Association for Behavior Analysis International

The theme of the current symposium is research that addresses deficits in leisure and physical activity engagement. The first presenter will describe a study for increasing functional leisure item engagement across multiple activities for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who displayed restricted interests (i.e., they engaged primarily with an iPad). Response restriction preference assessments were conducted throughout training to assess the generality of the findings when several activities were concurrently available. In the second paper, the author will describe a study on a technology for increasing physical activity engagement for two individuals with ASD who showed low levels of physical activity engagement. This approach included a combination of a preference assessment and treatment analysis to identify the most preferred physical activity task and the most effective intervention. Additional assessments were subsequently conducted to increase the generality and acceptability of the outcomes. In the third paper, the presenter will describe an evaluation of a competition feature on an automated fitness tracker for increasing physical activity in six typically developing adults. If the competition alone was ineffective, an additional incentive for winning the competition was included. The findings obtained and directions for future research in this area will be discussed.

Individuals who have previous knowledge of behavior analytic principles.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display restricted interests. The current study assessed levels of engagement across multiple leisure items in five individuals with ASD, who repetitively engaged with an iPad to the exclusion of other activities. Response restriction (RR) preference assessments were conducted to assess whether simply restricting access to the iPad facilitated engagement across multiple items. If it did not, the experimenter conducted leisure-item-engagement training in the context of a modified single-item duration-based preference assessment. A multiple baseline design across leisure items was used to evaluate the effects of prompting and differential reinforcement on simple and functional engagement. Prompting alone was effective in increasing simple engagement for four participants and functional engagement for one participant. Prompting with differential reinforcement increased functional engagement for four participants. RR assessments were conducted throughout training to serve as an ongoing measure of the effects of training on restricted interest patterns.

Individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism often have sedentary lifestyles and do not meet the recommendations for physical activity engagement outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previous research on increasing physical activity engagement has been primarily conducted with typically developing individuals, and the procedures used may not be amenable to individuals with intellectual disabilities or autism. The purpose of this study was to develop a systematic technology for increasing physical activity engagement for two individuals with autism. A physical activity analysis that included a progressive treatment approach was conducted and identified the most effective physical activity and treatment combination for increasing physical activity engagement. Data from the physical activity analysis and two subsequent analyses on the generality and acceptability of the intervention will be reviewed.