Task Engagement and Escape Maintained Challenging Behavior: Differential Effects of General and Explicit Cues When Implementing a Signaled Delay in the Delivery of Reinforcement

A comparison of general and explicit delay cues to reinforcement for tangible-maintained challenging behaviour

OBJECTIVES

This compares effects of explicit delay cue to reinforcement to general delay cue to reinforcement when attempting to decrease tangible-maintained challenging behaviours of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

METHODS

Two school-age children with ASD participated in this study. In order to evaluate the effects of a general cue versus an explicit cue on the participants' tangibly maintained challenging behaviours, a multiple baseline design across settings with an embedded alternating treatments design was used.

RESULTS

Results suggested that both types of delay cue to reinforcement demonstrated effectiveness on decreasing tangible-maintained behaviours of the participant. For both participants, an explicit delay cue demonstrated slightly better effects on the participants' challenging behaviours then a general delay cue.

CONCLUSIONS

This study adds an evidence to support that delayed reinforcement can be used as an effective strategy to reduce both escape and tangible-maintained challenging behaviours of children with ASD across multiple settings.

Teaching a Child With Autism to Request Breaks While Concurrently Increasing Task Engagement

PURPOSE

An intervention package, including teaching break requests and tolerance for delay in reinforcement delivery to increase task engagement, was implemented with a 4-year-old child with an autism spectrum disorder who did not engage for a duration commensurate with individual education program team expectations.

METHOD

A multiple-probe design across tasks was implemented. Dependent measures taken included engagement duration and the production of spoken break requests after work completion. Intervention was implemented with tasks involving short periods of engagement prior to the learner's disengagement. The possibility of the learner's overgeneralized production of break requests with tasks originally associated with longer engagement was also examined.

RESULTS

The participant learned to request breaks in short engagement tasks. In addition, engagement increased dramatically without off-task behavior. Overgeneralized use of break requests with long engagement tasks did not occur. Generalization of break requests to untrained short engagement tasks that were not the focus of intervention (but were associated with escape and short engagement) did not occur until the intervention package was implemented.

CONCLUSIONS

The combination of teaching break requests and tolerance for delay in reinforcement delivery was effective in addressing problem behavior. Implications for enhancing properly generalized and moderated use of break requests across different tasks or contexts are discussed.

Learning how to be a student: an overview of instructional practices targeting school readiness skills for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder

Due to difficulties associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), many children with ASD will require additional support to actively participate in classroom activities. Therefore, it is important that professionals who work with young children with ASD know what skills to teach and how to teach them. Using the recent evidence-based practice review conducted by the National Professional Development Center on ASD, we have identified studies that targeted school readiness behaviors which can have implications for academic skill development. In this article, we evaluate (a) the types of skills that have been taught to preschool children with ASD, (b) the strategies used to teach specific skills, and (c) other descriptive information, such as who delivered the intervention and the setting in which the intervention took place. We conclude by offering suggestions for future research and considerations for professional development.

The motivating operation and negatively reinforced problem behavior: a systematic review

The concept of motivational operations exerts an increasing influence on the understanding and assessment of problem behavior in people with intellectual and developmental disability. In this systematic review of 59 methodologically robust studies of the influence of motivational operations in negative reinforcement paradigms in this population, we identify themes related to situational and biological variables that have implications for assessment, intervention, and further research. There is now good evidence that motivational operations of differing origins influence negatively reinforced problem behavior, and that these might be subject to manipulation to facilitate favorable outcomes. There is also good evidence that some biological variables warrant consideration in assessment procedures as they predispose the person's behavior to be influenced by specific motivational operations. The implications for assessment and intervention are made explicit with reference to variables that are open to manipulation or that require further research and conceptualization within causal models.