Preference for language of instruction of an English language learner with autism.

OBJECTIVE: To use a preference assessment to identify the preferred language of instruction (English or Spanish) for a child with autism living in a Spanish-speaking home and receiving school services in English only. METHODS: We used a concurrent chains method to evaluate the participant's preference for English or Spanish instruction. Colored microswitches represented English instruction, Spanish instruction and no instruction (control). Switch presses resulted in instruction and reinforcement in either English or Spanish, or no instruction and no reinforcement. After session 10, switches were reprogrammed to control for color bias. RESULTS: The participant chose Spanish instruction most frequently. CONCLUSIONS: The participant preferred to receive instruction in Spanish. These data support previous research indicating the importance of child preference when individualizing educational programs for children with autism and that language of instruction is an important variable when working with children with autism who experience multiple languages across home and school.

Ethnicity reporting practices for empirical research in three autism-related journals.

This review examines ethnicity reporting in three autism-related journals (Autism, Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, and Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders) over a 6-year period. A comprehensive multistep search of articles is used to identify ethnicity as a demographic variable in these three journals. Articles that identified research participants' ethnicity were further analyzed to determine the impact of ethnicity as a demographic variable on findings of each study. The results indicate that ethnicity has not been adequately reported in these three autism related journals even though previous recommendations have been made to improve inadequacies of descriptive information of research participants in autism research (Kistner and Robbins in J Autism Dev Disord 16:77-82, 1986). Implications for the field of autism spectrum disorders are discussed in addition to further recommendations for future research.

Evaluation of the rate of problem behavior maintained by different reinforcers across preference assessments.

The rates of problem behavior maintained by different reinforcers were evaluated across 3 preference assessment formats (i.e., paired stimulus, multiple-stimulus without replacement, and free operant). The experimenter administered each assessment format 5 times in a random order for 7 children with developmental disabilities whose problem behavior was maintained by attention, tangible items, or escape. Results demonstrated different effects related to the occurrence of problem behavior, suggesting an interaction between function of problem behavior and assessment format. Implications for practitioners are discussed with respect to assessing preferences of individuals with developmental disabilities who exhibit problem behavior.