Association for Behavior Analysis International

The assessment and intervention of social behavior are often relevant to many individuals with whom behavior analysts work. Curricula and literature may guide behavior analysts who embark on this task; however, there is much room for refined analyses to identify appropriate goals and reinforcers which maintain social behavior. Also, more research is needed on the methods of instruction that facilitate generalization of social behavior to interactions with peers. First, Hood, Beauchesne, Fahmie, and Aquino will present data from a descriptive assessment of behaviors that occur during one-on-one conversations between friends who are adults of typical development and present without social deficits. Next, Clubb, Toussaint, Bergmann, Rodriguez, and Sanchez will describe how preference for items affects sharing and the consequences, identified via functional analyses, which reinforce sharing. Finally, McKeown, Luczynski, Lauvetz, and Lehardy will extend the research on the Preschool Life Skills curriculum by targeting prosocial skills to promote friendship and assessing generalization to same-aged peers. The topographies of social behavior, conditions under which it may occur, and the consequences which reinforce social behavior will be discussed. Implications of findings for research and practice will be incorporated throughout the symposium.

Board certified behavior analysts

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have deficits in prosocial behaviors, such as sharing. However, research on assessing and teaching sharing is relatively limited. The purpose of the current research is to extend the previous research on sharing by evaluating environmental variables that may influence sharing. First, we evaluated if the latency to sharing is altered by a child's engagement with high vs. low-preference items. Next, we evaluated the contingencies that evoke and maintain sharing through a functional analysis. Functional analyses have traditionally been used to identify the function of maladaptive behavior. However, we have extended this assessment process to identifying the function of sharing behavior as the maintaining consequence is frequently presumed to be social attention. Our findings suggest that children with autism emit longer latencies to sharing if they are engaged with a high-preference item. In addition, results of the functional analyses suggest that this methodological approach is relevant to understanding sharing, and results suggest that sharing is often maintained by attention for preschoolers with and without autism. Collectively, these findings advance our understanding of when sharing is likely to occur and may inform methods of how to functionally teach sharing to individuals with ASD.