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The Autism in Action Blog

Whether a parent of a child with autism or a professional committed to excellence, Autism In Action™ is here to support you and looks to the future where “a better tomorrow starts today”.

Tag Archives: ABA

Great new research review from Tiffany Crow!

This article by Geiger, Carr, and LeBlanc (2010) titled, Function-based treatments for escape-maintained problem behavior. A treatment-selection model for practicing behavior analysis by Behavior Analysis in Practice (2, 1-11) was designed as a guide for interventions for individuals who exhibit problem behavior to get out of tasks. This is more formally known as escape maintained behavior because the person exhibits problem behaviors to escape from the current task/demand. The authors of this article suggest six interventions and briefly explain the components of the intervention process along with the pros and cons.
1. Activity choice- the individual is allowed to choose a task/activity from a selection.
2. Curricular Revisions- adjustments to some part of the task so the individual does not want to escape the task any longer (i.e. task shortened or change the way they respond to multiple choice or orally)
3. Demand Fading- all demands/tasks are taken away and then reintroduced slowly systematically
4. Differential (negative)Reinforcement of alternate behaviors- this varies but the individual would earn a break (the negative reinforcement) for an alternate behavior such as completing a portion of the task
5. Escape extinction- present a task and do not allow escape from the task for problem behavior
6. Noncontingent escape- the individual gets breaks from the task no matter what their behavior based on a preset time (i.e. Bill gets a break from his task every 2 mins no matter what he is doing.)
The article goes a little deeper and briefly describes research to support each of the six interventions. Also, in the article there is a table that lists the treatments with a description, strengths and weaknesses of each intervention. Two things to keep in mind, this article was specifically written to behavior analysts but is applicable to parents, teachers and caregivers that deal with escape maintained problem behaviors. The second thing to keep in mind and is stressed in this article is that a functional analysis should be conducted to determine that the problem behaviors are maintained by escape before implementing an intervention.

Thanks Tiffany! We would love to hear any feedback!

About the Autism in Action Blog

We, Beverly and Susan, want to build a community where people can come to learn more about autism spectrum disorders (ASD) by sharing experiences, thoughts, ideas, and research.  We are especially excited at creating a place where parents and teachers from the autism community can come together to talk about ways to use applied behavior analysis (ABA) as a part of everyday life.  Whether you are using ABA for a child with autism at home, in the community, or at school – we would love to hear about your successes and challenges.  Parents-you are the experts when it comes to your child and we would love to learn from your everyday experiences.  Teachers-you are who parents entrust their children to everyday to provide a quality education-Autism In Action would love to hear your perspectives on using ABA in the school setting.  Let’s open communication and bring those perspectives together so that we can all learn from one another.   Bev and Susan

Why Applied Behavior Analysis and Autism Spectrum Disorders?

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) can generally be described as “the science of behavior”.  It is a part of our daily lives whether we recognize it or not.  For example, we all do certain things because they result in things we like; just as we all try to avoid things that result in what we don’t like.  These are just two of the ways the principles of ABA influence us all.  But ABA has been around since the early 1960s- so why are we hearing about it so much now?  Well for starters, we are in the middle of a world-wide autism epidemic and ABA has decades of research to demonstrate it is the most effective treatment approach for individuals on the autism spectrum!  Sometimes parents and teachers think that ABA is a new treatment intended only for young children with autism or that it can only be done in a therapy setting.  It isn’t new, it isn’t just a private therapy, and it is not just for people with autism- ABA has been used in schools, homes, and all types of other settings for many years with all kinds of learners.  It has gained popularity for teaching individuals with ASD because it systematically breaks learning into specific behavior-environment connections.  This helps people on the spectrum understand when and how to do things we want them to learn to do.  Let us know if we can be of any help in clarifying and describing how ABA is the ideal fit for learners on the autism spectrum.  Bev and Susan