Association for Behavior Analysis International

Teaching appropriate replacement behaviors is a common intervention for problem behavior maintained by social reinforcers (Carr and Durand, 1985). Multiple schedules are an effective way to teach individuals to request the reinforcer maintaining problem behavior only when the discriminative stimulus is present and to gradually tolerate longer periods in which the discriminative stimulus is absent (Saini et al., 2016). Signaling the availability of the reinforcer typically involves using visual stimuli, which may not be possible when working with individuals with visual impairment. The purpose of this study was to identify a treatment which reduced problem behavior maintained by access to attention in an individual with intellectual disability and visual impairment. A sweatband was placed on the patient's wrist to signal times when attention was available, and removed when attention was no longer available. During times when the sweatband was on, high quality attention was delivered immediately for 30 seconds contingent on appropriate requests for attention. During times when the sweatband was removed, all requests for attention were ignored. With this intervention in place, rates of problem behavior remained low, even when periods where attention was not available increased.

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of functional behavioral assessment-based treatments for behavior challenges of individuals diagnosed with Down syndrome. Studies included in this study were published between 1982 and 2017. Searching online databases, we found 21 published articles met the initial inclusion criteria. These studies included a total of 24 participants with Down syndrome who received function-based treatments. Participants ranged in age from 2 to 53 (mean = 13.4) and 71% were male. Functional analyses were the most common means for identifying the function of the participants' behaviors (n = 16) followed by indirect or direct analyses (n = 8). From the 24 participants in the published articles, treatment effects were evaluated for 37 distinct treatment conditions across 38 behaviors. Effect size estimates were calculated and combined across all individual participant data sets. The combined and weighted effect size indicated a strong effect (r = 0.73). Additional analyses were conducted to evaluate the impact of study variables including effects for separate topographies and functions of behavior. Design standards proposed by the Institute of Education Sciences were applied to the articles included in the meta-analysis. In the final analysis there were 18 articles that met standards, the total number of participants who received effective treatments was 21. All studies were conducted by different research teams in different geographic locations. Overall results indicate that there is sufficient evidence to support the use of functional behavioral assessment with this population.

Tics are responses assumed to be neurobiological in origin and/or maintained often by automatic reinforcement. Still, several studies have shown that tic frequency can be influenced by antecedent environmental events and social consequences. Prior reviews have summarized the effects of these influences but have not examined the relation between tic diagnoses, intellectual or developmental disability, or tic topographies and the consequences observed to maintain tics. These variables might be useful for predicting and identifying maintaining consequences. We reviewed and summarized results from the 13 functional analyses of tic behavior that have been published to date. We examined patterns of functions across tic diagnoses, intellectual and/or developmental diagnoses, and tic topography. Results suggested that developmental diagnosis was not a predictor of function, but that tic diagnosis and topography appeared to have to some relation. These results are discussed in terms of implications for assessment and treatment of tic disorders.

Children with intellectual disabilities of varying aetiologies display unique profiles of repetitive behaviors. A subset of these behaviors, also referred to as obsessive compulsive behaviors, includes insistence on sameness, ritualistic, and compulsive behaviors. Few studies have evaluated treatment options for children with intellectual disability and these behaviors. Recent research has explored the use of exposure and response prevention in combination with behavioral interventions for obsessive compulsive behaviors when there is a hypothesized automatic negative reinforcement function. This study extends research of combined interventions by adapting procedures for a four-year-old boy with mild intellectual disability in an inclusive preschool setting. The intervention consisted of antecedent strategies, exposure and response prevention, and functional behavior assessment and intervention. Treatment was initially delivered by a behavior therapist and then maintenance procedures were transferred to a parent or teacher mediator. A multiple baseline across behaviors design demonstrated that the intervention reduced per-opportunity occurrence of two obsessive compulsive behaviors to zero levels. There was also a corresponding increase in the duration of time the participant engaged with peers. This study provides preliminary support for an intervention combining exposure and response prevention and behavioral interventions to treat young children with intellectual disabilities and obsessive compulsive behaviors.

