Robert Babcock, PhD, BCBA-D R.A. Babcock and Associates, Auburn, AL Michael J Morrier, PhD, BCBA-D

1. Using Applied Behavior Analysis for Skill Acquisition and Reduction of Problem Behavior: Going Beyond the Basics Robert Babcock, PhD, BCBA-D R.A. Babcock and Associates, Auburn, AL Michael J Morrier, PhD, BCBA-D Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA

2. Financial Disclosures - Morrier • Behavior Imagining Solutions • NODA Rural Study • Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning • Project Director, Walden Lottery Pre-Kindergarten Program • Georgia Department of Public Health • Georgia Autism Assessment Collaborative • National Institutes of Mental Health • Silvio O. Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition • U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention • ADDM Expert Reviewer

3. Learning Objectives • Participants will be able to describe how to use ABA procedures to teach new skills to individuals with ASD across the age range. • Participants will gain information on how to use ABA procedures to reduce challenging behaviors in individuals with ASD.

4. “If you do what you’ve alwaysdone, you’ll get what you’vealways gotten” (anonymous)

5. Levels of Analysis and Intervention • Global • Marco • Micro • Adapted from Risley’s “Get A Life” 1996

6. Global • How well does this environment match the child’s overall needs? • For school is the Child’s IEP functional and meaningful? • Are people in the environment reinforcing the use of existing skills? • Does the child have adequate opportunities to make choices and experience success? • Are peers modeling appropriate behavior? • Is the tone of the child’s individual environment positive and focusing on encouraging personal achievement for this child? • If there are any significant problems at the Global level, then the FIRST thing to do is fix these before deciding the child has a behavior problem.

7. Macro • Crowd out problem behaviors with increased engagement • Conduct a conceptual functional assessment • Increase the Training of Functional Communication Skills • Coach replacement Skills for Problem Behaviors • Contingency Management • Reinforce good behavior • Put bad behavior on extinction

8. Micro • Conduct reinforcement assessments to identify powerful reinforcing stimuli • Conduct a brief or an extended analogue functional analysis assessment • Use shaping and extremely precise prompting strategies to establish new responses • Use stimulus control techniques to bring new behaviors under the control of precise and appropriate stimuli • Arrange high tech interventions to strengthen appropriate behavior patterns and suppress problem behaviors

9. Once Problems at the Global Level are Resolved • Goals for behavior change must be constructive • Don’t focus on “no hitting,” focus on appropriate interactions with teachers, peers, etc. • Don’t select goals that are for the convenience of the adults in the child’s life but that do not promote active learning • Select behaviors to strengthen that are incompatible with problem behaviors • Select behaviors to strengthen that will actually accomplish something for this child in the long run.

10. Behavior Support Plans are Simply Very Well Designed Teaching Plans Focused on Developing Better Social Skills • Decisions must be made on the basis of data about measurable behavior patterns • Interventions must be based on research in ABA • Typically interventions arrange positive consequences for appropriate behavior and permit inappropriate behavior to continue to occur BUT in a context where it no longer achieves the same outcomes (reinforcement) it has previously achieved

11. Consequating Behaviors

12. BEHAVIORAL CONSEQUENCES • Behaviors which are reinforced will increase • Behaviors which are punished will decrease Two Basic Things to Remember

13. REINFORCER Anything that is presented immediately after a behavior has occurred which INCREASES the probability that the behavior will occur again

14. TYPES OF REINFORCERS Primary *Food *Drink *Sleep Secondary *Tangible Items *Privileges *Social: attention praise recognition feedback *Tokens

15. Components of Effective Reinforcement • Positive Contingencies Described (in advance) • Administered Frequently • Delivered Immediately (unless ongoing inappropriate behavior also present) • Paired with Behavior-Specific Praise • Consequated with Powerful Backup

16. Categories of Positive Reinforcers Preferred food Preferred toys Preferred activities Tokens, points, or money to purchase preferred food, toys, and activities Social praise, positive attention, and natural consequences

17. Steps in Selection of Reinforcers • Interview the individual, parents, and caregivers • Observe the individual sampling reinforcers • Consider ethical limitations in selection of reinforcers

18. The Premack Principle Access to high frequency behavior is contingent upon the occurrence of low frequency behavior. High frequency behavior can serve as a reinforcer for a low frequency behavior. Premack, 1959

