Lessons Learned from the 12th Annual Autism Conference (Association for Behaviour Analysis International)


INFANT SIBLINGS AT RISK:

MARTHA PALAEZ (Florida International University)
Dr. Palaez covered many aspects of the development of infant siblings in her presentation:

  • The use of Social Reinforcement in Increasing Social Communication
  • Increasing Vocalisations
  • Joint attention and Social Referencing

Communication Challenges in Infants at-risk of Autism:

  • Minimum eye contact 
  • Frequent gaze away 
  • Infrequent smiles 
  • High levels of fussiness 
  • Limited vocalisations 
  • Delayed joint attention 
  • Lack of social referencing

The use of Synchronised Reinforcement in Increasing Social Communication:

Dr Palaez’s research leads us to the assumption that the use of this intervention strategy by caregivers will increase infant eye contact and improve behaviour. 

  • Parent provides social reinforcement (smile, motherese/vocalisation, and/or touch) only when the infant is making eye-contact with the caregiver
  •  If the infant looks away, the caregiver immediately stops providing reinforcement


Increasing Infant Vocalisations:

Dr Palaez’s research compared the use of ‘motherese’ (infant-directed ‘baby talk’) vs vocal imitation (echoing the infant’s speech sounds)

  • Contingent delivery of both motherese speech and vocal imitation were effective in increasing the rate of infant vocalisations
  • Non-contingent delivery of both motherese speech and vocal imitation did not demonstrate such positive results
  • Contingent vocal imitation was even more effective than contingent motherese speech

 

Joint Attention and Social Referencing:

Joint Attention is the ability to use eye contact and gestures to both initiate and respond to bids of sharing experiences, and is a foundational skill in establishing early pre-verbal and communication skills. Dr. Palaez’s research tells us that caregiver lead joint attention training will result in:

  • Increased joint attention responses and joint attention bids (point, show, engage)
  • Joint attention was followed up with Social Referencing training

Intervention guidelines:

  • Must be delivered by the primary caregivers, and in the infant’s natural environment following systematic training by an intervention professional
  • Social reinforcement and vocal imitation must be contingent on the infant’s behaviour in order to illicit positive results
     

CAREGIVER TRAINING:


Over half the presentations had a strong emphasis on caregiver training but three stood out form the crowd: Martha Palaez (outlined above), Patricia Kurtz, and Nirbhay Singh. 

Training Caregivers in Intervention for Severe Probem Behaviours: Patricia Kurtz (Kennedy Krieger Institute)

  • Problem behaviour may serve a variety of functions for a parent and only one for a professional interventionist - therefore it is imperative it is provided with specific training in managing such behaviour in an effective manner.
  • Training in specific behaviour management techniques alone is not enough
  • Additional skills training is needed to further improve intervention outcomes:
    • Parent Child Interaction Therapy or similar
    • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Mindfulness-Based Training for Caregivers: Nirbhay Singh (Augusta University)
A variety of studies demonstrated the following benefits for caregivers:

  • Mothers’ mindful parenting decreases their children’s aggression, noncompliance, and self‐injury; increases mothers’ satisfaction with their parenting skills and interactions with their children (Singh et al, 2006)
  • Mindfulness training group showed significant reductions in stress and anxiety; increased mindfulness, self‐compassion, and personal growth at program completion and at two‐month follow‐up in contrast to waiting‐list controls (Benn, Akiva, Arel, & Roeser, 2012)
  • Mindfulness group demonstrated significant improvement in parental stress and global health (Ferraioli & Harris, 2013)
  • Spillover effects on children of parents in the MBSR program: 
    • decreased behaviour problems
    • Increased self‐control due to changes in parental attachment and disciplinary practices
    • Improvements in empathy and engagement
    • Improvements in communication, responsibility and cooperation at school
    • (Neece (2014); Lewallen & Neece (2015); Roberts & Neece (2015)
 

JOB RELATED SOCIAL AND PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:

Dorothea Lerman
Dr. Lerman’s research has focused on skills related to job retention. Participants in the study were trained to engage in the following behaviours:

Social/Communication Behaviours:

  • Confirming statements
  • Request help – materials
  • Request help – task
  • Request help – completion
  • Response to corrective feedback

Problem Solving Behaviours:

  • Response to supervisor unavailable
  • Response to task interruption
  • Search for necessary materials or equipment

These behaviours were taught using:

  • Behaviour Skills Training
  • Text prompts (cue cards) example below:
     
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Isabella O'Donovan