Thomas G. Haring

Promoting Social Interaction through Teaching Generalized Play Initiation Responses to Preschool Children with Autism

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of play initiation training on subsequent social interactions between students with severe disabilities and their nonhandicapped peers within play contexts. In both studies, five nonhandicapped peers were used as training confederates, and generalization probes were conducted within unstructured free-play situations with a larger number of peers who did not participate in training. In Experiment 1, a preschool student with autistic behaviors was integrated into a regular preschool The effects of two treatment conditions were compared: (a) providing an awareness activity plus rewards for the nonhandicapped peers who initiated interactions and (b) teaching initiations and play behaviors to the student with severe disabilities. The results indicated that although the awareness activity plus reward condition increased the frequency of peer initiations, peer responsivity to the initiations by the student with severe disabilities remained low. When the student with severe disabilities was taught to initiate interactions and play appropriately, the level of initiation by the student increased and the level of responsivity by the peers toward his initiations also increased. In Experiment 2, we replicated this effect with two students who were integrated into a kindergarten class. The effects of competent social interaction skills on shaping environments that are responsive to the social initiations of students with severe disabilities are discussed.

Adolescent Peer Tutoring and Special Friend Experiences

Fifteen high school peer tutors and 15 “special friends” interacted daily for a semester with a class of 9 students with severe disabilities. Two measurement systems were employed: an attitude survey and social behavior probes. Social behavior probes were conducted with a familiar student with autism (i.e., a student from the special education class), an unfamiliar student with autism, and an unfamiliar nonhandicapped student. A pretest-posttest experimental design with control group was employed. In general, statistical comparisons of the groups indicated that serving as a peer tutor was equivalent to serving as a special friend across the two measures. However, on one measure (social interaction with an unfamiliar peer with autism) the special friends showed significantly higher levels of social interaction. Both groups interacted more frequently with the familiar student with autism than the unfamiliar student with autism or the unfamiliar nonhandicapped peer. The experimental groups produced substantially longer interactions than the control group.

Using videotape modeling to facilitate generalized purchasing skills

Six students with moderate and severe disabilities were taught generalized purchasing skills through the use of videotape modeling in one, two, or three stores and in vivo instruction within one store. Training was conducted within three orders of treatments: (a) in vivo instruction followed by videotape training, (b) videotape training followed by in vivo instruction, and (c) concurrent videotape and in vivo instruction. Generalization probes were conducted in stores that were the same as those modeled on videotape, untrained stores that were infrequently probed (and never modeled on tape or taught directly), and novel stores that were probed only once after training. Results indicated the production of generalized purchasing skills by the students who received concurrent training and by the students who received sequential training. Videotape and in vivo training in isolation did not lead to generalized shopping skills. The results are discussed in terms of investigating the possible role of verbalization during videotape training on generalized responding and the effects of multiple probe interventions on inadvertent learning of critical skills.

Teacher-control versus student-control over choice of task and reinforcement for students with severe behavior problems

Increasing self-control for students with severe disabilities is an important step toward normalization. The classroom is one setting in which opportunities for self-control can be created. The effects of teacher-control versus student-control over academic task and reinforcement selection were evaluated for three 11-to 13-year-old males with severe behavior problems. Under student-control conditions students were able to select rewards and tasks from lists generated by the teacher; in the teacher-control conditions, the teacher selected rewards and tasks but attempted to make similar selections to those made by the students. An alternating treatments design was implemented. In Phase 1, task completion was the target behavior; in Phase 2 task accuracy was the target behavior. Task performance improved when the student, rather than the teacher, had control over task assignments and choice of reinforcement. While either student control of reinforcement or student control of task assignment resulted in higher performance than did teacher-control, the most effective instructional situation was the two procedures combined. This effect was apparent even when students and teachers selected the same tasks and the same reinforcers. Implications for increasing student-control over some classroom decisions are discussed.

The Training and Generalization of Social Interaction during Breaktime at Two Job Sites in the Natural Environment

Four high-school age students with autism and severe handicaps were trained to initiate and sustain social interactions with nonhandicapped peers in a commonly shared breakroom at two community job sites. The generalization of social behavior to nontrained coworkers was probed in the same setting during natural breaktimes. A multiple-baseline across subjects design was used to assess the effectiveness of a training package based on concurrent training of chains of responses using systematic prompting and reinforcement of correct behavior. Generalization was promoted using a multiple exemplar strategy. The results showed that all participants acquired a chain of social break behaviors using one peer trainer. Two participants displayed generalization of social responses prior to the acquisition of the complete chain. Two participants required training with multiple peers prior to the occurrence of generalization.