This research investigates the necessary and sufficient components of behavioural skills training (BST) for teaching university student volunteers how to also use BST to teach motor skills to individuals in the Special Needs Activity Program (SNAP). SNAP is a developmentally appropriate movement education-based embedded curriculum, implemented by university student volunteers, to develop motor repertoires of individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD). Motor milestones are essential for positive growth and child development, however, many children with disabilities fail to meet these motor milestones and/or acquire the fundamental motor skills due to gross and fine motor impairments. This study used an alternating treatment design with an initial baseline, across five student participants to measure the number of BST steps completed accurately while teaching four motor skills based on the SNAP curriculum. In the initial training phase, each motor skill received a different mode of training (i.e., instructions, modeling, rehearsal, or feedback). In subsequent training phases, modes of training were combined for skills that did not reach mastery criterion. Generalization and maintenance were also assessed. These results provide support for determining how to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of training student volunteers to teach motor skills using BST to individuals with IDD.

Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome (SLOS) is an autosomal recessive genetic condition with comorbidities that often include intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, language delays, and aggression, self-injurious behavior, and/or sleep disturbances (Tierney et al., 2001). Medical treatments to address symptoms of SLOS primarily include dietary cholesterol supplementation (Porter, 2008), but to our knowledge, no behavioral interventions have been documented in the literature for individuals with SLOS. The purpose of this case study is to present a behavioral approach to the assessment and treatment of severe problem behaviors in an adolescent with SLOS and to provide information on the social validity of these procedures as reported by parents. The participant, Bradley, was an 18-year-old Caucasian male with SLOS and severe intellectual disability. A functional analysis indicated that Bradley's self-injury, aggression, and disruptions were primarily maintained by caregiver attention. A reversal design was used to demonstrate the effects of functional communication training and extinction procedures on rates of problem behaviors. In addition, Bradley demonstrated maintained low rates of problem behaviors as the reinforcement availability schedule was faded. Parents completed the Intervention Rating Profile (IRP-15) to assess social validity of the intervention. Results of these measures along with limitations, future directions, and implications will be discussed.

Smith-Magenis Syndrome is a rare genic disorder where individuals diagnosed with this disorder often display severe challenging behaviors that can impact the person's quality of life. However, there is currently a dearth of research using applied behavior analytic techniques to address challenging behavior with individuals with Smith-Magenis Syndrome. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of differential reinforcement of other behavior to address attention-maintained elopement and physical aggression with an adult with Smith-Magenis Syndrome residing in a community based group home. This study is one of the first studies assessing applied behavioral techniques to address challenging behavior maintained by attention. Differential reinforcement of other behavior was demonstrated to be effective in reducing both target behaviors, resulting in a 100% reduction of elopement and physical aggression. The present study reinforces prior research, suggesting that maladaptive behavior was maintained by environmental factors and can be successfully addressed in adults with Smith-Magenis Syndrome. These findings, based on a single subject design, also suggests a need for more behavioral research with Smith-Magenis Syndrome individuals.

There are limited studies aimed at teaching money management skills to individuals with developmental disabilities. In this study, a 65-year-old adult with a developmental disability was taught via behaviour skills training to implement a comprehensive budgeting program, as a replacement skill to reduce the participant's impulse spending behaviour. At baseline, the participant spent money using her debit card and owed the bank $500 in overdraft. The budgeting program involved teaching the participant to (a) set a monthly budget, (b) remove cash from her bank account and place the cash into monthly spending bags that represented each budget line item, (c) self-monitor her purchases by saving her cash receipts and complete a spending log, and (d) save money using a savings bag. The budgeting program included a differential reinforcement of alternative behaviour (DRA) procedure to reinforce the participant for staying within her monthly budget. Treatment integrity data were collected. Results of this study showed that the participant achieved 100% treatment integrity with her budgeting program across 4 weeks. The participant continuously maintained over $1000 in her bank account once the budgeting program was introduced. The participant maintained 100% treatment integrity with her monthly budget across two maintenance probes. A follow-up social validity interview indicated high rates of satisfaction and benefit from the participant.

A functional behavior assessment determined that a 64 male in a group home displayed self-injurious behavior in the form of head hitting, yelling, and property destruction to escape from demand and/or obtain attention. Training residential staff to implement a DRO+ extinction procedure and to utilize specific antecedent strategies reduced the behavior over time as staff treatment fidelity increased. Randy received points in a DRO for 5 daily intervals in which no problem behaviors were displayed. Each successful interval contributed a point towards an end of day reward as well as earning Randy a smaller reinforcer for that interval. Antecedent strategies included priming before demands, non-contingent attention, staff interacting with Randy at the beginning of their shifts, and staff responding to Randy's attempts to socialize with a thorough social response. The behavioral strategies outlined above resulted in a decreasing trend for all of the behavior topographies and over a six-month period self-injurious behavior went from an average of 105.9 per day over the month of April to 11.7 per day over the month of October. Data improved similarly for yelling from 31.4 (average per day April) to 9.93 (average per day October) and property destruction from 35 to 1.55.

