Association for Behavior Analysis International

Epidemiological and experimental studies have pointed out the relationship between prenatal stress, pulmonary hyperresponsiveness and increased vulnerability to asthma. From the perspective of behavior analysis, it is important to investigate the effects of organisms prenatal life history. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of prenatal exposure to aversive stimuli on the propensity of adult offspring to suffer from asthma. For this, pregnant rats were subjected to one of two treatments: (1) an intense session of stressors, acute and uncontrollable (60 electric shocks in legs), or (2) and chronic mild aversive stimuli, according to the protocol of the CMS (Chronic Mild Stress), put up immediately after birth. Control groups were kept under normal conditions. At three months old, the offspring were anesthetized, tracheostomized and was assessed responsiveness to methacholine (an experimental model of asthma). The assessment of lung mechanics showed higher values in the parameters of airway elastance and resistance (hyperresponsiveness) in both groups of offspring from females treated with acute and chronic aversive stimulus, when compared to controls (P<0,05). These results suggest that exposure to "stressors" in intrauterine life may contribute to pulmonary hyperresponsiveness of offspring in adulthood, demonstrating that the life history of the subject, even in utero, can have impacts on their adult lives.

Se evalu? un procedimiento para identificar posibles reforzadores con 6 individuos diagnosticados con autismo. Se utiliz? un procedimiento de1 minuto libre operante donde la activaci?n de un micro interruptor resulta en la presentaci?n contingente de una consecuencia social. Cada participante fue expuesto a 5 consecuencias sociales diferentes. Tras la evaluaci?n de preferencia examinamos la propiedad reforzante de los est?mulos sociales preferidos durante 48 sesiones de intervenci?n de atenci?n conjunta. En estas sesiones los est?mulos sociales fueron contingentes a la presencia de conductas de atenci?n conjunta. Los resultados revelaron que: a) los est?mulos sociales preferidos produjeron mayores tasas de respuestas durante la intervenci?n que en la l?nea de base b) el n?mero total de activaciones de el micro interruptor en la evaluaci?n de preferencia social se correlaciona significativamente con la pendiente de la intervenci?n. Estos resultados sugieren que el procedimiento se puede utilizar para evaluar posibles refuerzos sociales para personas con autismo y el n?mero total de activaciones de el micro interruptor puede tener una capacidad de predicci?n de que tan bien los individuos con autismo responder?n a una intervenci?n de atenci?n conjunta con refuerzos sociales.

Research literature has evaluated the stability across time of preferences for tangible reinforcers for individuals with developmental disabilities. This literature suggests that preference for tangible reinforcers is idiosyncratic and unstable across time. To date, however, the stability of preference over time for social reinforcers has not been empirically studied. Currently, it is unknown the extent to which preference for social reinforcers is similar or different to preference for non-social reinforcers. As treatment approaches begin to target important socially-based skills like joint attention, information regarding the stability of socially-based (i.e., functional reinforcers) becomes important for the development and refinement of effective interventions. This study investigates the stability of preference for social reinforcers across three time points using two different preference assessments for children with autism. Results show that stability of preference for socially-based stimuli may be variable across time and across types of assessments.

We studied the effects of a fluency-based listener programs package on the performance of two students with high rates of avoidance behavior and low performances during 1:1 listener instruction. The package was designed to decrease latency of response following teachers antecedents for imitation and follow direction programs and to improve students compliance. Participant 1was a three year old male with autism who functioned as an emergent listener emergent speaker and Participant 2 was a six year old male at an emergent listener pre-speaker level of verbal behavior. The treatment incorporated all the students previously mastered imitating actions and directions and was implemented until fluency criterion was reached. The dependent variables measured in this study were the number of learn units to criterion emitted by participants before and after implementation of the listener training and the rate of avoidance behavior during 1:1 instruction before and after treatment. The design for this study was a delayed multiple baseline across participants. The study is still in progress.

Social skills are often taught by video-modeling and/or using tangible reinforcers, whereas in daily living we engage in social practices in varied forms and due some intrinsic motivation. A procedure was designed to teach social skills with a specific establishing operation before a chain of social interactions. In Experiment 1, four 4-to-5 typically developing children participated. The experimenter required from the children to complete an album of collection stamps (as an establishing operation) and she taught them to follow a 3-questions chain. Thereafter, each question was modified by the consequences given by the experimenter, which resulted in a large number of behavior combinations to complete the album. The procedure was effective for the children to learn to make all questions. They generalized the skills to interacting with their peers and to several settings. In Experiment 2, the procedure was replicated with an 11-year-old child with Asperger syndrome. He required additional procedures but acquired the skills and generalized it to their peers and other settings. A 7-old-child with Asperger syndrome did not acquire the first questions, very likely because he lacked basic verbal skills. Thus, the procedure opens a way to teach social skills as people do in daily living.

Children with autism frequently fail to complete matching-to-sample tasks. Establishing the appropriate stimulus control is central to master matching-to-sample tasks. In the present study we report the case of a child that was able to match real objects and was able to match any new object presented. However, he did not perform correctly in tasks that involve bi-dimensional stimuli, such as images or color spots. After using other unsuccessful procedures, he continued responding randomly to these matching-to-sample tasks. We designed a procedure where we turned the bi-dimensional stimuli into an almost three-dimensional one. We then gradually faded this prompt until the comparison were bi-dimensional again. We used the prompting procedure with one set of three images only. Subsequently, he acquired the ability to match any image. He responded correctly with novel stimuli sets, including drawings and family pictures.

Applied behavior analytic treatment (usually people think DTT) has been named the gold standard for treating those with autism. Although a DTT approach has been extremely successful at training a wide variety of skills to learners with ASD, there are some potential problems with the approach— "prompt dependency" and lack of generalization. Another behavior analytic approach to teaching is based on a free operant model, fluency training (Lindsly,1992; Binder,1996). Most of the research on fluency based instruction has included several other variables and has been conducted under the moniker precision teaching (Holding, Brae, and Kehle,2010) . The current study aimed to compare modern DTT practices against FT in regards to teaching learners with ASD to receptively identify colors and shapes. The results of the study will be discussed in relation to practice for behavior analysts and a brief discussion will be presented on free operant versus discrete trial formats.

The purpose of the study is to describe the procedures and results of a program with parents and children with autism in a public university. Through a partnership with USPs Genome Program, USP's CAIS Project receives children diagnosed with autism. These children receive weekly behavioral treatment for one hour while their parents are taught behavior analysis concepts as well as how to apply programs of motor, cognitive, social abilities and verbal behavior skills. These treatments and teaching are done by teams formed by undergraduate and post-graduate students in Psychology. The work begins with behavioral assessment that aims to identify the development of the childs repertoires such as eye contact, motor imitation, echoic, tact, mand, intraverbal and independence skills. At the same time, available parents or caregivers are assisted and guided in the management of contingencies for the development of appropriate repertoire mentioned. Professionals and students involved meet weekly on the supervision with the program coordinator, in which the course of the treatment is planned. A decrease in the repertoire of behaviors incompatible with the session (such as stereotypies, self-injurious and echolalia) was observed. Considering the short weekly sessions, important skills have been learned and generalized to the environment.

The aim of this research is to teach waiting and turn taking skills to children with autism by least-to-most prompts method via mothers. This research is carried out with two mothers and their 8-year-old daughter and son with autism. Waiting and turn taking skills are tought to the mothers who are brough up as instructive individually by describe-model-guided practice-feedback sequence. Instructive mothers have learned how to carry out teaching process in three teaching settings. In this research instructive mothers are evaluated if they teach their children with autism waiting and turn taking skills by least-to-most prompts method with imitating vocal objects (maracas, tambourine, trampet). Waiting and turn taking skills are prerequisite to acquire many skills. The students who don?t have this skills are observed that they can?t keep the teaching process in basic level, waiting target stimulus, response and perceptions of instructive responses. Gaining these skills is a proof for applicants about students educational control. All experimental sessions were conducted in a 1:1 teaching format. A multiple probe design across behaviors was used and replicated across subjects. There are probe, intervention, generalization and maintenance sessions in the study. Research results will be discussed.

This paper will present a classroom-based intervention at a preschool in Portugal. The evaluation and intervention process will be described, as well as the intervention's results, generalization and collateral effects on Peers' and staff's behavior.

Autism is a neurological disorder, which affects social and communication skills, as well as motor and language skills. It is a condition that usually results in lifelong disability and dependence. Being able to screen and diagnose children with autism by the time they are the age of 2 is essential. By age 2 developmental precursors of autism symptoms that can be used to diagnose children reliably and by the age 3, the diagnosis is thought to be relatively stable (Webb & Jones, 2009). Being able to identify the early characteristics and the onset of the symptoms has become crucial, especially as we are recognizing the importance of early intervention services for the developmental progress of children within the autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). In this paper we describe a very brief background on autism as well as some recent history about early intervention services for children with autism. We also review various different intervention programs developed for children with autism such as Applied Behavior Analysis, TEACCH program, Project DATA, and The LEAP program with an emphasis on the birth to 3 age group, and which one plays a more significant role in enhancing functioning in later life. The review is currently ongoing and has no Conclusion as of yet.

Severe problem behaviors are observed in a number of autistic and developmentally disabled clients. This includes self injurious behavior, aggressiveness, self stimulatory behavior and compulsiveness. Treatment procedures often must include many different elements, based on positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, mild punishment, negative punishment and extinction. We will present an analysis of such treatment plans and data of the outcome. Improvement of complex behavioral problems will often be very gradual and slow, therefore long term follow up data will also be presented together with video examples. Data show variability in frequency but a steady decline across months. Procedures have been faded from more intrusive to less restrictive. Data shows that bringing high frequent behavior low is easier than to bring problem behavior to a zero level. We do not have any good predictors for treatment outcome at the present time. Some children will in spite of early intervention based on ABA develop severe behavior problems. Designing treatment plans for these children call for extensive resources and staff training. And treatment plans based upon multiple response consequences raise ethical issues to be discussed.

The Early Intensive Behavior Intervention (EIBI) program at the West Montreal Readaptation Centre has the mandate to provide intensive services to children under the age of six years with autism spectrum disorders. More than 100 children annually are provided 20 hours of service through this program which is funded entirely by the provincial gouvernment of Quebec. Moreover, the program is offered in different locations (home, daycare, school or centre based) to meet the family and child needs. The purpose of this symposium is to present the model of service delivery, the program components for success (intervention team, staff and parent training, kindergarten preparation program, evaluation and intervention tools) and the research study in progress to evaluate the model efficacy and the children outcome measures.

Although ABA has a more than two decades long history in Turkey, comprehensive ABA interventions with individuals with autism have started in the past several years only. OCIDEP is a pioneering early and intensive behavioral intervention program initiated at the Research Institute for the Handicapped, Anadolu University in 2006. More than 10 children with autism in three different provinces have been admitted to OCIDEP during the five-year duration. Some of these children have been receiving center-based services whereas most of them have been receiving home-based services. Both types of services have been carried out by a team consisting of a PhD level coordinator, three PhD level consultants, and several home tutors. OCIDEP curriculum is mainly based on Lovaas (2003). However, the team modifies and expands this program based on the relevant literature as well as their experiences in delivering ABA-based interventions (e.g., response prompting procedures, motivating operations such as choice opportunities, behavior management techniques, etc.). Tutors are monitored by consultants weekly or biweekly whereas all children are monitored by the coordinator biweekly via face-to-face or web-based coordination meetings by the attendance of the coordinator and the consultants. Recently a distance-consultation system has been started. In this new system, home tutors video-record several teaching episodes via an internet camera during the week and these videos are watched by the consultant and the tutors simultaneously during the web-based consultation meetings. During the consultation meetings, the consultants and tutors discuss about the videos, evaluate the activities of the previous week and plan the activities of the following week. This new format is expected to contribute to the dissemination of the program countrywide. Features and outcomes of OCIDEP will be shared with the audience during the proposed presentation.

Although still controversial, the argument that the inability to spontaneously imitate as a neonate is the core deficit in the development of autism is gaining acceptance. Furthermore, with the discovery at the University of Parma of the Mirror Neuron System, a neurological basis for imitation appears to have been established. The problem still remains: What do these developments mean for intervention? Nadel?s work in Paris on variations of the Still Face paradigm with children on the spectrum has demonstrated that imitation and social interest can be generated as the result of being imitated. With that breakthrough, we now have available imitation as both an intervention tool and as the key intervention focus. In this presentation, the above arguments will be reviewed followed by a consideration of recent efforts to translate those developments, Reciprocal Imitation Training, into effective intervention programs.

