ABSTRACT
The development of a 12-step continuum of services for individuals with autism is described. The operation and funding of outreach parent training; homebased early intervention; preschool, vocational, and adult intermediate care; and school consultation programs are outlined. The use and importance of evaluative data on both treatment outcome and staff skills are emphasized.
Subject(s)
Autistic Disorder/rehabilitation , Child Behavior Disorders/rehabilitation , Continuity of Patient Care/trends , Intellectual Disability/rehabilitation , Patient Care Team , Activities of Daily Living/psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Autistic Disorder/psychology , Child , Child Behavior Disorders/psychology , Child, Preschool , Continuity of Patient Care/economics , Female , Financing, Government/trends , Humans , Intellectual Disability/psychology , Male , Patient Care Team/economics , Patient Care Team/trends , Rehabilitation, Vocational/trends , Social EnvironmentABSTRACT
Autistic and severely handicapped children were taught to ask questions (e.g., "How did I do?") and make requests (e.g., "Check it out") to recruit or set the occasion for praise from an adult. Teaching occurred during structured sessions in a community-based group home. Generalization of the children's use of these behaviors was evaluated during other activities in the teaching area, with other staff members in different areas of the home, and at each child's academic classroom. The children learned the behaviors to cue or set the occasion for praise independently and used these behaviors in all of the generalization settings. In the generalizations settings, the children were frequently successful in recruiting praise.
Subject(s)
Autistic Disorder/therapy , Education of Intellectually Disabled/methods , Generalization, Response , Reinforcement, Verbal , Verbal Behavior , Adolescent , Autistic Disorder/psychology , Child , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Intellectual Disability/psychology , Language Development Disorders/therapy , Male , Social EnvironmentABSTRACT
The purpose of this experiment was to test the assumption that the sequencing of language goals for individuals with developmental disabilities should be based on the normal developmental sequence. In a series of two studies, phonetic sounds and syntactic structures representing different levels of normal development were taught to individuals with developmental disabilities. The results showed that (a) the majority of earlier emerging forms were acquired in fewer trials, (b) there was never an instance when the later emerging form was acquired and the earlier emerging form was not, and (c) the majority of earlier emerging forms were correctly produced at higher levels than the later emerging forms during probe sessions conducted 6 months after training. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the development of language curricula for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Subject(s)
Language Development Disorders/therapy , Language Therapy/methods , Adolescent , Autistic Disorder/complications , Female , Humans , Intellectual Disability/complications , Language Development Disorders/complications , Language Development Disorders/diagnosis , Male , Speech Articulation Tests , Speech TherapyABSTRACT
In this study, two autistic children were paired with normal peers who, after pretraining sessions, taught community skills to the autistic children. Data were collected during three conditions: baseline, modeling, and peer tutoring. Results demonstrated that no identified skills were acquired during the baseline and modeling conditions. However, direct instruction of each child by a peer tutor resulted in the learning and maintenance of functional community skills.
Subject(s)
Autistic Disorder/rehabilitation , Peer Group , Social Adjustment , Activities of Daily Living , Autistic Disorder/psychology , Child , Child, Preschool , Humans , Male , Residential TreatmentABSTRACT
This study was designed to increase the amount of time severely handicapped students living in a residential facility engaged in age-appropriate and functional activities. After a brief in-service training, a program involving instructions to supervisors and staff feedback was implemented in a multiple-baseline design across settings. Results showed that after the supervision program was implemented, the students' participation in activities increased. Further, these increases maintained when feedback was reduced from an average of 3 days a week during treatment, to once a month for a 5-month period.
Subject(s)
Child Behavior Disorders/therapy , Intellectual Disability/therapy , Residential Treatment , Adolescent , Child , Child Behavior Disorders/psychology , Child, Preschool , Curriculum , Education, Special , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Intellectual Disability/psychology , Professional-Patient Relations , Social Adjustment , Vocational GuidanceABSTRACT
This study investigated the influence of a response delay requirement on the discrimination performance of autistic children. In the context of a multiple baseline design with subsequent repeated reversals, two conditions were compared: a no-response-delay condition, where the child was allowed to make the target response immediately after presentation of the discriminative stimulus versus a response-delay condition, where the target response was permitted three seconds following the discriminative stimulus when the therapist would signal the child to respond. The results showed that the response-delay condition produced higher levels of correct responding than the no-response-delay condition. In addition, teachers in the research setting rated the response-delay procedure to be a practical and effective teaching technique that could be implemented in a classroom setting. The results were discussed in relation to the literature on impulsivity, and were interpreted as indicating that the response-delay procedure provides a valuable technique for teaching autistic children.
Subject(s)
Autistic Disorder/psychology , Discrimination Learning , Reaction Time , Adolescent , Attention , Autistic Disorder/therapy , Female , Form Perception , Functional Laterality , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
Two single-subject experiments were conducted in public school classrooms for severely emotionally disturbed children. Both experiments investigated the effects of a treatment requiring a child to exhibit a simple exercise task after a verbal or aggressive response, using reversal and multiple-baseline designs. The independent variable, contingent exercise, required standing up and sitting on the floor five to ten times contingent on an inappropriate behavior. It was found that contingent exercise was easy to carry out, and following it, the child quickly returned to the learning task that had been interrupted by the inappropriate behavior. The contingent exercise procedure required a minimum of prompting or manual guidance. Although contingent exercise was not topographically related to the inappropriate response, it decreased those responses dramatically. The results suggested that contingent exercise was not only more powerful than DRO but also could be administered independently. It was concluded that contingent exercise may constitute an alternative procedure that can be used by therapists confronted with severely abnormal behaviors. It would appear to be particularly relevant in settings where procedures such as timeout and painful consequences find restricted use. Finally, a number of guidelines have been proposed as a safeguard against the misuse of this mild but powerful procedure.