Individuals with significant disabilities often struggle to gain and maintain employment. The ability to self-manage behavior can directly impact employment opportunities for this population. The purpose of this review was to summarize and analyze the literature on using self-management interventions to improve the vocational skills of individuals with significant disabilities. Forty-six articles published between 1978 and 2017 were included. Results indicated that most participants were successful in self-managing their behavior across a variety of vocational skills and settings; however, most studies focused on the use of self-delivered prompts while fewer studies included self-monitoring, self-recording, or self-delivery of consequences as part of the intervention, and these studies tended to show less of an effect. In addition, the review also examined how interventions were applied across participant characteristics. Demographic data indicated that a large majority of the studies included only participants with moderate and severe disabilities, rather than those individuals with profound disabilities. Additionally, a majority of studies focused on older individuals rather than transition-age youth. The implications of the results, as well as potential directions for future research will be discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the individualized positive behavior support on classroom distruptive behaviors of two special school students with multiple disabilities. The participants were students with dual diagnosis, which are intellectual disabilities and visual impairment. They were 3rd grade students in a special school. The study utilized multiple baseline design across subjects, and measured behaviors using partial interval recording. Functional behavior assessment was also conducted using direct observation, interviews with the teacher and the motivational assessment scale (MAS). Student's personal profiles were analyzed to identify the function of the behavior. The dependent variables were the classroom disruptive behaviors demonstrated by students during class: out of seat behavior, making noise verbally, banging the desk, chatting with peers during the instruction, and lying down on the floor. The findings from the study indicated that the individualized positive behavior supports (i.e., antecedent strategies, alternative behavioral strategies, and consequent strategies) were helpful reducing the disruptive behaviors of the two students with multiple disabilities during both intervention and maintenance phase. Effect size of PEM were 100% of student A and 87.5% of student B. The relults of the study suggested the direction of future research. The followings are the table of current research findings mean percentage of occurrence for classroom distruptive behavior using Interval recording unit : % student A M Range baseline: 55.9 (31.7-76.7) intervention: 8.1 (0-24.1) maintenance:10.9 (0-21.7) student B M Range baseline: 42.4 (13.3-58.5) intervention:31.2 (6.7-73.7) maintenance:17.8 (13.3-23.3)

Although individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) struggle to develop adequate writing skills, no meta-analysis quantifying the effects of existing writing interventions for this population of learners has yet been conducted. The purpose of this poster is to present results from a meta-analysis on 20 writing interventions (16 single-case studies and four group studies) for students with IDD. The included studies yielded a total of 35 effect sizes. A random-effects model was used to determine overall effects, and a mixed-effects model was used to evaluate the effects of moderating variables. Group study effects are reported using Hedge's g and single-case study effects are reported using phi coefficients. Results from the main effects indicate that the writing interventions, overall, had a positive impact on participants' writing performance. The following moderators were analyzed: intervention type, SRSD vs. non-SRSD studies, writing modality (i.e., handwriting vs typing), intervention length, and whether spelling was a measured component. Preliminary analyses indicate that strategy interventions produced the largest effect size, and SRSD interventions yielded larger improvements than non-SRSD interventions. Study results will be tied to both recommendations for practice and future research.

Levels systems for the treatment of severe problem behavior have been evaluated and found to be effective for decreasing severe problem behaviors (Hagopian et al., 2002). The levels system can be used across settings and involves changing the level, specified by type and amount of reinforcement available, contingent on specific behavioral criteria. The purpose of the current study was to extend previous research to evaluate the levels system with an additional reinforcement contingency that included the opportunity for participants to earn a preferred, larger magnitude reinforcer contingent on appropriate behavior (i.e., "superstar" outings or activities). Participants included 6 individuals admitted to an inpatient unit for the assessment and treatment of severe problem behavior. All participants were verbal and followed complex instructions. Interventions for all participants included a level 3 (differential reinforcement and an enriched environment) and level 2 (response cost); however, 2 participants also had a level 1 contingency (response reduction procedure). Contingent on meeting specific criteria within level 3, participants earned their chosen superstar outing/activity. Results suggest that a levels system with an overarching, larger magnitude reinforcer, such as the "superstar" outing, can effectively reduce the occurrence of severe problem behavior.