The Global Autism Project works to address the dearth of resources and extremely limited understanding of autism in developing countries by supporting autism centers in under-resourced communities worldwide. We implement a two-pronged community empowerment model that focuses on 1) training local individuals in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy and on 2) educating the administration of our partner institutions in sustainable business practices, with the goals of bolstering their financial stability, credibility, and internal consistency. The Global Autism Project has partnered effectively with three different international sites since 2003. Training in ABA methods, led by a team of therapists and BCBAs, has allowed international staff to design and employ effective learning programs tailored to each student's specific needs. Results of this model are an increased awareness of autism, improved administrative practices at the center, and a new community mindset focused on continued growth and progress, in addition to improved clinical practices. This presentation will focus on the successes and challenges of implementing international programs and explore the steps needed to replicate this work in other parts of the world. Considerations such as infrastructure, government support, cultural sensitivity, existing resources and sustainability will be discussed.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the environmental stimulus control on relapse to drug use measured by the “cue-induced” procedure. Two groups of rats were exposed to a discrimination procedure. Lever press responses in the presence of orange odor (SD1) were followed by a light stimulus (Sr1) and ethanol (group 1) or sacarose (group 2) release, while responses in the presence of anise odor (SD2) were followed by a sonorous stimulus (Sr2) and water release. Next, lever press responses were extinct. After extinction phase, SDs and Srs were reintroduced in the reinstatement phase, but lever press responses were not followed by ethanol, sacarose or water. Initially SDs and Srs were presented in the same session and next each stimulus was presented in separate sessions. This procedure was performed three times to control order effect. The results showed that only Sr1 presentation, alone or in conjunction with SD1, was effective in reinstating lever pressure response for both groups. The results suggest that the cue-induced procedure may not be the most suitable one to study discriminative control over drug self-administration.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the environmental stimulus control on relapse to drug use measured by the "cue-induced" procedure. Two groups of rats were exposed to a discrimination procedure. Lever press responses in the presence of orange odor (SD1) were followed by a light stimulus (Sr1) and ethanol (group 1) or sucrose (group 2) release, while responses in the presence of anise odor (SD2) were followed by a sonorous stimulus (Sr2) and water release. Next, lever press responses were extinct. After extinction phase, SDs and Srs were reintroduced in the reinstatement phase, but lever press responses were not followed by ethanol, sucrose or water. Initially SDs and Srs were presented in the same session and next, each stimulus was presented in separate sessions. This procedure was performed three times to control order effect. The results showed that only Sr1 presentation, alone or in conjunction with SD1, was effective in reinstating lever pressure response for both groups. The results suggest that the cue-induced procedure may not be the most suitable one to study discriminative control over drug self-administration.

The Inventory of Drug-Taking Situation was applied to a sample of 1038 high school students with a range of age between fourteen and twenty years old, with the purpose of identify most alcohol consumption common situations. The sample was composed of 43.3% men and 56.6% women. The results indicated that the more frequent situations for alcohol consumption in both sexes are: pleasant moments with others, men with a X = 27.20 and the women with a X = 21.54, pleasant emotions, men with a X = 24.88 and women with a X= 19.85, and social pressure to use, men with X= 21.16 and women with a = 18.00, which corresponds to a positive profile. On the other hand the situations that presented the highest correlations were: unpleasant emotions with conflicts with others (r=.820) and pleasant moments with others with social pressure (r=.775). The factorial analysis consisted in evaluating the structural properties of the Inventory through the construct validity found in the factorial analysis with varimax rotation by the principal components method and the reliability by the Cronbach alpha. The analysis of the above conditions brought up a result of six factors in its factorial analysis. A Cronbach alpha of 0.94 was established.

The aim of the present study is to analyze the efficacy of a pre-post pilot individual intervention aimed at training caregivers in behavioral skills to modify their relative's resistance to attend the day care center. Three dementia family caregivers were trained in assessment techniques for registering and describing the behaviors related with 'resistance to go at the day care center' and in behavioral techniques for modifying antecedents and consequences of the behaviors. Caregivers' depressive symptomatology, anxiety, dysfunctional thoughts about caregiving and perceived resistance for attending the day care center were assessed. After the intervention, the resistance changed for every user. Anxiety and depression decreased clinically for two participants. The functional capacity that the caregiver attributes to the user was closer to the level attributed by professionals after the intervention. Behavioral modification seems to be effective for helping caregivers to manage the disruptive behaviors associated with attending the day care center.

The Experiencing of Self Scale was created for FAP evaluation about the concept and experience of personal self, socially and verbal constructed (Kohlenberg and Tsai, 1991, 2001, 2008). Problems with that self-concept could derive on psychological problems, breaking relations from private events and external relations with relatives. EOSS asks to the participants about sentiments, needs, attitudes, opinions and actions in casual relationship and with close friends or loved ones. The Spanish sample was 483 participants, range from 18 to 53 years old (139 men and 344 women), gathered from different cities, universities and clinical centers. The clinical sample was of 129 people with psychological or psychiatric treatments and 364 without problems. They were used others questionnaires for validity study (EPQ-R, DES, RSES). The results showed high internal reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha=.934) and high and significative correlations with “neuroticism” scale of EPQ-R (.457, p<.001), “despersonalization” of DES (r=.483, p<.001) and negative with self-esteem of RSES (r=-.330, p<.001). EOSS has 2 principal factors: one about negative self-concept items and other about positive creativity and spontaneity items. The partials and total scores of EOSS differentiated also the clinical sample with high scores from the standard sample (t=-4.53, gl=179, p<.001).

The development and results of a clinical case through FAP with an intervention based on an “unstable self” (Kohlenberg & Tsai, 1991) instead of a classic treatment for depression are presented. Gloria was a college student 20 years old. The trigger of problems was a sentimental break and academic failure. She was fulfilling the criteria of Major Depressive Disorder, such as depressive mood, decrease of interest, insomnia, tired, fatigue, low concentration, guilty and uselessness sentiments. From the first assessment we concluded she had an “unstable self”. She had difficulty knowing what she felt, what she wanted, what she thought, very sensitive to criticism, always depending on who was present. She showed high scores in questionnaires (BDI, AAQ, EOSS) indicating moderate depression, no acceptance of feelings, and high public control of self. The treatment lasted 23 sessions, with a follow-up 13 months later. The Functional Analytic Psychotherapy was applied, centered on clinical relevant responses into session and type 2 behaviors on daily life. The results showed the elimination of diagnostic criteria based on her behaviors in and out of sessions, and great decrease in questionnaires scores. Follow-up showed yet lower levels of her problems.

Developing self-report behavior and describing social contingencies may contribute to social competency and prevent socioemotional behavior problems. This study investigated children's self-report on social demands and their descriptions of social contingencies, using drawings representing different social situations. Nine participants with different social patterns (aggressive, socially skilled, and passive, according to teacher's nomination) aged 7 years-old were submitted to the presentation of: (1) twelve social situations, (2) three possible responses (socially skilled; aggressive and passive) to each one and, (3) their respective consequences. Children had to report which one of the three options he/she would perform and after that, they had to choose the possible consequence related to each social response. Choices of the appropriate consequence to each social response were classified as correct, and choices of inappropriate consequences were considered incorrect. Children chose the correct consequences to more than half of the social situations (50% to 100%). For all children, the highest percentage of success occurred to the skilled responses. Statistical analysis will be done to compare differences among the groups, children's self-report responses will be analyzed, and the sample will be expanded. Data will be discussed considering their educational and therapeutic implications.

Acceptance and Commitment Theory and Functional Analysis Psychotherapy studies and research focus on behavioral flexibility as core skill correlated with better quality of life and satisfaction. To improve flexibility in child and teenagers at learning centre TICE, one of the early ABA centre in Italy, we started to apply ACT-FAP strategies with functional assessment, mindfulness, multiple exemplars exposure and other esperential exercise. According with FAP we define OS (outside sessions behaviors) and to change OS we work on CRB (clinical relevant behaviors – directly in sessions). According Derived Relational Responding and Relational Frame Theory basic science we induce undirectly trained appropriate responses using contingent respond of the operator to behavior of the subjects and to achieve this objective we adopt ACT resources and tools, but also a FAP stance. We collect and validate procedures in some distinct "curricula" we used to produce this improvements. Data were collected with direct observations, functional analysis and self reported measures.

