Using Precision Teaching to Evaluate the Effects of Tact Training on Intraverbals Relations.

Interventions involving precision teaching (PT) and fluency-based instruction may promote the acquisition of intraverbal repertoires. We examined the effects of tact fluency training on the emergence of untrained intraverbal component-composite relations for three participants with autism and mild to moderate intellectual disability. We used a multiple-probes across participants design across the three participants, with additional replication across thematic clusters for one participant. The results suggest a relation between tact fluency training and the emergence of untrained intraverbal responses may exist. All participants learned to name items in a category without a nonverbal discriminative stimulus.

Effects of textual prompting and constant time delay on social communication skills of young adults with Prader Willi syndrome during online socialisation activities.

BACKGROUND: Social communication skills are critical for full participation in social activities in primary life contexts for adolescents and young adults with neurodevelopmental disorders. METHOD: Two young adults with Prader Willi syndrome participated in an online socialisation programme with elderly and adolescent conversational partners. We used a multiple baseline across conversational partners design for each participant to investigate the effects of textual prompts and constant time delay on the number of initiations and follow-up questions. We evaluated the social validity. RESULTS: Both participants improved their social communication skills during online socialisation with partners. Participants with Prader Willi syndrome enjoyed participating in this study. Elderly conversational partners reported a slight decrease in loneliness following online socialisation. CONCLUSION: The use of textual prompts and constant time delay may be helpful to promote opportunities for interaction among segments of the population potentially at risk of social isolation during online socialisation.

The Effects of the Big 6 + 6 Skills Training on Daily Living Skills for an Adolescent With Intellectual Disability.

The current study evaluated the effects of training Big 6 + 6 motor skills on untrained daily living skills. Precision teaching suggests that improved speed of component behaviors can lead to better performance of composite skills. Researchers used a pre-post probe single-subject design to evaluate the effects of frequency building on the motor tasks of push and grasp, as well as the associated effects on the composite skills prior to and following intervention on the component skills. Results suggest that the participant increased his frequencies on all of the component skills. The speed and accuracy of composite skills were higher following the intervention. Researchers also assessed for generalization to other significant contexts.

Autistic traits associated with food neophobia but not olfactory sensitivity.

Food neophobia has been shown to be associated with a range of personality traits (including anxiety, lower sensation seeking) and additionally sensory aspects of food such as taste and texture. Running parallel to that work, research has demonstrated higher incidences of food neophobia in autistic populations and separately evidence of hypersensitivity in some sensory domains. The aim of the current study was to extend our understanding by exploring whether the broader aspects of autistic traits can predict food neophobia in a non-autistic population and whether this is mediated by differences in olfactory sensitivity. In the present study, student participants (N = 50) completed questionnaires measuring their food neophobia (FNS) and preferences for foreign cuisine, autistic traits (Autistic Quotient, AQ), and then completed an olfactory threshold test for a food related odour. The findings demonstrated a positive association between food neophobia and the magnitude of autistic traits and interestingly, an inverse relation between preference for foreign cuisine and olfactory sensitivity; those individuals less inclined toward foreign cuisine had poorer sensitivity to a food related odour. Since AQ was not related to olfactory sensitivity, these findings suggest the relation between autistic traits and food neophobia is unlikely to be mediated by olfactory sensitivity. More broadly however, our sense of smell is associated with experiencing a wider diet.