title: Teaching severely self-abusive and aggressive autistic residents to exit to fire alarms.
abstract: Fifty-two case-hardened, severely self-abusive and aggressive autistic and retarded students, living in six different community residences, were trained to exit their residences, without the presence or assistance of staff, when a fire alarm sounded at night. On a pretest, prior to an 11-week period of intensive environmental and behavioral interventions, only 25% of the students exited within 2 1/2 minutes and independent of staff assistance. At posttest, 100% exited successfully, in a mean evacuation time of 60 seconds. The study was conducted at the Behavior Research Institute (BRI).
authors.affiliation: Behavior Research Institute, Providence, Rhode Island 02909.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Israel
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Connolly
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: von Heyn
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Rock
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012112:Residential Facilities / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D013997:Time Factors