The purpose of this presentation was to describe a procedure to speak sequentially about lived experiences. The participant was a ten year old boy classified with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD - NOS). The boy was mainstreamed in a public school with children his own age, in a suburb of a large city in Spain, and was accompanied by a therapist who facilitated appropriate social experiences. The boy had speaker repertoire in that he could request things and make comments about things that he saw or experience. However, he was not able to speak sequentially to tell about what he did. The procedure consisted of teaching the autoclitics of First, Next and Last, and involved several phases: (1) To complete a series of motor actions and talk about them in the order they occurred. (2) To answer the teachers questions in writing or making simpe drawings. (3) To describe the sequencing of drawings presented to him. (4) To draw and talk about his own daily experiences and (5) to describe verbally about the things he did or happened to him. The procedure was successful to teach this boy to retell his experiences.

The objectives of this poster session are to describe the procedures and results of the parent training and coaching in the Parent Implemented Communication Strategies (PiCS) project, which was funded by the US Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Parents of young children with disabilities and very limited expressive language were trained and coached, in their homes, on the use of four naturalistic strategies (i.e., environmental arrangement, modeling, mand-model, and time delay) and three visual strategies (i.e., visual schedules, visual rule reminders, and visual task analysis). A multiple-probe design across strategies within each family assessed the effectiveness and feasibility of the intervention. Data were collected on both parent and child behavior during naturally occurring parent-child interactions. In addition, formal and informal communication assessments were administered to the children. Analysis of parents performance data reveals that the PiCS intervention has been effective on two levels: parents have implemented the strategies with high fidelity and their children have improved their social-pragmatic communication skills. In addition, as measured by social validity questionnaires and interviews, PiCS parents have been very satisfied with the program and its outcomes. PiCS project outcomes are promising to the field of early childhood special education.

This poster will discuss a decision-making flowchart developed after three years of research (Peterson, 2006) to develop an intervention to decrease problem behavior motivated by escape and increase task engagement. Our research showed that children with disabilities responded idiosyncratically to the two interventions we compared (a DRA with stimulus fading and a DRA with stimulus fading and break mand available). We found that some children performed better when the break mand was available, some children performed more poorly when the break mand was available, and for some children the presence of the break mand was irrelevant. Therefore, we developed a decision-making flow chart that utilizes choice probes to identify which intervention will be most effective for which children and at which point in time. Thus, as children participate in intervention, probes are conducted to determine when the intervention components can be faded. The flow chart is a proposed model that is currently being tested in our current research. The flowchart is "clickable" and interactive. It is freely available on-line for individuals to download. If possible (given the availability of outlets for computers to plug in), the flowchart will be available for participants to try, and DVDs will be provided to participants with the flowchart on it. Included in the flowchart are videos to demonstrate how to implement the intervention and decision-making model, as well as data sheets to track student progress.

Two models for delivering services to severely behaviorally disordered persons diagnosed with Developmental Disabilities will be discussed. The first model, the Seguin Unit, is state operated and acquires clients via court referrals. These clients are accused of violent crimes (e.g. rape, child abuse, homicide) but upon evaluation, have been found incompetent to proceed with trial but at risk for committing more violent acts. The Seguin Unit is a maximum security facility which provides residential placement, behavioral assessments, relapse prevention training, counseling, nursing, and related services to all clients. Through a set of conjoint criteria, clients are able to work their way up through a series of levels towards residential placements which are less restrictive until they are returned to community placements. These conjoint contingencies are behaviorally based. First, clients must satisfy the behavioral contingency for their level in the program, measured by the frequency and severity (major, moderate, or minor) of Maladaptive Behaviors they exhibit. The second criteria is measured by the level of mastery a client shows in the Relapse Prevention Curriculum. The third contingency is based on the consensus of monthly evaluations by members of the interdisciplinary team. As clients exhibit fewer serious maladaptive behaviors and master elements of the relapse prevention curriculum, they become eligible for advancement to higher (i.e. less restrictive)levels. While complex, this system, based on applied behavior analysis is able to satisfy concerns for public safety, judicial concerns, therapeutic concerns, and ethical concerns of the clients. The second model, the Intensive Behavioral Group Home (IB) model, is operated by a private non-profit community based organization, the ARC of the St. Johns. All of these clients have histories of severe behavior issues and are referred to the IB Program from a variety of sources. The IB Program provides a highly structured but homelike setting. Each IB group home has a specially designed, state approved Time Out Room where clients are transported when they exhibit violent behaviors. Each client has an Individualized Behavior Services Plan. The Behavior Services Plan specifies behaviors targeted for a reduction in frequency, replacement behaviors, criteria for entering or being released from the TO Room, and their Positive Interaction Plans. Behavioral Data is collected at 1 minute intervals or as needed.

Using a multiple-baseline design, we examined a protocol aimed at conditioning observing responses in young children with developmental disabilities. The observation of print stimuli is considered a critical behavioral cusp, a pre-requisite skill which may enhance subsequent learning in many areas. For example, in the absence of an observing repertoire one might fail to learn to discriminate between various stimuli in the environment efficiently. This poster presents data on the effects of a response-stimulus pairing procedure in which observing responses were paired with highly preferred reinforcers for two children with disabilities. Initial baseline measures consisted of the percentage of 5 second intervals in which the participants observed print stimuli for the entire interval. Intervention phases consisted of pair and test trials, and test trial performance is graphed (e.g., in the 5 second phase the percentage of 5 second intervals the child engaged in an observing responses for the entire 5 seconds). Moreover, secondary measures aimed at validating the general value of the observing repertoire (learn units on matching to sample protocols) is also presented.

Elderly individuals in long-term residential care often exhibit problem behaviors, such as wandering. Despite common occurrence of problem behaviors in residential care units, only a limited number of studies have examined the functional determinants of problem behaviors, and implemented functionally based interventions. In the present study, descriptive functional analysis and reinforcer assessment indicated that wandering was maintained by attention. We employed a Fixed-Time (FT) procedure or Non-Contingent Reinforcement (NCR) to reduce wandering in an elderly patient with dementia. A withdrawal design was used to evaluate the effect of FT scheduled presentation of preferred stimuli. The study was implemented in the participants natural nursing home environment. Data on inter-observer agreement and treatment integrity was collected in at least 20 % of all sessions. The data indicate that preferred attention presented on FT schedules reduced wandering. The effectiveness of behavior analytic procedures in reducing problem behaviors in with persons with dementia indicates an unexplored field outside the field of autism and mental retardation.

We used a multiple baseline design across two individuals to measure the effect of preferred activities on levels of objectively perceived happiness. The two participants had moderate dementia assessed with MMSE (scores respectively 18 and 19). Happiness, or indices of happiness, was defined as in Green and Reid (1996), and included smiling and laughter. Indices of happiness were measured before and during intervention. In all phases, inter-observer agreement and treatment integrity was measured in at least 20 % of the sessions, and was more than 90 %. Activities were identified as preferred, based on an individual preference-assessment. Three activity packages, consisting of walking, going to a café and talking about the past, were implemented as an addition to the daily care program. The combination of preferred activity packages, and social interaction, resulted in higher levels of happiness in the participants. The results indicate that preference-assessment and implementation of preferred activities may be useful in the care for persons with dementia.

