Teaching social initiations via direct instructions and preferred social consequences

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2021

First Committee Member

Ahearn, William H.

Second Committee Member

Dickson, Chata A.

Third Committee Member

Henley, Amy J.

Abstract

"Previous research indicates that deficits in initiating a social interaction, also known in the literature as initiating joint attention, are more pronounced and persist over time in children with an ASD diagnosis. Several studies have shown that initiating social interactions can be produced but there is limited evidence that this generalizes in a natural setting. The current study attempts to extend the research by directly assessing the reinforcing value of social stimuli prior to training; and evaluating the effects of the selected reinforcing stimuli on the acquisition and generalization of social initiation skills across tasks during the context of play. The goal is to establish interactions that are inherently reinforcing and persist over time under naturally occurring social consequences. The results indicate that social initiation skills acquired via direct teaching and highly preferred social consequences may be more likely to maintain under naturally occurring social conditions than with contrived reinforcement, due to the social nature of the target response."

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