Our study of 477 children with autism (1-15 years, IQs 9-146) showed that parent reported sleep problems are found in most children with autism and are not significantly related to age, IQ, gender, race, parent occupation, neuropsychological functioning, and learning ability. However, sleep problems increased with severity of autistic symptoms and…

This review of nonstandard treatments as they relate to individuals with mental retardation reveals attempts to increase intelligence and make individuals "normal." Covering the early 1930s through the present, the review addresses: cell therapy, electric shock, behavior modification, vitamin B-6 therapy, Doman-Delacato treatment,…

The manual provides information on practical ways for managing the behavior of emotionally disturbed and autistic children. The importance of routine and structure as well as of caring is emphasized in a chapter on building an atmosphere for learning. Assessment is seen to begin with teachers evaluating their own attitudes about behavior and then…

The method of social validation was used to evaluate the behavioral treatment objectives of autistic children. Responses of 24 parents of autistic children, 29 behavior therapists, and 48 student teachers regarding their judgments of treatment goals demonstrated the usefulness of the technique and differences among the three groups of evaluators.…

A social behavior chaining technique was used to train three autistic students (ages 10-11) to respond differentially to requested and nonrequested objects. Results suggested control of the "give me" response by the requested object, a characteristic of a mand. Results are discussed in terms of the training technique to establish…

Reports the results of behavior modification treatment for two groups of similarly constituted, young autistic children. Pretreatment measures revealed no significant differences between the intensively treated experimental group and the minimally treated control groups. At follow-up, experimental group subjects (N=19) did significantly better…

The effects of two levels of exercise (walking versus jogging) in suppressing the self-stimulatory behavior during academic programming of a 5-year-old boy with autism were examined. Decreased physical self-stimulation and "out of seat" behavior were found only for the jogging condition. Sharp reductions in these behaviors did not return…

Using an ABAB design, two procedures for requesting a change of activity were compared for their effect on the stereotypic behavior of a man with autism. One procedure requested immediate change of activities, whereas the second procedure gave advance notice of a change. Less stereotypy occurred when advance notice of change was given. (Author/DB)

The automatically reinforced self-injury of a girl (age 11) with autism was treated by providing noncontingent access to a single set of preferred toys during 30-minute sessions. Rotating toy sets after 10 minutes or providing access to multiple toy sets resulted in reductions that lasted the entire 30 minutes. (Contains four references.)…

This article discusses issues related to the use of applied behavior analysis (ABA) with students who have autism-related disabilities. These include: implementation forms, outcome expectations, exclusive versus selective use of ABA, time-related considerations, and personnel requirements for effective ABA implementation, evaluation, and…

This study evaluated use of the interpolation of reinforcement effect, which combines intermittent (INT) and continuous reinforcement (CRF) schedules, with four young children with autism using a free-operant preparation. Results suggest that responding may be less resistant to extinction following interpolated CRF reinforcement than following INT…

Mand functions for two stimuli (A1 and A2) were trained for 3 children with autism and were then incorporated into two related conditional discriminations (A1-B1/A2 -B2 and B1-C1/B2-C2). Tests were conducted to probe for a derived transfer of mand response functions from Al and A2 to C1 and C2, respectively. When 1 participant failed to…

In the current study, we examined the utility of a procedure consisting of noncontingent reinforcement with and without response cost in the treatment of inappropriate vocalizations maintained by automatic reinforcement. Results are discussed in terms of examining the variables that contribute to the effectiveness of response cost as treatment for…

There is convincing evidence that applied behaviour analysis (ABA) offers a highly effective form of intervention for children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). There is less evidence, however, about how parents perceive and evaluate ABA programmes. In this paper an examination of parents' perceptions of outcome is reported. Twenty-two…

Children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) characteristically display a lack of shared attention behaviours and the lack of these behaviours impacts on their ability to develop social interactions and relationships with others. Steve Solomons, assistant headteacher at Rectory Paddock School and Research Unit in the London Borough of Bromley,…