Applied behavior analysts consider goal pursuit is regulated by self-guiding behavior that has been reinforced in the persons history. Cultures that value high academic achievement and competition may collectively "prime" goal pursuit through explicit and implicit means. While Bargh et al. (2001) proposed that goals can be activated outside of awareness through a priming manipulation, this study examined the effect of using more explicit "priming" as antecedent stimuli on a word-search puzzle in 40 Japanese university students. In the priming task, at first, a fixation point on a computer screen appeared followed by a series of single achievement-relevant words. Participants individually touched assigned key when a word appeared to the right or left of the initial fixation point on the screen. Those in the neutral priming condition saw neutral words and did the same. After the priming task, they engaged in a Japanese word-search puzzle to find as many words as possible within 3 minutes. The results showed equally high levels of performance by "primed" and "non-primed" students. Although contingent reinforcement of goal-oriented performance would distinguish student outcome more clearly, these results suggest academic goal behaviors may be activated by the presentation of a challenging task alone.

The language hypothesis proposes a transition from a contingencies-shaped to rules-governed behavior (Lowe, 1979). Studies supporting this hypothesis would be owed to an artefact of experimental techniques (Clément, Lattal, Rivire, Darcheville, 2007). An experimental design is proposed to solve this misunderstanding. Participants are submitted to two procedures using a touch screen and the same types of reinforcement schedules. The participants are aged between 4 to 6 years-old, distributed in two groups : one with children having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and an other with typical children. In experiment H (Hayes, Brownstein, Hass & Greenway, 1986) each participant receives one rule to complete a multiple schedule. In experiment L (Laberge, Forget, Rivard & Clement, 2010), its the comparison of behavior in multiple and mixed schedules that allows to evaluate the effect of rule on behavior. The preliminary results show that there are no differences between typical and children with ASD. In the procedure H, the accuracy of the rule doesnt seem to influence the behavior. In the procedure L, the girls behaviors, with or without ASD, seem to be more rule-governed. Additional data to be collected. The results will help to individualize intervention programs intended for children with ASD.

The present study examined differences in the social referencing skills of 8- to 10-month-old infants of depressed mothers versus non-depressed mothers in a base-level assessment. A short intervention was provided to determine whether depressed mothers could facilitate their infants' social referencing behaviors and reduce their avoidance of ambiguous objects. Mothers in the experimental group were trained on how to provide cues and prompts for infant responses every time an ambiguous object was presented to the infant. This finding is consistent with the results of Stenbergs (2003) study that indicated that maternal inattentiveness may evoke less referencing and less exploring behavior in infants. Repeated measure ANOVA was used in analyzing infant reaching responses of depressed mothers in intervention phase vs. base-level assessment. During the intervention phase, infants of depressed mothers referenced more frequently their mother's facial and vocal expressions upon the presentation of the ambiguous objects and reached more frequently for these objects and in accordance with the maternal positive cues. No behavioral changes were noted in infants in the control group compared to the base-level.

Even though the matching-to-sample is an economic procedure, new directly non-trained relations could emerge under the control of common response to the various trainings (selections response) or by the same consequence applied to different trainings (common reinforcement). This present study has the objective to show the development of a procedure of textual and echoic training, having as nodule a specific reinforcement (token) common only to the class of words trained with pre-scholars students without the reading behavior, demanding common answers (identity training) and vocal answers from the participants, in an attempt to isolate the specific reinforcement as nodule for the emergence of relations between auditory and visual stimulus. The Experiment 1 was conducted with three children, using the software MTS and printed words in cards. In this experiment, the identity training was made using only one comparison in an errorless procedure. The results showed the participants obtained on average 62% of right answers in the post-test, indicating there was no visual discrimination. The Experiment 2, still in progress, uses the software "Contingência Programada," with a similar procedure as Experiment 1, but using four comparisons on the identity training.

The objective of this study was to assess impulsive behavior of adolescent witnesses of family violence compared to adolescents no witnessed violence under a paradigm of choice, manipulating dimensions of reinforcer such as Immediacy (I), Quality (Q ), Effort (E) and Rate of Reinforcement (R). Participated 42 high school students of México, 24 witnesses of family violence and 18 controls. Their ages ranged between 14 and 17 years old. Each participant chose between two concurrently presented math problems, each one associated to one dimension of reinforcement along a baseline, five sessions of evaluation and a session of replication. All dimensions were placed in direct competition with another over six possible pairs of combinations (RvQ, RvI, RvE, QvI, QvE, and IvE). The results indicate that adolescents witnessed violence had a higher number of impulsive choices when the dimensions in competition were the quality versus immediacy (QVI). These results are analyzed according to the matching law and its implications in applied behavior analysis.

A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to examine the effects of Direct Instruction (DI) on musical sight reading performance with teenage guitar students. All students had received 3- 4 years of traditional musical training where sight reading was part of the curriculum but still had difficulties sight reading. During baseline the students were taught by a conventional curriculum and teaching method, during intervention the students were taught by the methods of Direct Instruction and customized teaching materials. Performances on rhythmic reading, pitch reading, and melodic reading were assessed. All participants improved their performance on all variables during intervention and only then. Visual inspection of the data showed improvement in performance after 1-5 lessons and variability during baseline was reduced or disappeared after the intervention began. A direct replication of the study showed compatible results. All students improved their performance during intervention and only then.

We report progress in developing effective methodology for (1) establishing stimulus equivalence relations in matching to sample (MTS) and (2) applying such methods to teach functional skills to children with intellectual disabilities. Our goal has been to evolve methodology that can be implemented by teaching personnel without extensive professional training. We will report use of one such method, "learning by exclusion" (LBE). Briefly, the LBE method merely substitutes as yet undefined sample and comparison stimuli in configurations with sample-comparison pairs that have established matching histories. Under these conditions, students are likely to relate undefined sample and comparison stimuli spontaneously (i.e., on the first opportunity to do so). After a history of reinforced LBE trials, one may find that the undefined sample-comparison relation has become an equivalence relation. Moreover, when LBE is used, one often finds that children will learn new matching relations with few or no errors (see Table 1 in which the relations to be taught were monetary equivalences). In addition to examples of illustrative teaching applications, our poster will report recent work on developing a formally-defined LBE teaching algorithm, implemented via computer-managed instruction, that will guide teaching staff in conducting state-of-the-art LBE training in typical special education settings.

We tested the effect of a fluency-building strategy with implementation of Flash Card to promote the learning of basic principles of behavior analysis with college students. This study was conducted with a comparison of the results of the votations for the exam of psychology of the education, for the graduations in psychology at University of Parma, in Italy. During the lessons we provided to college students 40 definitions of basic aspects of behavior analysis including these definitions in the program for the course. At the end of the course we compare the results of the exams of first semester of 2009 with the same results of 2010 (after the introduction of the FlashCard). No other variations in the programs, teachers, or exams modalities. The results show an statistical significance improvement of the votation with the introduction of the Flash Card. Participant of the study were almost 300 college students.

