Teaching comprehension of double-meaning jokes to young children.

Various forms of humor are an important aspect of social interactions, even at an early age. Humor comprehension is a repertoire that is said to emerge between the ages of 7 and 11 years, and this is primarily attributed to a child's level of cognitive development. The behavioral literature has suggested that various forms of complex verbal behavior, including the use and comprehension of humor, are learned operants that can be taught using systematic teaching procedures. The current study used multiple exemplar training and a three-step error correction procedure to teach comprehension of double-meaning jokes to 4 children (2 females and 2 males) aged between 5 and 6.5 years old. All participants demonstrated humor comprehension and appreciation, across multiple exemplars, following training, and maintained this at follow-up. Implications for use with clinical populations are discussed.

A Safe-Word Intervention for Abduction Prevention in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Most abduction-prevention strategies focus on teaching children safe responses to lures from strangers; however, statistics suggest that the majority of nonfamily abductions are conducted by people who are, to some extent, familiar to the child. We evaluated the effects of a safe-word intervention to address this discrepancy and decrease the likelihood that a child will leave with a person not appointed by his or her parents, regardless of whether the person is familiar or unfamiliar to the child. Five children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, aged 4-9 years old, were taught a 4-part response to lures from familiar and unfamiliar adults using a behavioral skills training package with in situ training added as needed. All participants met initial mastery criteria, with 4 of the 5 children requiring the addition of in situ training, and all maintained mastery levels at a 2-month follow-up.

The Effects of Peer Presence on Variables Maintaining Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity in Children.

An increasing number of children fail to meet the recommended levels of physical activity. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of peer presence on variables that have been shown to evoke moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in children. We recorded the levels of MVPA in three preschool children across no adult, attention, and interactive play conditions, with a peer present and absent. All conditions were compared with a naturalistic baseline and presented in a multielement design with a brief reversal to baseline and reintroduction of the most effective condition. All three participants displayed most MVPA during the interactive play condition with a peer present. This study furthers research on the identification of variables that evoke MVPA in young children and emphasizes the interaction of peer presence and contingent social positive reinforcement as relevant variables.