Association for Behavior Analysis International

This collection of applied and descriptive research studies push our science in China and Italy. The first paper titled All For One And One For All used behavioral observation techniques to determine socially valid performance criterion for attending behaviors in typically developing students during group instruction. The second paper used functional behavior assessment and a conditioning procedure to replace stereotype with toy with a student having autism in an international primary school. The third paper outlines current dimensions of applied behavior analysis research in China. The fourth paper tested the effects of a different intensity CABAS®-based intervention packages using an alternating (ABACA) treatment design for 9 children diagnosed with Autism, aged 2 to 6 years old in Italy.

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The present study used functional behavior assessment and a treatment package including conditioning of toy play with a student with autism in an international primary school. The functional behavior assessment confirmed that the behaviors were being maintained through automatic reinforcement. The procedure was a partial replication from research conducted with adults and preschool students. Our student was 11 years old and had a long history of stereotypy behaviors and a limited community of reinforcers. This study tested for the external validity of the treatment package.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) was introduced into Mainland China at the beginning of the 21st century as a direct result of the rise of autism spectrum disorder. The following decades can roughly be divided into two phases in terms of the development of ABA in China. Phase one was the time period with a focus on dissemination of ABA practice in China and it lasted from 2000 to 2009. In phase two, which lasted from 2010 to the current date, initial research on ABA emerged in China while dissemination of ABA practice continued and accelerated. The objective of this presentation is to critically evaluate ABA studies conducted by Chinese researchers. For this purpose, the author conducted a systematic search for literature on ABA published by Chinese scholars. In this presentation, the author will use seven ABA dimensions (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968) to measure the quality of the ABA literature and present results from quantitative analysis and qualitative evaluation of empirical studies published by Chinese ABA researchers. The author will also attempt to explain the unique feature of ABA research published by Chinese scholars by analyzing relevant cultural contingencies. Based on these descriptions and analyses, the author will make recommendations for the future development of ABA research in China.

We tested the effects of a different intensity CABAS®-based intervention packages using an alternating (ABACA) treatment design for 9 children diagnosed with Autism, aged 2 to 6 years old. The study was conducted in a learning and research centre in Italy prior and during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and is still ongoing. The obligation to stop the CABAS® intervention created an opportunity to change the treatment frequency while keeping the treatment integrity for all participants, and provide the experimenters with an opportunity to collect data and compare them on the optimal treatment intensity. Condition A constituted high educational intensity where each participant received 1:1 intervention for 12 hours a week, while Condition B constituted 1:1 intervention for 3 hours a week (during the first lockdown), and during Condition C, intervention was delivered for 6 hours a week (during the second lockdown).The dependent variables in the study were the changes in participant’s ADOS-2 and CARS-2 scores prior and after each treatment change, and participants number of Learn Units to Criterion rate. The early results showed a significant difference between before and after the low-frequency package was implemented, for the total scores and each sub-test of both instruments. So far, results suggest that normative tests, together with individual graphs’analysis, can help differentiate between treatment effectiveness and efficiency for each child. Further research is needed in order to make more generalized conclusions into the optimal intensity of intervention, especially in countries, such as Italy, where children with Autism can’t attend special schools or have insurance-covered intensive treatments.