In their article “Greatness and misery in the teaching of the psychology of learning”, Machado and Silva (1998) argue strongly for more emphasis on teaching behavior analytic principles instead of popular examples in higher education. We want to implement behavior analytic principles in teaching in higher education, utilizing Precision Teaching (PT) and the Standard Celeration Chart to increase the reading pace of students and thereby introduce behavior analytic principles. We defined students as belonging to one of two groups; students who are not able to complete the curriculum due to slow reading pace, and students who wish to become more effective in finishing the curriculum. In this presentation we review the behavioral literature on PT and slow reading students in higher education. We present a protocol for self-directed change in reading pace, and a plan for evaluating the effect of the protocol. A multiple-baseline design over participants is planned to measure the efficacy of PT on the reading skills in higher education students. Preliminary data used to adjust the protocol will be presented.

A group of behavior analysts developed a computerized teaching program that has been widely used in laboratory and school context. Satisfactory results have been obtained on teaching reading and writing basic skills in both contexts. The program, named Aprendendo a Ler e a Escrever em Pequenos Passos (ProgLeit), was developed based on literature on the formation of equivalence classes of stimuli. It has some of the features established as favorable for learning to read by anyone: speed and degree of difficulty are individually programmed and constant feedback is provided to the performance of the learner. Considering the positive results in controlled environments and school situation, it was possible to extend the controlled use of the teaching program to broader contexts, such as the students residence. The study aimed to evaluate the learning of reading of individuals with intellectual disabilities exposed to ProgLeit in their homes by monitoring their relatives. We used an individualized training and evaluation of results. The five apprentices went from zero performance and less than 20% accuracy in naming words printed on pre-test for average performance in the pos-test was near to 89.3% for trained words and 52% for generalization words, replicating the results of previous studies indicating that implementation in the residence and application by those families can be a promising learning situation for this population.

This presentation will introduce a new model of academic consultation that aims to improve grade school students' reading, writing, and math skills. The model was primarily designed using foundational principles of applied behavior analysis, allowing for a systems-level structure for creating and sustaining behavior change of educators within a school. More specifically, the model is intended to offer a pragmatic path for an educator or small group of educators to use well-aligned procedures for improving a school's response to struggling learners in the general education classroom. Attendees of this presentation will learn the primary components of this model and how the model can be used in schools with varying organizational structures, strengths, weaknesses, and resources. The presentation will also discuss implications for research and practice.

Many regular classrooms are faced with the need for effective assessments and supports to manage problem behaviors. Iwata et al. ‘s (1982) seminal research demonstrated specific functions of self-injurious behaviors based on direct observation, hypothesis building, and experimental manipulation. As a derivative, Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) with/without experimental manipulation has also proven useful in naturalistic settings such as school settings. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the applicability of FBAs for problem behaviors in regular classrooms. We conducted a literature search by the publication years of 1982-2010 and by keywords and identified 22 articles published in English. By coding these articles, the following results revealed; 1) FBA assessment results were clear and interventions were effective, 2) articles were published mainly during the last decade, 3) all studies included a natural setting, 4) the classroom teachers were the main agents in carrying out the interventions, 5) antecedents were also emphasized for assessment/manipulation, and 6) the most frequent target behaviors were ‘out-of-seat’ and ‘talking without permission’. The latter five findings were results specific to FBA studies conducted in regular classrooms. FBA is a feasible and promising method to manage undesirable behaviors and promote desirable behaviors in regular classrooms.

A plethora of research exists that documents the effects of teacher self-disclosure on pupil memory and pupil perceptions (for example, Ejsing, 2007; Woolfolk, 1979). Yet little research exists that examines self-disclosure in preservice teacher education. This poster will depict two studies that identified the perceptions of instructor use of self-disclosure on preservice teachers from instructor and teacher candidate perspectives. In addition, perceived benefits of instructor self-disclosure on student content knowledge and professional dispositions were determined. Two groups of subjects completed surveys on self-disclosure: instructors and undergraduate students enrolled in general education and inclusive education programs. Results indicate that all instructors embed self-disclosure in their courses to personalize content, to make content more interesting for students, and to extend lecture and text material. Instructors identified that self-disclosure positively impacts student grasp of content and attention in class. Students stated that self-disclosure helped them learn and remember course content, and get along better with others in the course. Teacher candidates reported that instructor self-disclosure modeled professional behavior for them. The limitations of the study will be displayed with recommendations for future research. Use of self-disclosure with preservice teachers who work in general education, special education, and inclusive education settings will be highlighted.

Children's on-task behavior decreases when engaging in an academic task requires more time to solve (response effort: Skinner, 1998), even if they can perform it accurately. However, contingent praise possibly counteracts this negative effct of response effort (Nishiyama & Tanaka-Matsumi, 2011). First, we assessed the functional relationship between response effort and on-task behavior during engagement in computation tasks of a 8 year-old boy with difficulties in attention, using reversal design (sessions 1-18). During sessions 1-18, the child engaged in less-effort or more-effort tasks, defined by time for solving a single problem, for one minute. Second, using an ABA design (sessions 19-54), we examined the effect of contingent praise (upon each problem completion) for on-task behavior during engagement in more-effort task (the child did not engage in less-effort task). Results showed that the child's on-task behavior decreased when engaging in more-effort task, however, the contingent praise improved it. The results suggested that contingent praise could counteract the negative effect of response effort on on-task behavior. The results also de monstrate the importance of decreasing response effort by choosing appropriate academic material, if a child were to work independently without continuous verbal reinforcement as is the case in a regular school setting.

Procedures based on stimulus equivalence have extensively proved its effectiveness to teach complex skills as reading and spelling. However, to enroll these reading programs (based mostly on matching-to-sample tasks-MTS), subjects often need to exhibit some prerequisites skills, much of them commonly absent for people with severe intellectual disabilities. This study aimed to build a training program to teach the necessary prerequisite skills so that children with intellectual disabilities could also benefit from regular reading programs. The following skills were identified as prerequisite: naming and recognition of pictures; identity between pictures and between textual stimuli, and identity constructed response matching-to-sample (CRMTS). The program was built upon MTS and CRMTS tasks, arranged from simpler to more difficult, and difficulty was increased gradually along small steps. When needed, facilitations strategies were added, such as fading, observational responses, delayed prompting, and a "dragging-to-sample" task. So far, four children participate in the ongoing program, and their preliminary results show significant increases in the prerequisite skills taught. Based on individual error patterns, different facilitation strategies were inserted for each child; all strategies were successful to increase the scores to meet the learning criteria. Later on, as a final evaluation, subjects who complete this program will get started at a regular reading program. The expected final product is a self-sufficient teaching program, to help leading children with intellectual disabilities to higher levels of reading comprehension.

