This study examined the effects of adding perspective sentences to Social Stories[TM] on improving the adaptive behaviors of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and related disabilities. In Study 1, two students with ASD read two different types of Social Stories: Social Story without perspective sentences (SS without PS) and Social…

The advantages of emphasizing discrete trials "teaching" over discrete trials "training" are presented first, followed by a discussion of discrete trials as a method of teaching that emerged historically--and as a matter of necessity for difficult learners such as those with autism--from discrete trials as a method for laboratory research. The…

Very little research has been conducted on insurance type (private vs. public funded) and costs, accessibility, and use of services of children with autism. Analysis of five parent reported outcomes: (a) out-of-pocket expenditures, (b) variety of services used, (c) access to services, (d) child and family service outcomes, and (e) satisfaction…

Effects of a Lag 1 reinforcement schedule on appropriate and varied responding to the social question, "What do you like to do?" and effects of the proportion of preferred stimuli present during training on the amount of varied responding in each session were investigated with students with autism. An ABAB reversal design and a multielement design…

There are a number of instructional approaches available within ABA, each of which is uniquely suited to address specific deficits in learners with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Clinicians can utilize a combination of Discrete Trial Instruction (DTT), naturalistic strategies, and rate-building procedures to maximize the acquisition, generalization,…

The study evaluated a reinforcement theory of stereotyped behavior with six autistic students (ages 9-16). Three students evidenced decreases in stereotypy and increases in responding in the presence of usual reinforcers, while the other three students required external suppression of stereotypy before increases in responding were shown.…

In a study of visual discrimination tasks with three autistic children (ages five-six), multiple sensory reinforcers maintained responding over more trials than did multiple edible reinforcers. Single sensory reinforcers and single edibles however, resulted in nearly equal numbers of trials to satiation. Sensory reinforcers produced higher…

Two experiments, with about five autistic children (two to 14 years old) in each experiment, assessed the effects of autistic immediate echolalia on acquisition and generalization of receptive labeling tasks. These results indicated that echolalia faciliated generalization for echolalic autistic children but not for functionally mute autistic…

Four seven- to ten-year-old boys with autistic behavior were examined with behavioral and observational measures in a peer mediated training, an integrated generalization assessment, and a segregated generalization assessment setting. Results favored the developmentally integrated condition for increases of positive social behaviors. (Author/MC)

This article on the use of applied behavior analysis with students who have autism focuses on selected recently developed stimulus control techniques. These include new methods for teaching conditional discrimination (matching) skills, stimulus equivalence procedures, prompt and prompt-fading techniques, and incidental teaching procedures.…

Various aspects of the research literature on early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) have been poorly understood within the psychological, educational, and advocacy communities. Examination of the studies that are frequently cited by proponents of EIBI suggests that the expectation that 47 percent of youngsters who receive EIBI will reach…

Various aspects of the research literature on early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) have been poorly understood within the psychological, educational, and advocacy communities. Examination of the studies that are frequently cited by proponents of EIBI suggests that the expectation that 47 percent of youngsters who receive EIBI will reach…

Two issues of each volume of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis were reviewed to identify research reports focusing on individuals with autism. The identified articles were analyzed to describe the ages of individuals with autism, the settings in which the research occurred, the nature of the behaviors targeted for intervention, and the…

We report the case of an 11-year-old boy with autism who demonstrated urinary incontinence that appeared to be maintained by social contingencies (adult attention and escape from activity "demands"). Although he wet himself frequently, he also used the bathroom appropriately and made many self-initiated toileting requests. Intervention was…

Subgroup analysis of children (5-12 years) with autism enrolled in an 8-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of risperidone for pervasive developmental disorders. The primary efficacy measure was the Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Irritability (ABC-I) subscale. Data were available for 55 children given risperidone (n = 27) or placebo (n =…