Social Interaction Research for Adolescents with Severe Handicaps

Social interaction research for persons with severe handicaps has accelerated over the past 20 years. The majority of the research has focused on preschool-age children. This may have been due to the large number of university-based preschool programs; and the smaller developmental discrepancy between handicapped and nonhandicapped students has probably slowed the appearance of integrated programs as well as l imited the attempts at social interaction research with older students. Yet there has been an increasing number of studies in the past 5 years which focus on adolescents. This article reviews relevant research on social interaction and presents a model and approach for interpreting this l i terature. Although the tit le refers to individuals with severe handicaps, there appear to be direct implications for behaviorally disordered students. In fact, many of the participants in the cited studies were autistic. Autism has historically been considered within the behaviorally disordered orseriously emotionally disturbed category; and in educational service delivery, students with autism have generally been considered within the severely handicapped category. More importantly, the authors leel that the commonalities in social interaction interventions between autistic and mentally retarded students far outweigh their differences. Therefore, the findings and views advanced here will refer to autistic and mentally retarded individuals who have fallen within the severely handicapped category. Social interaction research has been investigated in fourways: child-centered social skill training, environment-centered program evaluation, attitude research, and investigation of the influence of ecological settings. Social skill training has probably been the most common research approach. lt attempts to target and train particular behaviors. Such social skil l training uses a behavioral observation methodology which codes discrete behaviors. The majority of behavioral training studies have used a peer-mediated strategy which teaches a nonhandicapped peer to emit a number of interactive social behaviors in the presence of the handicapped peer. Some studies (e.9., Gaylord-Ross, Haring, Breen, & Pitts-Conway, 1984) have taught the handicapped individual a number of social behaviors to display in the integrated setting. Behavior analytic procedures are typically used so that the person is prompted and reinforced to emit a set of task analyzed behaviors in a training setting. Thetraining usually consists of a series of role-playing trials between the targeted child and a confederate. Generalization probes are then taken in the natural setting to see if the learned behaviors transfer tolhe in vivo situation. Behavioral training studies are usually evaluated with single case designs although this is not required. Gaylord-Ross and Peck (1985) have dist inguished between chi ld-centered and environment-centered research. Certainly, behavioral skil l training would typify the former in its precise monitoring of interactional behavior at the individual level. There are three other types of environment-centered approaches which have added to the research literature. Program evaluation research focuses on the influence of the program as the primary independent variable. For example, does the effect of a peer tutoring program increase social interaction between handicapped and nonhandicapped students? Attitude research typically contrasts the sentiments of nonhandicapped persons toward handicapped individuals in integrated versus egregated settings. Ecological research compares the similarit ies and differences in behavior within and across different settings. Ecological research might attend to the organizational structure or the roles and rituals in a school or work setting as they effect social interaction.

Units of Analysis of Social Interaction Outcomes in Supported Education

In spite of increased advocacy efforts, demonstrations, and consumer demand for supported education, there is a paucity of empirical research that investigates the predicted outcomes of this model. The rationale for supported education is based largely on increasing social participation, acceptance, and friendships between students with severe disabilities and nondisabled students. This article discusses several issues that underlie the development of measurement systems to evaluate the social effects of supported education. We believe that it is essential to measure the outcomes of supported education (i.e., increased acceptance, social participation, and levels of friendships) as well as the process variables (e.g., specific social interaction skills) that are pivotal in creating the outcomes. An assessment model for outcome and process variables is described. Within this model, social interaction skills, organizational support characteristics, and contextual features are viewed as pivotal events in attaining valued outcomes.

Combining Reward and Escape DRO to Reduce the Problem Behavior of Students with Severe Disabilities

During instruction, the occurrence per minute of problem behavior was studied across three students with severe disabilities. Following a functional assessment identifying problem behavior as being related to teacher demands, reinforcement schedules based upon reward DRO, escape DRO, and combined DRO were analyzed for their relative effectiveness in decreasing problem behavior across three tasks. The three DRO schedules were studied using an alternating treatments design with intervention by task Latin square counterbalancing. Reward DRO used contingent access to a preferred event following the omission of problem behavior as a positive reinforcer. Escape DRO allowed the termination of instruction contingent on the omission of problem behavior. Combined DRO employed both types of reinforcer functions used in the reward and escape DRO schedules. Reduction in the frequency of problem behavior was greatest for all three students using the combined DRO schedule.

Philosophic Foundations of Behavior Analysis in Developmental Disabilities

A review of potential evolutionary paths for behavior analysis will be conducted by assessing the implications of four distinctly different means of “understanding” the world. These “world views” are derived from the work of philosopher and aestheticist Stephen C. Pepper. Pepper’s writings, in particular his 1942 publication, World Hypotheses: A Study in Evidence, have undergone a renaissance among behavioral scientists in recent years (e.g., Hayes, Hayes, & Reese, 1988; Lerner, Hultsch, & Dixon, 1983; Morris, 1988; Rosnow & Georgoudi, 1986). Pepper’s work is of particular interest to the current analysis because he presents the thesis that there are several distinct, autonomous, and relatively adequate world views that are used in understanding and structuring our experiences. These world hypotheses provide us with frameworks with which to assess various paths along which behavior analysis, and the technologies derived from it, may change in the 1990s and beyond.

Psychological and educational characteristics of instruction for people with severe disabilities: Interacting systems of responding

This paper presents a behavioral model which proposes that operants are organized and regulated into systems of responding. Multi-operant theory proposes that operants are organized into response systems that interact to adapt behavior to the complexities of the environment. The operant is the interaction between behavior and the environment which includes the conditions under which responses may occur, the class of behavior that is likely to be effective in producing outcomes, and the antecedent conditions that define the context of behavior. A central feature of this theory is that operants within a repertoire are organized into regulated systems of responding. The mechanisms of regulation are themselves operants that are learned and controlled by processes that are the same as those that govern more overt behavior. Operants stand in relationship to each other in coordinated response systems with some operants directly affecting and organizing the performance of other operants. An important implication of the systemic nature of behavioral repertoires is that bringing some aspect of a behavior class under control of new variables may demonstrate a spread throughout the entire operant system depending on past histories linking the classes.