In a second-grade class of a regular elementary school, an 8-years-old boy had behavioral problems in activities such as setting up lunch, cleaning up after lunch, and cleaning the classroom. Support was provided first individually to the boy and then to the class as a whole, according to multiple baseline design across activities. The support improved the boy's behavior; the improvement was greater and more stable when the entire class was supported than when the boy was supported individually. The class-wide support also improved the behavior of other students in the class. These results suggest that when behavior support in a regular class is planned, providing support to the whole class should have a higher priority than providing support to an individual student. A questionnaire asking about the social validity of the present study revealed that the teacher thought that the support procedures were highly effective but also found some parts of the procedures to burdensome.

The project was initially undertaken as a result of noted inconsistencies across mediators implementing the behavioural programs for 4 identified individuals residing in a group home setting. Despite on-going staff training, a systematic, structured plan was needed to increase staff consistency and accuracy. A three step plan was designed to rectify the problem. Step 1 consisted of a "Preparedness Check"- which surveyed staff to discover if they were adequately equipped to perform their duties. Step 2 involved a knowledge test designed to track the level of understanding of the written behavioural programs. Test results were reviewed with the staff and feedback was provided. Step 3, involved conducting focused observations along with feedback with each mediator/staff. Given that inconsistency of program implementation is not limited to group home settings the next phase of the project was to apply the same methodology with a family that was experiencing the same concerns within their family home. The results in both the residential group home and in the family home setting have been extremely positive. Mediators have found the overall strategy to be rewarding and the success of the specific behavioural programs has been enhanced by increasing both consistency and accuracy.

Cognitive restructuring is a therapeutic tool that is widely used by clinicians, specially the Socratic Method, that is considered its main therapeutic component. There are many contradictions that accompany the application of the Socratic Method and the research studies on the processes of this technique have not been clear, so virtually no progress has been made since it was initially proposed by Ellis and Beck over four decades ago. The aim of this work is to present the advances made by our research group in relation to the study of the mechanisms of change that occur when the Socratic Method is applied in clinical contexts. We analyzed the therapist-client interaction during the application of the Socratic Method by observing 65 fragments of clinical-session recording that involved seven different cases handled by the same cognitive-behavioral psychologist. Different coding instruments were used to register the verbal behavior of the psychologist and the clients. Sequential analysis was used to study the therapeutic interaction and differences were analyzed according to the effectiveness of Socratic method - total success, partial success, failure. The most important differences between more and less effective fragments concerned the therapist?s approval or disapproval of the client?s intermediate verbalizations regarding therapeutic goals. Also, the most successful fragments were characterized by the therapist presenting verbalizations that were preparatory for subsequent questions. The results suggest that a procedure of shaping may explain, at least in part, some of the changes that occur in the client?s verbalizations. Also, it seems that providing the client with the solution facilitates the occurrence of change in verbalizations during its implementation. We are aware of the need to extend the sample analyzed and of the need to investigate other possible sequences that influence change, but despite all these limitations, we hope that in the long run this kind of studies will result in higher quality practices by psychologists who deal with mental health.

India is a country of 1 billion people, 26 states, 33 languages and 2000 dialects. It also has more than a million population of children with Autism and many more children with Developmental Disabilities. ABA India registered in 2009, has been working extensively across India to bring evidence based practice in the country. ABA India pioneered the movement by advocating ABA through workshops, training programs and organizing the first ABA Conference in India. ABA India is a professional body run by ABA educated and Board Certified personnel. There are presently 3 BCBA and 3 BCaBA professionals along with another 7-8 professionals working towards certification. The demand for behavior analysis among parents of children with autism is on the rise and ABA India's mission of advancing ABA in India shows a positive trend.

Many children with autism display atypical behaviors that can make them unable to acquire new skills. These behaviors are often maintained by automatic reinforcement, hence the difficulty to treat them. In this presentation we summarize the data of a positive procedure used to reduce the frequency of disruptive behaviors of two people with autism. The participants were an eight year old non-vocal child who displayed spitting, regurgitating, and vomiting throughout the day and a 23 year old individual who displayed delayed echolalia throughout the day, a language disorder characterized by repeating at inappropriate place and time, sentences or parts of sentences heard before. The intervention consisted of applying a Differential Reinforcement of Other Behaviors (DRO). The data showed that the intervention was effective to reduce these behaviors significantly for both participants.

The purpose of this research was to teach the discrimination between "equal" and "different" for the quantities and written form of various numbers. In the procedure used, a contextual control for conditional discriminations that included compound stimuli was presented. A five year old girl learnt that the choice of one of the four comparisons (number one, number two, quantity one, quantity two) depended on the presentation of a contextual stimulus (equal or different) and a conditional stimulus composed of two words (one-quantity, one-number, two-quantity, two-number). So that if "equal to one in numbers" was presented, the girl had to select the written form of that number; she also learnt that with the instruction "equal to one in quantity", the girl had to indicate the quantity. In the same way, when "different to one in quantity" or "different to one in number" was presented, in the first case, the girl had to select a different quantity, and in the second case, a different spelling. Once the eight possible combinations of stimuli were learnt, the contextual stimuli were presented for two new numbers. The results showed the transference of learning without deliberate teaching for two new numbers which included compound stimuli.

Self- and cross-citations in basic, applied, and theoretical papers were examined in Brazilian peer-reviewed journals from 1999 through 2011. Papers from Revista Brasileira de Terapia Comportamental e Cognitiva [Brazilian Journal of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy], Revista Brasileira de Análise do Comportamento [Brazilian Journal of Behavior Analysis], and Perspectivas em Análise do Comportamento [Behavior Analysis Perspectives] were used to collect the data. 232 papers (78 applied, 40 basic and 114 theoretical) and 6386 references were examined. Self-citation percentage were 49,0%, 32,0% and 72,3% to basic, applied and theoretical papers, respectively. 16,8% of the citations of papers with basic researches were of applied researches and 32,4% were of theoretical texts. The percentages of basic research citations were 5,1% and of theoretical texts were 56,9% on applied papers. On the other hand, papers of basic researches compose 11,7% and applied researches compose 12,3% of theoretical papers’ citations. The results suggests that there is better communication between areas of research in Brazil than that shown in researches that examined JABA and JEAB self- and cross-citations, but the extension on whether this difference is due to asymmetries between present and other similar research methods, or to actually better communication between researchers can’t be measured.

El propósito del trabajo fue estudiar si emergían tactos de forma incidental en alumnos con la capacidad verbal de tactar y seleccionar objetos después de escuchar su nombre. Participó un chico de 16 años con retraso del desarrollo que asistía a sesiones de enseñanza extraescolar en una escuela con componentes CABAS®. Se seleccionaron cuatro objetos que no sabía tactar (taladro, vitrocerámica, tipes y sifón). Durante el procedimiento la profesora mostraba los cuatro objetos y los nombraba, por ejemplo: "Esto es un taladro". Diariamente, durante cinco días, realizó 5 ensayos con cada uno de los 4 objetos, de manera aleatoria e intercalados con ensayos de otros programas del currículo. Posteriormente, se preguntó al alumno en 20 ensayos el nombre de los cuatro objetos. Las respuestas no se reforzaron ni se corrigieron. El alumno respondió correctamente en 14 de los 20 ensayos y ante los 4 objetos. Se volvió a repetir el procedimiento de manera idéntica y en la siguiente prueba obtuvo 20 respuestas correctas nombrando los objetos. Los tactos emergieron después de observar a la profesora nombrar lo objetos, lo cual indica la presencia del componente de hablante del naming en una situación de aprendizaje incidental o natural.

