Association for Behavior Analysis International

Of all students with disabilities, individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities (ID) have the fewest post-school educational prospects. High school students with autism and ID often have the difficult experience of watching their general education peers and siblings go on to further their education while they are left behind. Typical opportunities for these individuals, particularly those past the age of 18, have been restricted to isolated public-school classrooms (until they reach 22) or community-based day habilitation centers. Lately in the area of special education there is an appeal for the advancement and growth of higher education opportunities for students with autism and ID. In response, school systems and institutions of higher education have started partnering to offer transition services through dual enrollment to individuals ages 18 through 21 with autism and ID. This poster offers a synopsis of effective models of higher education dual enrollment for students with autism and intellectual disabilities applied at one public university. These include a college inclusion model using mentoring during the day and in the residence halls in the evenings where students with autism and ID are fully assimilated into all aspects of the college experience. Relevant supporting research will be discussed and an exploration of the implications and approaches for creation and implementation of partnership programs will be put forward.

Consistent challenging behaviors of young children are known to have significant impact on the child’s optimal development, such as social-emotional development or communication skills (Dunlap et al., 2006). Parents of children who exhibit challenging behaviors report that these behaviors have negative effects on family’s stress, social isolation, and well-being (Meadan et al., 2010). Furthermore, many parents who live in low-resource settings outside the United States report exacerbated hardships due to limited access to resources, such as Korea. To strengthen capacity of parents in Korea, who have limited access to resources, we developed and examined the effectiveness of a series of online parent training modules on behavioral principles using a randomized controlled trial with waitlist control group (N = 88). We found significant interaction effects of Group X Time for (a) parental knowledge of behavioral principles, (b) positive parenting practices, and (c) parental stress, with no preexisting differences between the two groups. Qualitative social validity data indicated that parents were highly satisfied with the goals, procedures, and outcomes, and that the modules affected their parenting styles, increased knowledge leading to better child outcomes, and recommendations for future research.

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities frequently engage in escape-maintained problem behavior, which can limit their access to academic instruction and lead to placement in more restrictive educational settings. While there are function-based interventions to treat escape-maintained problem behavior, these interventions have primarily been evaluated in clinic settings using procedures, such as extinction, that are not feasible for teachers to implement in classrooms. The goal of this study was to evaluate a multi-component intervention without extinction to treat escape-maintained problem behavior for two children with developmental delays (one child also had autism). Functional analyses indicated each participant’s problem behavior was maintained by multiple sources of reinforcement, including escape. Functional communication training + concurrent schedules reduced problem behavior for one of two participants and increased functional communicative responses for both participants. Chained schedules were implemented with one participant; results showed work completion and some types of functional communicative responses came under stimulus control, but rates of problem behavior showed an increasing trend. Results suggest continued evaluation of chained and concurrent schedules following functional communication training is warranted. Implications for future research are discussed.

Self-monitoring, by encompassing the methodical observation of one’s own behavior, is a process which can be used by teachers to improve their performance in the classroom. In this systematic review, we identified 22 articles of published research that included teachers as participants implementing self-monitoring procedures in a school setting from 1990 through 2020. These studies were analyzed with a focus on participants, dependent and independent variables, type of self-monitoring used, and outcomes. In addition, the studies were analyzed using the Council for Exceptional Children’s Quality Indicators for study quality. Results yielded 21 of 22 studies having indicated positive results, though some included self-monitoring as part of an intervention package. However, only eight of the 22 studies met all of the quality indicators.

The demand for effective and efficient instruction in education is clear; research at the experimental level is needed in order to extend a behavior analytic understanding of the process of learning. The purpose of the current study was to extend the understanding of learning by manipulating the presentation of stimuli presented in an array. Two presentation types were examined: An Additive Presentation (starting with one stimulus and progressively adding stimuli) and a Complete Presentation (presenting all stimuli). The targeted response was assessed using measures of fluency including performance standards, application, and endurance. Data show that an Additive Presentation of stimuli is correlated with more time to meet criteria (defined by fluency aims) than is a Complete Presentation of stimuli when the stimulus set is comprised of five stimuli. When the stimulus set size is comprised of seven stimuli, data show that the order of presentation is the more relevant factor.

Discrete-trial instruction (DTI) involves training response(s) under the discriminative control of multiple stimuli. A desired outcome of DTI is often that responses generalize to novel examples and not to novel nonexamples (i.e., concept formation). Multiple factors influence acquisition and generalization, though factors that influence acquisition may not have the same effect on generalization and vice-versa. Previous experiments demonstrated that the number of distinct stimuli included in training (i.e., set size) is one factor that affects acquisition during DTI, but did not evaluate whether the response taught generalized to novel stimuli. The present experiment measure acquisition and generalization with college students across two conditions: 1) gradually increasing the number of stimuli and 2) including all stimuli from the start of training. The findings suggest that the number of distinct stimuli required for acquisition and generalization varied across participants. Generally, response accuracy during training was not an indicator of response accuracy in the generalization probes nor did response accuracy during generalization probes indicate training mastery. However, response accuracy was more highly correlated with generalization when all stimuli were included from the start of training. The relation between generalization and accuracy-based mastery and considerations regarding mastery criteria for DTI when generalization is a desired outcome are discussed.

Escalating reinforcement schedules with reset contingencies maintain drug abstinence. Escalating reinforcement schedules can also sustain quiz submission in college students. This study investigated if the reset contingency is necessary for the submission of optional weekly quizzes. Undergraduate students were divided into three groups—fixed reinforcement schedule (Fixed Group), escalating reinforcement schedule without a reset contingency (No-Reset Group), and escalating reinforcement schedule with a reset contingency (Reset Group). The baseline measured how many participants submitted quizzes 1 and 2. Next, participants could earn 50 bonus points for submitting quizzes 3 through 12. Participants in the Fixed Group earned 5 bonus points for each quiz submission. Participants in the No-Reset and Reset Groups earned 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, and 7 bonus points for submitting respectively quizzes 3 through 12. If participants in the Reset Group missed one quiz, the bonus points reset at 3. Results showed fewer participants in the Fixed Group who submitted quizzes 3-12 while participants in the No-Reset Group submitted more quizzes throughout the study. Participants in the No-Reset Group also sustained more consecutive quiz submissions. These results suggest that the reset contingency is not necessary to maintain quiz submission in college students.

Mand training is an evidence-based strategy that involves altering the motivating operations (MOs) in a student’s environment and is commonly used to increase requests made among students with and without developmental disabilities (Jennett et al., 2008). There is evidence that behavior analysts serving as consultants can use Behavioral Skills Training (BST) to effectively train teachers and other classroom professionals to implement interventions with high fidelity, including mand training (Hsieh et al., 2011; Homlitas et al., 2014; Nigro-Bruzzi & Sturmey, 2010; Suberman & Cividini-Motta, 2020). The current project adds to previous literature on the utility of BST to train teachers and classroom staff to implement mand training in an early childhood special education (ECSE) setting. Using instructions, modeling, feedback, and in-vivo practice, staff were trained to contrive and capitalize on naturally occurring opportunities to teach requesting to ECSE students with varying verbal repertoires. Once classroom staff met mastery criterion for each skill with a confederate, they were observed with students in the classroom, and generalization of skills were measured. Results of the project will be shared and discussed in relation to past findings in the literature and future applications for the field.