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) struggle to write. The present study investigated the effects of a multicomponent intervention on the paragraph-writing skills of three secondary students with IDD. The paragraph instruction (PI) phase included three lessons delivered via the model-lead-test procedures of explicit instruction and focused on the parts of a simple sentence, capitalization and punctuation errors, and paragraph-writing with picture-word prompts. The frequency-building to a performance criterion (FBPC) phase consisted of repeated 3-minute timings on picture-word prompts similar in design to the dependent variable. This phase concluded when students met a pre-determined performance criterion. Participants received immediate and corrective feedback during both phases. The dependent variable was a 3-minute timed paragraph-writing probe administered at the end of each session. Each probe contained four images depicting a series of related events and several words related to the pictures. The probes were evaluated with a rubric that assessed sentence-level elements (e.g., capitalization, punctuation, grammar) of each sentence in the participants' paragraphs. A multiple probe across participants design was used to detect a functional relation between the intervention and the dependent measure. Data anlaysis revealed mixed effects for the first participant and immediate effects for the second and third participants.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of positive behavior support(PBS) on the behaviors and attitude of young children with/without developmental delays in an inclusive early childhood kindergarten classroom. The subjects of this study include 24 young children without disabilities and one child with developmental delays in an inclusive five-year-old age group classroom at S Kindergarten in Gangwon Province in South Korea. The research design of this study was in a one-group pretest-posttest group design to examine the effects of positive behavior support at the class level on the prosocial behavior, peer acceptance for a young child with developmental delay, and problem behaviors of young children with developmental delays. The study also employed a multiple baseline design across settings as a single subject design to examine the effects of positive behavior support at the individualized level either the participation in group activities and problem behavior of a young child with developmental delay. The research question were as follows 1) Does classroom wide positive behavior support influence on behavior and attitude of children with/without disabilities? 2)Does individualized positive behavior support influence on the problem behavior and activity participation behavior of a child with developmental delays? The findings were as follows: first, classroom wide positive behavior support resulted in a significant increase to young children's prosocial behavior and peer acceptance for a young child with developmental delay. Also, their problem behaviors reduced significantly in an inclusive classroom. Secondly, individualized positive behavior support increased the activity participation and reduced problem behavior of a young child with developmental delay. The effects of intervention maintained in generalization phase after the experiment.

Challenging behavior is common among individuals with developmental disabilities (DD; Emerson et al., 2001). Challenging behavior is likely to increase over time and can lead to poor educational outcomes (Levy & Perry, 2011). The purpose of this review to (a) summarize the behavioral interventions to reduce challenging behaviors of adolescents (ages 12-18) with DD's implemented in school-based settings and (b) to evaluate the quality of school-based behavioral interventions. Three separate searches in four electronic databases and a search of ancestry were used to identify articles published during the last 20 years (1997–2017). Fifty studies met the criteria for this review. All included studies will be evaluated against the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Standards for Evidence-Based Practice in Special Education and summarized descriptively according to: (a) participant characteristics, (b) intervention setting, (c) challenging behavior, (d) function of the challenging behavior, (e) study design, (f) interventionist, (g) intervention, and (h) study outcomes. Interpretation of findings, implications for practice, and areas for future research will be discussed.

Group contingencies have been studied in order to establish useful procedures to reinforce behavior of individuals operating within a larger group.Within the behavioral literature, the effects of various aspects of group contingencies on individual performance have been investigated, such as the different types of group contingencies, contingencies with randomized components, and applications of group contingencies across various settings, populations, and behaviors. This study evaluated the relation between the size of the group and its effect on individual performance within a group context. Fourteen participants across two group homes were exposed to independent and interdependent group contingencies with varying group sizes, and their performance on a self-selected task was examined. Performance data within subjects, comparing the two group sizes will be summarized. In addition, a between subjects analysis, comparing data between the two different types of group contingencies will be presented. Participants' performances across smaller and larger group sizes will be discussed, in addition to future applications of group contingencies in consideration of these results.