El objetivo del presente estudio fue, a) analizar si presentando sílabas impresas emparejadas con dibujos como reforzadores condicionados se aceleraba el aprendizaje de la lectura y b) tras la intervención, la lectura era un reforzador condicionado. El participante fue un niÑo de 7 aÑos diagnosticado de autismo que asistía a la escuela ordinaria y recibía enseÑanza extraescolar en un programa ABA. El procedimiento consistió en enseÑar las consonantes, por separado, junto con las vocales. Los ensayos fueron presentados en un ordenador en el aparecía una sílaba emparejada junto con un dibujo que no guardaba relación con la sílaba presentada, aunque pertenecían a su repertorio de reforzadores condicionados, como por ejemplo: películas Disney preferidas, animales, etc. Se presentaron elogios antes las respuestas correctas y se corrigieron las respuestas incorrectas. Después del aprendizaje de cuatro consonantes, se continuó la enseÑanza de otras consonantes sin emparejar los dibujos como reforzador condicionado en cada ensayo. nicamente se presentaban las sílabas en tarjetas sobre la mesa. Los resultados mostraron que el alumno necesitó menos ensayos para aprender las sílabas con la cuarta consonante que con las de la primera y que continuó aprendiendo al mismo ritmo las sílabas sin el emparejamiento de los dibujos.

Without echoic repertoire, an individual cannot develop vocal verbal behavior. The purpose of this intervention was to demonstrate a procedure that was effective to develop echoic repertoire (repeat sounds that one hears) in a three-year-old boy classified with autism. Initially, this boy did not emit any sound under appropriate stimulus control. The Echoic Extension procedure consisted of presenting a sustained sound (10 seconds) until the child emitted the same sound or something similar. We conducted a baseline to analyze the sounds the child had in his repertoire. We selected three of the sounds the child had in his repertoire and taught one at a time, in a sequential order. The purpose of the procedure was to teach the child to produce the same sound at the moment he heard the sound. The data showed that the child learned the three target behaviors with echoic extension.

The goal of this research was to explore some factors involved in the emergence of intraverbals as demonstrated by Pérez-González, Herszlikowicz, and Williams (2008). Eleven adults learned to say the chemical elements corresponding to two chemical groups (the A-B relations) and to say the atomic numbers of two elements (the B-C relations). Thereafter, we probed the relations that result from combining these stimuli. For example, we asked the groups corresponding to the atomic numbers (the CA relations). We assigned the participants to three conditions. In the first condition, we grouped the participants that showed the emergence of all probed relations without additional teaching. In the Condition with Categories, participants learned to say the categories of the exemplars (i.e., “What is the polonium?”; the correct answer was “an element”). In the Condition with Exemplars, participants learned to say the exemplars of all the categories (i.e., “Name a chemical element”; the correct answers were the two chemical elements). The Categories facilitated emergence in some but not all participants. The Exemplars showed effective to promote the emergence of the emergent relations. These results indicate that the more basic intraverbals (Categories and Exemplars) play a role in the emergence of the novel more-complex intraverbals.

The main goal of this experiment was to study if teaching categories alone, examplars alone or both together are necesary to produce the emergence of complex intraverbals in children. We tought five normally developmnetal children with ages between 6 and 7 years old, four basic operant related to cities, countries and continents, (e.g., “Name the country of Rome”, and the correct response was “Italy” and “Name the continent of Italy”, and the correct response was “Europe”. These were AB an BC relation). Thereafter we probed the relations that result from combining these stimuli, (e.g., “Name the city of Italy”, the correct response was “Rome”, “Name the continent of Rome”, the correct response was “Europe” and “Name the city of Europe”, the correct response was “Rome”. These were BA, AC and CA relations). Thereafter we taught examplars, (e.g., “Name a city”, the correct response was “Rome”), categories, (e.g., “What is Rome?”, and the correct response was “A city”), or both. The results showed that teaching examplars and categories together with the basic operants are necesary to produce the emergence of complex intraverbals in children.

The Kaufman Speech and Language Praxis Kit (1997) is a useful assessment tool in selecting appropriate targets for individuals with apraxia during vocal imitation training. Some studies indicate that this can also be used to shape speech articulation for children with autism. In this study, we implemented an adaption of the procedures recommended within the Kaufman method for one 14-year old boy diagnosed with autism. Cold probe data were taken at the start of each session, in order to assess whether mastery criterion had been achieved for the words targeted for acquisition. Cold probe data were also taken for a group of untaught novel words in order to test for response generalization. The procedure was found to be effective in shaping the participants speech articulation and these effects were maintained after withdrawal of the intervention. Preliminary data indicate that limited generalization across a novel group of untaught words has occurred. The present study indicates that further research is required in this area.

The aim of this study was analyzing a procedure to demonstrate the emergence of full naming in typically developing children. In Experiment 1, 5 6-year-old children (a) learned tacts of pictures and the emergence of the selection of these pictures upon hearing its names was and (b) learned the selection of other pictures and the emergence of the tacts was probed. All children demonstrated the emergence of the picture selection and 3 children showed the emergence of the tacts. In Experiment 2a, the children’s correct repetition of the names of 3 pictures was verified first, then the experimenter presented the pictures with its names without requiring any behavior other that attending. Finally, the emergence of the picture selection and the tacts was probed. Experiment 2b replicated Experiment 2a with words easier to pronounce. The picture selection and the tacts emerged; this performance documented full naming for the first time with typically developing children. These procedures can be used to induce the naming capability in children who lack it; hence, they have important applications to teach children with learning delays.

Naming as a prerequisite for responding "yes" or "no" as a function of stimuli relations

Research with typically developing children frequently employs the matching-to-sample procedure given that it is an important tool to produce auditory-visual conditional discriminations. These discriminations, in turn, are considered an important pre-requisite for language acquisition. The present study aimed to analyze the correlation between conditional discrimination learning by children with a classical auditory-visual two-choice matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure and its variation in play situations (PlayMTS). Four typically developing children (Denver II) from 26 to 29 months of age and attending a daycare center were trained with either two, three or four auditory-visual relations using a classical MTS procedure. For the MTS, the child had to select the correct comparison between two abstract stimuli matching a specific word. For the PlayMTS condition, the children had to choose the correct comparison among three distractor toys matching a specific word. The performance of three (out of four) participants on the MTS procedure was strongly associated with the performance on the PlayMTS condition. These results support the argument that both procedures, MTS and PlayMTS, produce conditional discriminations in young children in different learning contexts.