Increasing response diversity in children with autism.
Repetitive and invariant behavior is a diagnostic feature of autism. We implemented a lag reinforcement schedule to increase response diversity for 6 participants with autism aged 6 to 10 years, 4 of whom also received prompting plus additional training. These procedures appeared to increase the variety of building-block structures, demonstrating that an intervention that includes differential reinforcement can increase response diversity for children with an autism spectrum disorder.
Division of Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, University of Rochester School of Medicine, 601 Elmwood Ave., Box 671, Rochester, New York 14642, USA. deborah_napolitano@urmc.rochester.edu
Deborah A
DA
Napolitano
Tristram
T
Smith
Jennifer R
JR
Zarcone
Karen
K
Goodkin
David B
DB
McAdam
D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D003463:Cues; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule