Trial lecture: The Importance of Focusing on Generalization in the Design, Implementation, and Measurement of Research and Practice in Applied Behavior Analysis.
Ordinary opponents:
- First opponent: Professor Laura Hall, San Diego State University
- Second opponent: Executive Director, Dr. Dawn Townsend, Alliance for Scientific Autism Intervention, Inc.
- Leader of the committee: Associate Professor Anette Brogård Antonsen, OsloMet
Leader of the public defence is Head of Studies Christoffer Eilifsen, OsloMet.
Supervisors are Professor Svein Eikeseth, OsloMet and Associate Professor Sigmund Eldevik, OsloMet.
Thesis abstract
This PhD project consists of three studies evaluating the effectiveness of intervention for children with autism based on applied behavior analysis.
Study 1
The first study evaluated the effectiveness of an intensive behavioral intervention (IBI) model created by P Krantz and L McClannahan for preschool aged children with autism.
Outcomes of 25 children receiving IBI at the Institute for Child Development was compared to the outcomes of 14 children receiving autism-specific, eclectic special education in other preschools for children with autism.
Children from the IBI group made significantly larger gains in IQ and adaptive behaviors and had a significant reduction in autism symptoms compared to the children in the eclectic group after 14 months of treatment.
The results provide further evidence of the effectiveness of behavioral treatment for children with ASD and of how the IBI model can be more effective than eclectic autism-specific provision.
Study 2
The second study examined the extent to which interrupted chain procedure in trials in which the establishing operation (EO) was present or absent, audio scripts, and sufficient exemplar training can be effective in teaching preschool-aged children with autism to request missing items.
Children were taught to request missing items across three different skill domains: play, self-help, and academic tasks. A non-concurrent multiple-baseline design across participants was employed.
The intervention was effective for all three participants, the behavior generalized to untrained situations and to new people, and was maintained at followup conducted three months after intervention.
Study 3
The third study was a systematic replication of the second study and was designed to teach three non-vocal children with autism to mand for missing items using an augmentative alternative communication (AAC) system.
The procedures used were an interrupted chain procedure with EO-present and EO-absent trials, sufficient exemplar training, and activity schedules. The design was a non-concurrent multiple-baseline design across participants. All three participants learned to request missing items during EO-present trials and refrained from making requests during EO-absent trials.
The results suggest that requesting using the AAC system was established as a mand, as a verbal operant controlled by the appropriate EO. Requesting missing items transferred to new tasks, across skill domains, across people, to new settings, and across time.
