Solutions, Inc.), Laura Pelletier (EIBI Program, Lethbridge), Gary D. Unser (EIBI Program, Lethbridge), Ray M. Hoffarth (EIBI Program, Lethbridge) |
| Abstract: Children in the EIBI Program who demonstrated no or little use of appropriate descriptive language were trained to use appropriate descriptors in a sentence. Children were required to demonstrate a question about 2 objects that differed primarily by size or color. Using an apparatus that let us present pictures of objects in each of the 4 quadrants (common-ground condition) and to block the experimenter’s view (privileged-ground condition) by a door we trained using multiple exemplars children to use appropriate descriptors to disambiguate correct responses (Nadig and Sedivy, 2002). It also tests the ability of children to consider and respond appropriate to an alternative perspective. In the common-ground condition providing appropriate information required each child to produce a distinct descriptor to disambiguate the correct response. In the privileged-ground and baseline conditions the use of descriptors is redundant. Results indicate that the procedure can be useful to increase the use of descriptors in speech for children with PDD. We discuss the implementation and the use of descriptors in children across conditions to make a correct inference and respond accordingly; and their production of so-called redundant terms as compared to those reported in the general population. |
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