Association for Behavior Analysis International

Young children may come into contact with unsafe situations that may lead to abduction, drowning, firearm discharge, accidental poisonings, or spread of infection and illness. Damaging outcomes from these situations could be prevented if the children were taught how to appropriately respond in those conditions. As such, the development of effective procedures for teaching children how to react in these situations is of significant need. The research presented in this symposium will explore (a) using behavior skills training, multiple exemplar training, and discrimination training (across strangers and familiar adults) to teach abduction-prevention skills; (b) using video modeling for training abduction-prevention skills; (c) teaching a three-step safety response in the presence of a variety of dangerous stimuli using behavioral skills training plus in-situ training; and (d) teaching appropriate handwashing to prevent the spread of infections using video modeling and visual feedback. We are fortunate to have Dr. Linda LeBlanc, one of the most productive and well-respected researchers in applied behavior analysis, serve as our discussant.

Behavior Analysts

Although the abduction of a child by an unknown adult is unlikely to occur in a child's lifetime, the consequences are serious and devastating. In response to recent reports of an abduction in the area, we sought to replicate previous research on using behavior skills training (BST) to teach abduction-prevention skills to children with autism by demonstrating its efficacy during in-situ probes across four different types of lures delivered by unknown adults. In addition, because undesirable generalization to known adults may occur, particularly with children with autism, we extended this literature by testing the effects of our training on following matched instructions to leave with known adults. No feedback was provided during in-situ probes. Participants learned to engage in appropriate safety behavior when presented with a lure from an unknown adult; however, undesirable generalization was observed with the known adult. Discriminated responding across unknown and known adults was observed following discrimination training. These results generalized across settings and maintained up to 3 months for two participants.