Self-control is defined as the choice for a larger delayed reinforcer over a smaller immediate reinforcer (i.e., impulsivity; Ainslie, 1974; Schweitzer & Sulzer-Azaroff, 1988). Children diagnosed with disorders as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity or Autism, often make impulsive choices and have difficulties tolerating delays. Furthermore, in a choice situation, problem behavior could be maintained by smaller immediate reinforcers and appropriate behavior by larger delayed reinforcers, which results in the exhibit of greater problem behavior (Fisher & Mazur, 1997). In applied research, procedures as delay fading, concurrent activity, punish the impulsive choice, signal the delay, choose the duration of delay or use qualitatively different reinforcers, have resulted in the establishment of self-control and delay tolerance and in the decrement of problem behavior in children. A review of the procedures to establish self-control and delay tolerance in children and their theoretical behavior basis (e.g., concurrent activity and conditioned reinforcement) will be discussed. Additionally, future directions in the applied research of self-control will be reviewed, including the generalization of self-control, and the evaluation of commitment, chain-procedures or delay variation (i.e., procedures that have been effective in basic research) to establish self-control in children.

In order to better understand the possible relationship between choice making and challenging behavior, a systematic review of the literature was conducted. A systematic search of the literature identified fourteen studies that implemented choice making to reduce challenging behavior among individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The articles were analyzed and summarized according to participant characteristics, functional behavior assessment, and choice-making intervention characteristics. Several patterns were identified in the literature. First, most studies evaluated the effects of choice making with participants 12 years or younger. Second, fewer than half of the studies conducted a functional analysis prior to intervention. Finally, most choice making interventions were conducted with academic tasks. Overall, the existing literature represents a variety of choice-making approaches including choices within activities (e.g., choice of materials) and across activities (e.g., selection of activity). The literature further indicates that both choice making within and across activities is a successful intervention to reduce challenging behavior. Areas for future research were identified including a need for more studies to compare effectiveness of within and across activities.

The Society of Rehabilitation of the Mentally Challenged (SOREM) serves 120 students with various cognitive disabilities in Chandigarh, India. The school is committed to supporting the successful transition of SOREM students into mainstream schools or the work force. Some of the vocational programs offered at SOREM include; block printing, candle and jewelry making, needlework, and masala packaging. A recent vocational placement at SOREM is creating organic colourful powders for Holi which is a spring festival of love and colour celebrated throughout India and Nepal. The goal for SOREM's vocational programs is to teach the students to work together in a progressive assembly to complete all the necessary steps from cutting the flowers used for the organic powder to packaging and taking orders. Students are taught to complete as many steps of the chain as possible. A total task forward chain was used and data was collected weekly on the student's performance. Data show that most students are demonstrating independence. Further, a scoring rubric was used to weigh gestural prompts as being a superior (less intrusive) prompt to physical prompts so when the data was graphed, classroom improvement was visually represented.

Experimental functional analyses are by far the most empirically supported methods for assessing the function of challenging behavior and yet they remain the least utilized by practitioners. Practitioners cite several concerns regarding experimental functional analyses as reasons for their poor adoption, one of which is the duration of time required to complete an experimental functional analysis. Very brief functional analyses (i.e., one session of each condition) have been evaluated and have produced mixed results. Much longer analyses (e.g., 5-10 sessions of each condition) highly reliably produce useful results. However, little or no previous research has attempted to identify approximately how many sessions of each condition are generally needed to produce interpretable results. The current study consists of a quantitative review of published functional analysis graphs of varying durations to determine the degree of agreement with final functional analysis outcomes with only two sessions of each condition, three sessions, and so on. The results of the review show that, as analyses are shorter in duration, they generally produce less reliable results, but that analyses as short as three sessions of each condition often produce sound results. Implications for future research will be discussed and recommendations for practitioners will be presented.

The intensity of a target behavior (or severity/magnitude) may correspond to the social significance and priority of that behavior for intervention. However, the extent to which researchers measure this dimension is unclear. The purpose of this brief review was to determine how researchers publishing in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis over the past five years have discussed and/or measured intensity of behavior. Results showed that, of the 346 articles, 10% referenced the intensity, severity, force, or magnitude of target behaviors; only 17% of those articles (less than 2% of all articles) included a corresponding measurement system. Each measurement system had substantial limitations, such as limited generalizability and high subjectivity. Future research should consider development of a more generalizable, objective system for measuring the intensity of target behaviors.