Association for Behavior Analysis International

The current symposium will focus on current research in the area of assessment with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The first presenter will discuss research evaluating the relative preferences and reinforcing value of fruits and vegetables and salty and sweet foods for children with ASD. The second presenter will discuss research comparing of outcomes of a variation of a trial-based functional analysis in which problem behavior or appropriate alternative behavior produced the control segment, and further comparing the outcomes using 5 trials vs.10 trials. Finally, the third presenter will discuss an evaluation of a no-interaction condition in a functional analysis to differentiate between problem behaviors maintained by attention, escape and tangible with subjects between the ages of 2 and 6 with ASD.

Behavioral researchers

Children with autism are often more selective in their food preferences than their typically developing peers. However, many preferred food selections typically include foods with minimal nutritional value. Due to the common use of edible reinforcers during therapies for children with autism, we evaluated the preference for and reinforcing value of fruits and vegetables and salty and sweet foods. First, multiple-stimulus preference assessments (MSWO) were conducted to identify preferred fruits and vegetables and salty and sweet foods. Second, reinforcer assessments were conducted incorporating the top ranked foods identified in the MSWO to determine the reinforcing efficacy of each food. Despite salty and sweet foods often ranking higher than fruits and vegetables in preference assessments, fruits and vegetables still functioned as effective reinforcers. Future research should incorporate fruits and vegetables into preference assessments when identifying putative reinforcers.

Previous research has used 10 trial functional analyses (FA) during trial-based FAs (e.g., Bloom et al., 2011). Thus, the purpose of this current investigation was to compare of outcomes using 5 trials vs.10 trials. Thus, we ran 10 trial FAs and compared the results to that of the first 5 trials, to see if the assessment could be even more brief. Each trial consisted of two 1-min control segments and one 3-min test segment (control -> test -> control). During test segment, problem behavior or appropriate alternative behavior produced the control segment (access to putative reinforcer for one minute and termination of EO). The primary measure was latency to the first response (problem and/or appropriate). Results indicated at least partial correspondence for all subjects. Future research should continue to evaluate the parameters of this variation of the trial based FA.

Common criticisms of the standard functional analysis (FA) include the complexity of the procedures and the duration required to complete it (Hanley, 2012). The extended no-interaction condition has been shown to be an effective modification to differentiate between behaviors maintained by automatic reinforcement and those maintained by socially mediated reinforcement, reducing the amount of time required to complete the FA (Querim, 2013). In an extension of previous research we are evaluating if the no-interaction condition may also be used to differentiate between problem behaviors maintained by attention, escape and tangible with subjects between the ages of 2 and 6 with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This presentation will demonstrate how the extended no-interaction condition may be used to develop specific hypotheses about behavioral function that can then be confirmed by conducting a test only for specific functions. In over 80% of assessments, collected data have shown a) when behavior does not occur in the no-interaction condition this is indicative of a tangible and/escape function, b) when it occurs and decreases by the end of the condition is indicative of an attention function and c) when it continues throughout the session it is indicative of automatic reinforcement.