Successful conversation requires that the speaker's behavior is sensitive to nonvocal listener responses. We observed children with autism spectrum disorder during conversation probes in which a listener periodically displayed nonvocal cues that she was uninterested in the conversation. We used behavioral skills training to teach conversation…

Angelman syndrome is a neurogenetic disorder characterized by intellectual and developmental disability. Common behavioral characteristics of this disorder include a heightened interest in social interactions and frequent bids to initiate interaction. These bids can be problematic, for instance, when a child attempts to hug strangers in public…

We analyzed the inappropriate social interactions of 3 students with Asperger's syndrome whose behavior was maintained by social positive reinforcement. We tested whether inappropriate social behavior was sensitive to social positive reinforcement contingencies and whether such contingencies could be reversed to increase the probability of…

The purpose of this study was to teach empathetic responding to 4 children with autism. Instructors presented vignettes with dolls and puppets demonstrating various types of affect and used prompt delay, modeling, manual prompts, behavioral rehearsals, and reinforcement to teach participants to perform empathy responses. Increases in empathetic…

The initial purpose of the present study was to replicate procedures for teaching preschool children to recruit attention at appropriate times by having an experimenter signal the availability and unavailability of attention (i.e., arrange a multiple schedule involving reinforcement and extinction; Tiger & Hanley, 2004). Following the development…

This study of four children (ages 4-5) with emotional and behavioral disorders demonstrated that high-probability requests delivered in a variant sequence were more effective than those delivered in an invariant sequence. Children were able to act as change agents by delivering the high-probability sequences. (Author/CR)

Two children (ages 13 and 16) with autism were taught to differentiate appropriate from inappropriate social behaviors. Children's treated behaviors improved rapidly, and there were generalized changes in untreated social behaviors. Results suggest the possibility of identifying pivotal response classes of social behavior that may improve peer…

Pretreatment assessment data were used to enhance an existing treatment package to reduce aggression and to increase the positive social interactions of a 9-year-old boy with moderate mental retardation and Hunter's syndrome. Additional reinforcements and punishment components were added and resulted in positive social interactions and suppressed…

Discusses behavioral momentum and the general behavioral relation between the persistence of behavior and the rate of reinforcement obtained in a given situation. Strategies for establishing the generality of behavioral relations are reviewed, followed by a brief summary of evidence for the generality of behavioral momentum. (Author/CR)

A treatment was developed that analyzed response allocation across two break options for two females (ages 12 and 30) with behavior problems: break alone and break with access to preferred social activities. The break with preferred activities decreased aberrant behavior and increased appropriate behavior. (Contains two references.) (Author/CR)

Reviews laboratory research on behavioral momentum conducted with pigeons and summarizes its findings and their generality to people, including those with mental retardation. Discusses the high-probability procedure used to establish compliance in clinical settings and based in part on an extension of the momentum metaphor. (CR)

This commentary discusses John Nevin's article on establishing compliance via behavioral momentum involving high-probability procedures, and questions whether applications of behavioral momentum can be derived from the theory, whether applications could have been developed if the theory not been formulated, and whether the theory will add…

A six-year old with developmental delays who exhibited aggression when asked to pick up his toys was studied to determine the effects of interventions. Treatment included praise, a break, and access to the toys contingent on compliance. Results showed aggression decreased only with social interaction during the break. (Author/CR)

The effects on compliance of two types of differential negative reinforcement (DNR) were studied with a five-year-old girl with moderate mental retardation and a history of severe disruption. Escape from instructional trials was either contingent on a communicative behavior or compliance. Behaviors improved with both interventions, but compliance…