Procedures for increasing vocational independence in children with autism

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2014

First Committee Member

N/A

Second Committee Member

N/A

Third Committee Member

Ahearn, William

Abstract

"Individuals diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder often engage in stereotypy, a repetitive behavior, that can interfere with educational and vocational goals. One intervention for treating stereotypy involves presenting leisure materials that may occasion leisure-item engagement, a behavior that can compete with stereotypy. However, this intervention will only work for individuals who readily exhibit independent item engagement. For those who do not, interventions for increasing item engagement, such as prompting and differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA), may be required. However, it remains unclear which of these components result in increases in item engagement and decreases in problem behavior. The purpose of this study was to evaluate prompting alone and in combination with DRA for increasing vocational task engagement and decreasing automatically reinforced stereotypy. These intervention components were evaluated in the context of a competing-items preference assessment to facilitate identification of the intervention and the tasks most amenable to treatment success. In addition, the generality of intervention effects was evaluated in a natural setting. Prompting combined with DRA was most effective, and treatment effects occurred with some but not all of the items. Results were replicated in a natural setting and maintained under weakened contingencies."

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