Justin B. Leaf

Comparing the Teaching Interaction Procedure to Social Stories for People with Autism.

This study compared social stories and the teaching interaction procedure to teach social skills to 6 children and adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder. Researchers taught 18 social skills with social stories and 18 social skills with the teaching interaction procedure within a parallel treatment design. The teaching interaction procedure resulted in mastery of all 18 skills across the 6 participants. Social stories, in the same amount of teaching sessions, resulted in mastery of 4 of the 18 social skills across the 6 participants. Participants also displayed more generalization of social skills taught with the teaching interaction procedure to known adults and peers.

Applied Behavior Analysis is a Science and, Therefore, Progressive.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a science and, therefore, involves progressive approaches and outcomes. In this commentary we argue that the spirit and the method of science should be maintained in order to avoid reductionist procedures, stifled innovation, and rote, unresponsive protocols that become increasingly removed from meaningful progress for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We describe this approach as progressive. In a progressive approach to ABA, the therapist employs a structured yet flexible process, which is contingent upon and responsive to child progress. We will describe progressive ABA, contrast it to reductionist ABA, and provide rationales for both the substance and intent of ABA as a progressive scientific method for improving conditions of social relevance for individuals with ASD.

A Program Description of a Community-Based Intensive Behavioral Intervention Program for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) impact all areas of a person’s life resulting in deficits in language, social behavior, and intellectual abilities as well as the development of repetitive behaviors that can greatly restrict access to the community and quality of life. Intensive behavioral intervention (IBI) has repeatedly been shown to be effective in improving functional skills and intellectual scores as well as minimizing problem behaviors in individuals diagnosed with ASD. In previous studies, some children who received intensive behavioral intervention became indistinguishable from their peers and were served in typical educational environments with no supplemental supports. However, the majority of the published studies on this intervention describe university-affiliated grant funded programs. This program description provides details about a private community-based agency that provides IBI for children and adolescents with ASD. Information about staff training, the therapies implemented, the population served, and instructional and programmatic content is offered and a preliminary analysis is provided of the outcomes achieved for a subsample of the clients served (i.e., 64 of 181). These findings suggest that increases in functional skills and intellectual scores were achieved for all clients and that many clients met criteria similar to those established in prior landmark studies.

OBSERVATIONAL EFFECTS ON THE PREFERENCES OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may play with limited objects or toys, making it difficult for teachers to identify reinforcers to use in teaching new skills. The goal of this study was to alter childrens preferences from highly preferred toys to toys that were originally less preferred using an observational pairing procedure. Child participants observed a preferred adult playing with toys that were initially less preferred by the child. This intervention resulted in a shift in preference toward the item manipulated by the adult. Maintenance of the changed preference was idiosyncratic across participants. Results suggest a procedure for expanding the range of items that students with ASD will select.

Comparing the Teaching Interaction Procedure to Social Stories: A Replication Study

This study compared the teaching interaction procedure to social stories implemented in a group setting to teach social skills to three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The researchers taught each participant one social skill with the teaching interaction procedure, one social skill with the social story procedure, and one social skill was assigned to a no intervention condition. The teaching interaction procedure consisted of didactic questions, teacher demonstration, and role-play; the social story procedure consisted of reading a book and answering comprehension questions. The researchers measured participants’ performances during probes, responses to comprehension questions, and responding during role-plays. The results indicated that the teaching interaction procedure was more efficacious than the social story procedure across all three participants.

A Programmatic Description of a Social Skills Group for Young Children with Autism.

Deficits in social skills are a common problem for children with autism. One method of developing appropriate social skills in children with autism has been group instruction. To date, however, group instruction has produced mixed results. The purpose of this article is to describe a promising method of teaching social skills to children in small groups.

Comparison of Most-to-Least Prompting to Flexible Prompt Fading for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ABSTRACT This study compared most-to-least prompting to flexible prompt fading for teaching four children with an autism spectrum disorder various expressive tasks. Using a parallel treatment design nested into a multiple probe design, researchers taught each participant how to expressively label six pictures with most-to-least prompting and six pictures with flexible prompt fading. The researchers evaluated effectiveness, maintenance, efficiency, and performance across both prompting conditions and across all participants. Results indicated that both prompting procedures were effective across all four participants. Results also indicated that flexible prompt fading led to a higher percentage of independent correct responding during teaching trials. For three of the participants, flexible prompt fading was also a more efficient procedure. Results were mixed in terms of maintenance across the four participants.

Social Thinking®: Science, Pseudoscience, or Antiscience?

Today, there are several interventions that can be implemented with individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Most of these interventions have limited to no empirical evidence demonstrating their effectiveness, yet they are widely implemented in home, school, university, and community settings. In 1996, Green wrote a chapter in which she outlined three levels of science: evidence science, pseudoscience, and antiscience; professionals were encouraged to implement and recommend only those procedures that would be considered evidence science. Today, an intervention that is commonly implemented with individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder is Social Thinking®. This intervention has been utilized by behaviorists and non-behaviorists. This commentary will outline Social Thinking® and provide evidence that the procedure, at the current time, qualifies as a pseudoscience and, therefore, should not be implemented with individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, especially given the availability of alternatives which clearly meet the standard of evidence science.

Comparison of most-to-least to error correction to teach tacting to two children diagnosed with autism

Abstract This study compared most-to-least prompting to an error correction procedure involving feedback and remedial trials for teaching two children with autism a variety of expressive labels. Using an adapted alternating treatment design nested into a multiple probe design, experimenters taught each participant how to expressively label different pictures of cartoon characters or comic book characters. Results indicated that, while both procedures were effective, participants learned more skills with the error correction procedure, and the error correction procedure was more efficient than most-to-least prompting.

Comparing Social Stories™ to Cool Versus Not Cool

In this study we compared the cool versus not cool procedure to Social Stories™ for teaching various social behaviors to one individual diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The researchers randomly assigned three social skills to the cool versus not cool procedure and three social skills to the Social Stories™ procedure. Naturalistic probes were utilized to determine the participant’s successful demonstration of the various social skills taught with each procedure. The researchers utilized an adapted alternating treatment design to compare the effectiveness of each of the two procedures. Results indicated that the participant acquired all of the skills taught with the cool versus not cool procedure and demonstrated minimal improvements for the skills taught with Social Stories™. Practical implications as well as future research are discussed.