Association for Behavior Analysis International

Previous research has demonstrated that children with ASD exhibit less sleep in a 24-hour period than their typically developing peers (Goodlin-Jones, 2008), and increases in problem behavior are associated with sleep deprivation (Goldman et al., 2011). However, there are few studies that evaluate this putative relation using direct measurement of both behavior and sleep. The general aim of this study is to extend the research on sleep and its relation to problem behavior. Using wearable and non-wearable sleep trackers, we collected data on various measures of sleep and compared them to in-clinic daytime problem behavior. Additionally, we conducted structured descriptive assessments (Anderson & Long, 2002) across days to evaluate if changes in sleep change how different establishing operations affect behavior. We will discuss how the social validity of well-established sleep treatments (e.g, Jin et al., 2013) would be greater if the effect of improved sleep on daytime behavior was directly evaluated.

Hagopian et al. (2015) delineated subtypes of self-injurious behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement partially based on occurrence of self-injury in the play condition (i.e., subtype one). They also analyzed treatment data with respect to subtypes and found that subtype one is less resistant to treatment than subtypes two and three. For one child with autism with oral-motor self-injury, we conducted a functional analysis and a more fine-grained analysis of engagement in the play condition. The functional analysis indicated that oral-motor self-injury was maintained by automatic reinforcement. However, oral-motor self-injurious behavior was reduced in the play condition. We used this information to conduct a component analysis of the play condition, and we found that combinations of stimuli reduced engagement in self-injurious behavior, with little differentiation across multiple stimuli used in this condition. We then conducted a competing stimulus assessment, both with items used in the play condition and with novel items, and found single stimuli were insufficient for reducing self-injury.

Rumination, repeated regurgitation of ingested food, can be a difficult problem to assess and treat. Early research focused on punishment of rumination (e.g., Becker et al., 1978 ) whereas more recent research has focused on the food quantity (e.g., Kenzer & Wallace, 2007). However, there is limited research on the influence of food type on rumination. We analyzed effects of several dimensions of food, including food type and food category, in addition to total quantity and total calories, on rumination with an adult with intellectual disability. Initially, we equated calories across food types, which involved different quantities of food based on food type. We observed that rumination was lower when our participant consumed larger quantities of food. Subsequent analyses suggested a more dynamic interaction between food type and food quantity – at least two foods with different quantities produced low levels of rumination. We will discuss how an analysis of parameters of food could advance effective treatment of rumination.