David Marholin

“I'll have a big mac, large fries, large coke, and apple pie,”… or teaching adaptive community skills

Four retarded adult males were taught to ride a bus to a specific destination, purchase an item, order and pay for a meal. Training was conducted in the community and included graduated prompting, modeling, corrective feedback, social reinforcement, behavioral rehearsal, and occasional, brief time outs administered in a multiple-baseline across subjects. Correct performance increased during training and was transferable to a novel environment.

An experimental analysis of side effects and response maintenance of a modified overcorrection procedure: The case of the persistent twiddler

A 3- and 5-min modified overcorrection procedure was used to suppress a high-frequency hand stereotypic behavior, twiddling, exhibited by a 10-year-old autistic youngster. As demonstrated through the use of an ABCB design, both durations of overcorrection were immediately successful in reducing twiddling to near 0 levels during 20-min classroom training sessions. Neither overcorrection procedure resulted in a great deal of response maintenance during a 10-min, free-play probe period immediately following the training sessions. Approach and proximity to the trainer were also assessed during the free-play probe sessions. Neither of these behaviors varied significantly from baseline measures when the overcorrection procedures were instituted. The 3-min overcorrection duration (B), however, produced slightly more response maintenance than the 5-min duration (C). This small effect reversed when the 3-min duration was reinstated.

Assessing the effects of relaxation training

Training in progressive muscle relaxation is frequently employed in behavior therapy. A fundamental question is how a clinician knows that his or her client is relaxed. The present article reviews recent research involving relaxation training to determine what criterion measures have been used to assess the effects of relaxation training procedures. Articles from four major journals which regularly publish research concerned with relaxation training were surveyed as to their report of four categories of dependent measures: self-report, physiological reading, behavior rating, or no report. Results were that in 70% of the articles reviewed no indication was made of how the effects of relaxation were assessed.

Effects of diet and behavior therapy on social and motor behavior of retarded phenylketonuric adults: an experimental analysis.

Summary: The effects of a low phenylalanine diet on six retarded phenylketonuric adults were assessed. An ABA individual-subject design was used in experiment I to assess the effects of a low phenylalanine diet on social and motor behavior. Following a baseline during which the subjects ingested a normal phenylalanine diet (phase A), a low phenylalanine diet (phase B) was administered in a double blind fashion. Finally, the baseline condition (phase A) was reinstated (normal diet). The low phenylalanine diet resulted in few significant behavioral changes for those subjects with which proper methodologic controls were employed. However, for two of six subjects motor behavior, including stereotypy and tremor, seem to have ameliorated. In experiment II, applied behavior analysis techniques, including differential reinforcement of other behavior and time out, were combined to radically reduce the frequency of stereotypy and self-abuse exhibited by one of the six subjects of experiment I.Speculation: Single-subject methodology borrowed from the experimental analysis of behavior revealed that a low phenylalanine diet was unsuccessful in producing significant desirable behavior changes in four adult retarded phenylketonuric subjects with proper experimental controls. However, when behavior therapy techniques were used with one of these same subjects, a rapid and dramatic reduction in stereotypy and self-abuse was observed.

The in vivo elimination of a child's water phobia by a paraprofessional at home☆

Abstract A four-year-old childs water phobia was eliminated through a program of in vivo desensitization combined with participant modeling. The program was conducted by the childs mother, who was trained and supervised by a paraprofessional behavior therapist participating in a community-based intervention project. After eleven 30-min sessions, the extreme anxiety and avoidance previously exhibited during bath times was not observed. Discussion emphasizes the manpower advantages of employing paraprofessionals who can design and execute complex treatment programs.

Don't Shoot Until you See the Whites of his Eyes—An Analysis of the Adverse Side Effects of Verbal Prompts

The effect of a differential reinforcement procedure alone was compared with the use of verbal prompts plus differential reinforcement in reducing deviant social behavior of a retarded adult. An ABCBCB reversal-type design was employed. The results indicated that the percentage of desirable behavior increased over a baseline condition (A) when differential reinforcement procedures alone (B) were used and decreased when verbal prompts (C) were added. An analysis was presented which suggested that deviant behavior may be exhibited as the initial response in a behavioral chain to attract adult attention in the form of verbal prompts. Verbal prompts were shown to reinforce the subjects deviant behavior. A clear example of response generalization to a prevocational task was also observed.

Programming generalization of treatment effects: A stimulus control procedure

Abstract A visual signalling apparatus was established as a discriminative stimulus during training sessions with a 28-yr-old, severely retarded male. Following the training phase, the effect of the trainers presence was assessed in the training setting and in a novel setting. The results indicated that stimulus control established during training generalized to the same setting in the trainers absence and to a novel setting in the trainers absence. Furthermore, the trainers absence failed to affect the subjects rate of performance during either SD or S-delta conditions. The lack of adult presence-absence effect is discussed in the light of recent research in the area of stimulus overselectivity.

Practice Makes Perfect:The Elimination of Stereotyped Body-Rocking Through Positive Practice

A positive practice procedure was used in a public school classroom to reduce the frequency of body-rocking on a 16-year old severely retarded girl. Although previous interventions (DRO, time out, verbal instructions) had proven ineffective, positive practice rapidly reduced the frequency of body-rocking to near zero levels in 7 days of treatment. The procedures were easily carried out and cost-effective, requiring approximately 9 minutes of staff time per day during 20 days of treatment and 1.4 minutes/day during a 135-day follow-up period. Six months of follow-up revealed that response suppression was durable. Little generalization of suppression was observed from the training setting to other settings.