SOCIAL VALIDITY: A COMPARISON OF SOCIAL SKILLS INTERVENTIONS
Abstract: Assessing social validity enables consumers and clinicians to more effectively evaluate the social significance, appropriateness, and importance of the behavior change goals, treatment procedures, and outcomes (Wolf, 1978). Evaluating treatment acceptability promotes ongoing clinical refinement that operates in the client's best interest (Common and Lane, 2017). In the present study, we explored the intersection of treatment acceptability and outcome preference for two popular social skills interventions for children with autism. In this study, undergraduate students viewed video vignettes of pre-and post-intervention behavior samples from two social skills teaching conditions –prompting and a narrative intervention. Pilot data show that participants rated one intervention with higher treatment acceptability compared to the other, but rated the other treatment’s outcome as higher. We discuss the implications of these findings for the social acceptability of behavior analytic intervention procedures, and we hope that the results of this study will inform clinicians regarding how to enhance the acceptability of their behavior analytic interventions.
INCREASING MANDS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER BY MANIPULATING THE MOTIVATING OPERATIONS
Abstract: Mands, under the control of motivating operations, are commonly taught using function-based interventions to replace maladaptive behaviors exhibited by children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; Carr & Durand, 1985, Michael, 1988). This study sought to evaluate the effects of manipulating motivating operations during mand training in order to decrease grabbing behavior in 3 male participants diagnosed with ASD and between the ages of 7 and 11. The first phase of this study consisted of an abolishing operations (AO) phase, where participants were given free access to preferred items. The second phase of the study consisted of an establishing operations (EO) phase, where preferred items were placed in a clear box that was visible but out of reach. Through visual inspection, the preliminary data of this study demonstrated that the AO phase evoked high levels of problem behavior and low levels of manding while the EO phase evoked low to zero levels of problem behavior and high levels of independent mands. The implications of this study demonstrate the importance of motivating operations during mand training and may be of use to practitioners during mand training.
FINDING EFFICIENCY IN PARENT EDUCATION: FEEDING INTERVENTION AND FLOW CHARTS
Abstract: Many children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are highly selective in the variety of foods they eat, which can result in poor nutrition and inappropriate mealtime behavior (Ahearn et al., 2001). Behavioral interventions, implemented by clinicians and parents, have been successful in improving children’s food acceptance (Bachmeyer, 2009). Researchers have called for component analyses of treatment packages (e.g., Behavioral Skills Training; BST) to evaluate the efficiency of training others to implement feeding interventions (Najdowski et al., 2010). Recently, Aclan & Taylor (2017) investigated the effectiveness of written instructions and feedback to teach parents to implement feeding procedures. The current study extends this research by systematically introducing the components of BST with one additional component, a flow chart, to caregivers of children with food selectivity. The flow chart, a hybrid of both visual prompts and task analyses (Danforth, 1998), has not been evaluated with pediatric feeding interventions. Thus far we have found encouraging results for the use of flow charts in parent education.