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A Structured Intervention to Increase Response Allocation to Instructional Settings for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

Access to early intensive behavioral intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder is commonly recommended. Intervention programs may include high rates of instructional trials, which may evoke escape-maintained problem behavior. Recent research on “pairing” or “rapport-building” interventions have sought to reduce the likelihood that problem behavior occurs during instruction using antecedent manipulations. The current study evaluated a structured intervention that included differential reinforcement and demand fading to increase participants’ response allocation to instructional settings without the use of physical guidance. Nine minimally verbal girls under the age of 6 years with autism spectrum disorder enrolled in the study. The protocol was effective for seven of the nine participants. One participant did not complete the protocol due to competing behavior and an additional participant did not require the intervention. Our findings suggest that the structured intervention was effective in increasing appropriate behavioral repertoires that are necessary for children with autism spectrum disorder to effectively benefit from early educational programs.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Autism Science Foundation (Grant Number 16-002) and the Marcus Foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Rd, Wilmington, NC, 28403, USA

    Tom Cariveau

  2. Center for Pediatric Behavioral Health, Wilmington, NC, USA

    Tom Cariveau

  3. The May Institute, Randolph, MA, USA

    M. Alice Shillingsburg

  4. Department of Communication Sciences and Special Education, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Arwa Alamoudi

  5. College of Education and Human Development, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Taylor Thompson

  6. Marcus Autism Center, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Brittany Bartlett, Scott Gillespie & Lawrence Scahill

  7. Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Scott Gillespie & Lawrence Scahill

Authors
  1. Tom Cariveau
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  2. M. Alice Shillingsburg
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  3. Arwa Alamoudi
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  4. Taylor Thompson
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  5. Brittany Bartlett
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  6. Scott Gillespie
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  7. Lawrence Scahill
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tom Cariveau.

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Conflict of interest

Tom Cariveau declares that he has no conflict of interest. Alice Shillingsburg declares that she has no conflict of interest. Arwa Alamoudi declares that she has no conflict of interest. Taylor Thompson declares that she has no conflict of interest. Brittany Bartlett declares that she has no conflict of interest. Scott Gillespie declares that he has no conflict of interest. Larry Scahill has served as a consultant for Roche, CB Partners, Shire, Supernus, Neurocrine, and the Tourrette Association of America. Larry Scahill also receives royalties from Guilford and Oxford Press.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Cariveau, T., Shillingsburg, M.A., Alamoudi, A. et al. A Structured Intervention to Increase Response Allocation to Instructional Settings for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Behav Educ 29, 699–716 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864-019-09340-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864-019-09340-x

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