Association for Behavior Analysis International

Whether or not others can see your face and whether or not you can see other’s face would affect your online communication. The purpose of this study was to examine how speech behavior changes depending on (1) whether or not the participants show their own face to the conversation partner, and (2) whether or not the face of the conversation partner can be seen, through the online meeting. Two participants, who have experienced selective mutism, were assigned to different experiment conditions. We used A-B-A-B reversal design. 3 dependent variables (response latency, speaking duration, and the number of spoken characters) were measured by video-coding. During each session, answers to 5 questions were recorded. The results for Participant A showed that there was no difference in speech behavior depending on whether the participant could see or could not see the other’s face, regardless of visibility of their own face. On the other hand, the results for Participant B showed that their response latency was shorter in the condition in which they did not show their face compared to the condition in which they show their face. This difference between conditions was observed only when the face of the partner was not visible.

Practical Functional Assessment (PFA) and Skill-Based Treatment (SBT) are well established for treating challenging problem behaviors for students with autism spectrum and related disorders. Applications of Practical Functional Assessment and Skill Based Treatment for individuals outside of that population are more limited in nature (Coffey et al, 2020). Further, information specific to implementation in rural public school settings are even more so. In this case study, the implementation of Practical Functional Assessment and Skill Based Treatment for an elementary student classified with intellectual disability with co-morbidities demonstrated successful outcomes resulting in decreased eloping and classroom disruption, improved task completion and cooperation with teacher instructions. Follow up data in the following school year reveals increases between pre- and post- scores on the Behavioral Health Index. Additionally, the student has maintained desired effects to the extent that one on one assistance from a designated paraprofessional is no longer needed to support academic and behavioral needs.

Chewing is a behavior that emerges in infancy and develops into a complex chain of behaviors through increased exposure to table food presented during childhood (Volkert et al., 2014). For children with feeding disorders, however, chewing may be underdeveloped or absent, resulting in a potential need for therapeutic intervention. Researchers have shown that simultaneous presentation, a procedure in which a nonpreferred food is presented with a preferred food, is an effective intervention for increasing acceptance (e.g., Ahearn et al., 2003) and decreasing packing (i.e., holding food in mouth; Whipple et al., 2020) in children with feeding disorders, but its application towards increasing chewing has not been previously explored. In the current case study, we evaluated simultaneous presentation as part of a treatment package with demand fading (i.e., bolus fading) and differential reinforcement of alternative behavior, to increase chewing of nonpreferred foods for a child with a feeding disorder. Results showed that chewing of nonpreferred foods increased and progress maintained when caregivers faded out the preferred food during outpatient therapy. We discuss these results and provide considerations for using simultaneous presentation as an intervention to increase chewing and promote age-typical feeding in children with feeding disorders.