Increasing leisure item engagement in individuals with restricted interests

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2019

First Committee Member

Roscoe, Eileen

Second Committee Member

Henley, Amy

Third Committee Member

Ahearn, William

Abstract

"Restricted interests are a defining characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Individuals with restricted interests may experience fewer opportunities to learn new skills, contact reinforcers, and develop a more complex leisure repertoire. The purpose of the current study was to increase simple and complex forms of leisure item engagement across a variety of activities. Two individuals with ASD who exhibited restricted interests participated. A response restriction (RR) preference assessment, informed by an indirect assessment, was conducted to identify appropriate leisure items to target for increasing item engagement. Leisure item training included prompting and differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) to increase both simple and complex forms of leisure item engagement. The RR assessments were conducted before and after each phase of leisure item training to assess the effects of the treatment components on simple and complex engagement. Results suggested that prompting and DRA are effective in increasing both simple and complex forms of leisure item engagement for individuals with restricted interests."

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