Association for Behavior Analysis International

Graduation from high school represents an exciting time for students and their families. In most cases, their educational experience has prepared them for their transition to adulthood. While those of us who are neurotypical are often well prepared for what awaits us in this next phase of life, outcomes for autistic adults are less positive. Autistic adults often transition from their educational experience with significant gaps in their communication skills, employment/vocational skills, and leisure repertoires. Taken together, these deficits contribute to poor quality of life for autistic individuals and their families. The purpose of the current symposium is to share novel assessment and intervention strategies to help improve outcomes for autistic adults of transitional age. Topics in the current symposium will include a review of the last 30 years of adult clinical research, teaching autistic adults to mand for information (“Wh” question), using direct vocational assessments to repair faulty job placements, and using direct assessment procedures to effectively identify matched leisure activities for older learners diagnosed with ASD.

intermediate

The number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has drastically increased since the turn of the century leading to a crisis as these individuals enter adulthood. Although there is considerable behavior analytic research on children with autism, little research has been conducted with adults with the same disorder. Through a hand search of eight autism and behavior analytic journals, qualities of behavior analytic treatment articles including participants 21 years or older were assessed; studies targeting the increase of socially appropriate behavior and decrease of problem behavior were evaluated. Results revealed a low number of articles involving adults with autism compared to articles involving children with the same disorder. Within the included articles, many effective treatment strategies were identified such as task analyses, prompting methods, behavior skills training, and self-monitoring. Based on results of this review, clinicians have effective procedures to use, researchers know gaps in the literature to explore, and policy makers have evidence to include Applied Behavior Analytic (ABA) in adult services and laws.

Mand for information (MFI) plays an important role in language development as a means of acquiring new knowledge from one’s environment. Due to its generative effects and the possibility of leading to reinforcers, MFIs are considered a behavioral cusp essential for advanced language. However, many individuals, including adults with developmental disabilities, fail to effectively emit MFIs. Most research on behavior strategies for teaching MFIs has focused on “Where?” and “Who?” questions, with relatively few studies addressing “Why?” and “What?” (Cengher et al., 2022). The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic replication of Valentino et al. (2019) by evaluating a procedure to teach the MFI “Why?” to three adults with developmental disabilities using a multiple baseline design. Various scenarios were developed to evoke the MFI “Why?” and teach the response under the control of relevant establishing operations (EOs). Response generalization was assessed using untrained scenarios. Results showed that the procedure was effective in establishing the MFI “Why?” under the control of EOs for all participants. Furthermore, all participants demonstrated response generalization to novel scenarios. The outcomes of the study are discussed in the context of service delivery for adults with developmental disabilities, along with recommendations for future research.

Adults with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have a range of differences in their adaptive behavior repertoires and may subsequently require continued support throughout the lifespan. Given the importance of adaptive skills, deficits in this area can impact an individual’s ability to engage in a range of leisure activities and thus impact their quality of life. The current study aims to examine the leisure preferences of up to five participants over the age of 18 with a diagnosis of ASD. A concurrent operants assessment was utilized to determine whether preferences for specific aspects of leisure activities and environments could be identified, and whether this identification led to increased engagement and participant choice to continue engaging with these activities that matched these preferences. The current data of one participant is beginning to replicate the findings of Isenhower et al. (in prep). Specifically, the participant had a clear preference for leisure and environmental components, demonstrated greater engagement when activities and environments matched these components, and the participant selected matched activities and environments more often than non-matched activities and environments. This assessment continues to show promise as a potential method to identify leisure preferences among adults with ASD.