Association for Behavior Analysis International

People with autism spectrum disorder exhibit behaviors that may negatively impact their own quality of life as well as of their caregivers. Their challenging behaviors are correlated with negative psychological outcomes in their caregivers, such as stress, anxiety, and depression. Mindfulness-based interventions provide an evidence-based approach for alleviating emotional dysregulation in people with various psychological, medical, and physical problems. Mindfulness involves awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance of thoughts, emotions, feelings, and perceptions in the present moment. A mindful individual is able to reflect and respond to events rather than automatically react to them. This process of self-regulation in the present moment has been associated with enhanced quality of life. This presentation will review current research on mindfulness-based interventions for both people with autism and their caregivers.

Board certified behavior analysts, licensed psychologists, graduate students.

Patricia F. Kurtz is an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She serves as the Director of the Outpatient Programs of Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Neurobehavioral Unit, which provides intensive assessment and treatment for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities who exhibit severe problem behavior.  Dr. Kurtz’s clinical and research activities focus on functional analysis and treatment approaches for problem behavior and their utility in outpatient service settings; parent/staff training; generalization of treatment effects and long-term outcome following inpatient or outpatient treatment; and early identification and prevention of self-injurious behavior.

Individuals with autism are at increased risk of developing severe behavior problems such as self-injury and aggression. Problem behavior remains among the most serious challenges for the habilitation of persons with autism, and the largest barrier to community integration. Based on decades of research, a best practices model has emerged whereby problem behavior is assessed via functional analysis (Iwata et al, 1982/1994) to determine the environmental variables that occasion and maintain the behavior (the function); a treatment is then selected that matches that function. Inclusion of parents/caregivers in assessment of problem behavior can improve functional analysis accuracy and produce effective interventions. This presentation will review clinical practices and research findings demonstrating the efficacy of using caregivers as therapists in functional analyses and treatment services for severe problem behavior.

PENDING

Despite several applied demonstrations of emergent (novel) performances produced through conditional discrimination training, the technology from the stimulus equivalence literature has not yet been well integrated into early intensive intervention curricula. The purpose of this talk is to describe the implications of using equivalence-based instruction for teaching basic and advanced skills to preschool children with autism. We will review the stimulus equivalence paradigm and present examples from different translational and applied studies that used this technology to teach reading, geography, coin identification, activity schedules, and music to children with autism. Implications for practice and directions for future applied research will be discussed.

Board certified behavior analysts, licensed psychologists, graduate students.

The behavior of young siblings of children with autism has been documented extensively in controlled longitudinal studies using large samples. Language and communicative abilities have been compared between non-autistic siblings and toddlers with no family history of autism. Between the ages 18-27 months the siblings of children with autism have scored below average in expressive language and composite IQ, showed lower mean receptive language, adaptive behavior, and social communication skills, used fewer words, gestures, and were less responsive to social smiles than the comparison toddlers. Infants siblings of children with ASD often show difficulties learning joint attention and referential communication. These findings suggest that infant difficulties with nonverbal communication can predict later language development problems. At an early age, the behavior of non-autistic siblings we should monitored closely and behavioral interventions should be implemented early in development to minimize some of these issues. This presentation will illustrate several procedures that use behavioral principles and single-subject designs with infants at-risk of early communication impairments. Specifically, the presentation will provide examples of behavior-analytic interventions that are useful to establish infant eye contact, vocalizations, joint attention, and social referencing skills.

Board certified behavior analysts, licensed psychologists, graduate students.