Anibal Gutierrez

Commitment to Classroom Model Philosophy and Burnout Symptoms Among High Fidelity Teachers Implementing Preschool Programs for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Teacher commitment to classroom model philosophy and burnout were explored in a sample of 53 teachers implementing three preschool models at high levels of fidelity for students with autism: Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH); Learning Experiences and Alternative Program for Preschoolers and Their Parents (LEAP); and high quality special education programs (HQSEP’s). Relative to the other groups, LEAP teachers reported significantly higher levels of commitment to LEAP philosophy while TEACCH teachers did not report significantly higher commitment levels to TEACCH philosophy. Teachers in HQSEP’s reported similar levels of commitment to TEACCH and LEAP. Burnout was also low to moderate in this sample relative to normative data. Implications for school districts and teachers are discussed.

Joint attention studies in normal and autistic children using NIRS

Autism is a socio-communication brain development disorder. It is marked by degeneration in the ability to respond to joint attention skill task, from as early as 12 to 18 months of age. This trait is used to distinguish autistic from nonautistic. In this study Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is being applied for the first time to study the difference in activation and connectivity in the frontal cortex of typically developing (TD) and autistic children between 4-8 years of age in response to joint attention task. The optical measurements are acquired in real time from frontal cortex using Imagent (ISS Inc.) - a frequency domain based NIRS system in response to video clips which engenders a feeling of joint attention experience in the subjects. A block design consisting of 5 blocks of following sequence 30 sec joint attention clip (J), 30 sec non-joint attention clip (NJ) and 30 sec rest condition is used. Preliminary results from TD child shows difference in brain activation (in terms of oxy-hemoglobin, HbO) during joint attention interaction compared to the nonjoint interaction and rest. Similar activation study did not reveal significant differences in HbO across the stimuli in, unlike in an autistic child. Extensive studies are carried out to validate the initial observations from both brain activation as well as connectivity analysis. The result has significant implication for research in neural pathways associated with autism that can be mapped using NIRS.

Robot-based therapeutic protocol for training children with Autism

Robots are commonly used artificial agents with powerful capabilities in navigation, perception and execution in the physical world. One interesting question is how well robots can assist and engage individuals with social and behavioral deficits (such as autism) to acquire new skills? Preliminary studies in autism research demonstrate that in many cases individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) interact more actively and engagingly with robots than humans. As there are limited investigations for utilizing robots in social and behavioral treatments of individuals with ASD, we designed and evaluated a robot-based intervention protocol using a social robot (NAO) to deliver behavioral training mechanism for children with ASD. Results of our pilot study on seven verbal children with high functioning autism show behavioral response improvement, including pointing and facial expression recognition in the majority of the participants as a consequence of the behavioral intervention delivered directly through the robot. Results also show that individuals were able to engage in these learned skills during human-human follow-up sessions.

Efficacy of the ASAP Intervention for Preschoolers with ASD: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

The advancing social-communication and play (ASAP) intervention was designed as a classroom-based intervention, in which the educational teams serving preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder are trained to implement the intervention in order to improve these children’s social-communication and play skills. In this 4-year, multi-site efficacy trial, classrooms were randomly assigned to ASAP or a business-as-usual control condition. A total of 78 classrooms, including 161 children, enrolled in this study. No significant group differences were found for the primary outcomes of children’s social-communication and play. However, children in the ASAP group showed increased classroom engagement. Additionally, participation in ASAP seemed to have a protective effect for one indicator of teacher burnout. Implications for future research are discussed.

Development of an ABA autism intervention delivered by a humanoid robot

Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) techniques are widely used and accepted by the Autism research community as an effective Autism therapy method. ABA techniques have been recently introduced to use with Socially Assistive Robots (SAR) to deliver Autism therapy. Nonetheless, little research has been published to investigate the use of robot-based ABA in teaching socio-emotional skills for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This paper presents the development of an ABA-based autonomous therapy system delivered by a humanoid robot, the Zeno R-50. Specifically, an intervention methodology with a prompt and an ABA reinforcement protocol to target skills associated with facial and situational emotion recognition and understanding are presented. Eleven children diagnosed with Autism were recruited to participate in the pre-pilot study screening. Initial results are investigated to discover the children’s preferred reinforcers and also to find ways of improving the therapy system before proceeding through full study groups. Results demonstrate the successful detection of reinforcers and show there is correlation between reinforcer preference and age. Results on two children who have completed interventions are presented and improvements to the protocol are discussed to contribute to the understanding of SAR in teaching socio-emotional skills to children diagnosed with ASD.

A Treatment Package without Escape Extinction to Address Food Selectivity

Feeding difficulties and feeding disorders are a commonly occurring problem for young children, particularly children with developmental delays including autism. Behavior analytic interventions for the treatment of feeding difficulties oftentimes include escape extinction as a primary component of treatment. The use of escape extinction, while effective, may be problematic as it is also associated with the emergence of challenging behavior (e.g., extinction burst). Such challenging behavior may be an acceptable side effect in treatment cases where feeding problems are severe and chronic (e.g., failure to thrive). However, in more acute cases (e.g., selective eating), the negative side effect may be unwarranted and undesired. More recent research on the behavioral treatment of food selectivity has begun to evaluate treatments for feeding difficulties that do not include escape extinction (e.g., demand fading, behavioral momentum), with some success. However, research to date reveals individual differences in responsiveness to such treatments and no clear preferable treatment has emerged. This manuscript describes a multi-component treatment package that includes shaping, sequential presentation and simultaneous presentation, for the treatment of food selectivity in four young children with developmental delays. This treatment package extends the literature on the behavioral treatment for food selectivity and offers a multi-component treatment protocol that may be clinically applicable across a range of treatment scenarios and settings.