19. Premack Revisited Time You Tube • High probability behavior can serve as a reinforcer for a low probability behavior – with probability related to time allocation • Behavior within an N Dimensional space Time labeling toys Time Art Time With Vegie Tails Time Math Time Thomas the Train

20. Time Spent Moves From None  All Time available in a Behavior Setting (e.g., 180 min before lunch) 180 Time You Tube • Behavior within an N Dimensional space Time labeling toys Time With Vegie Tails Time Art 0 180 180 Time Math Time Thomas the Train 180

21. Time Spent Moves From None  All Time available in a Behavior Setting (e.g., 180 min before lunch) Time Pretend Play • Behavior within an N Dimensional space Time labeling toys Time With Vegie Tails Time Art A A I I A Time Math Time Thomas the Train I

22. Effective Use of Reinforcement Over Time • Increasing the Number of Behaviors in One’s Behavioral Space (OBS) • Increasing the Fluency of Appropriate Behaviors in OBS • Bringing in Behaviors in OBS Under Proper Stimulus Control • Increasing Self-Management Behaviors • Replacing/Extinguishing any Remaining Harmful Behaviors

23. PUNISHERS Anything that is presented immediately after a behavior has occurred which DECREASES the probability that the behavior will occur again

24. Potential Side-Effects of Punishment • Desirable behaviors may be suppressed • Reduction occurs only in the presence of the aversive stimulus • May produce escape behaviors • May produce avoidance behaviors • May produce undesirable anxiety responses • Results in resistance or physical aggression • Can be modeled and/or exaggerated by the individual

25. Why Time Out is Undesirable • Circumvents an individual’s need to build control. • Meets adult’s needs to maintain order without addressing individual’s needs. • Repeated use can have negative effect on individual. • Indirect relationship between actions and consequences confuse individual. • Opportunities for teaching are forfeited. Schreiber, 1999

26. Attractiveness of Punishment

27. Some Counter Productive Ideas Adults Sometimes Believe • “If a let a client show s/he doesn’t respect me, none of the students/children will respect me” • “If I let him/her get away with it one time, it will happen more and more….. ” • “If other adults see me not punishing bad behavior enough, they will think I am not disciplining the child” • “If I could only punish this person’s behavior enough, he/she would shape up”

28. Why do we believe these things? • They are culturally normative • Spare the rod spoil the child • If it was good enough for Grandma, it’s good enough for me… • We may not know the research literature well enough to think about behavior scientifically

29. Responses to Punishment when Reinforcement Continues Azrin & Holt, 1961 mild unpunished moderate Severe

30. Reinforcement ONLY works gradually The average before teaching begins The average after effective teaching with a LOT of reinforcement of better behavior A highly effective reinforcement program takes time to work, but makes permanent changes in behavior, which nonetheless remains variable

31. Reinforcement works gradually • How persistent behavior patterns are is determined by how much momentum they have • Momentum = rate * mass • Rate refers to how often the behavior occurs • Mass refers to how many times the behavior has been reinforced in the past • To replace a bad behavior with a lot of momentum, you need to get the new behavior to occur • At a High Rate • With a lot of powerful reinforcement every time • While ensuring the problem behavior isn’t effective

32. Why we Don’t Reinforce Enough to Really Change Much Behavior Reinforcement was delivered… Then, what do we usually notice happens next? G Awf u l l Bad Average Good Great

33. Why we like think punishment is powerful When we Punish, what do we usually observe happens next? (Hint… What is most likely to happen at any time?) B Awfu l l B a d Great Average Good

34. The Myth of Punishment Being Effective …. We get punished for using Reinforcement, even though it is the only method we have for producing lasting change!! We get reinforced for using punishment whether it really helps or not! Awfu l l Bad Great A v e r a g e Good

35. Methods of Consequating Behavior POSITIVE NEGATIVE Present Remove

36. Functions of Behavior

37. Functions of Behavior(simplified) • ESCAPE:Getting out of a demand, activity, situation • MAKE DEMAND:Trying to get something desired • GET ATTENTION:Trying to secure attention from adults or peers • SELF STIMULATION:Just for the fun of it (would occur even if everyone left the room)

38. When a problem behavior serves a function of getting out of a demand(ESCAPE): Shape the desired skill OR (if not possible) Ignore the behavior and avoid escape of demand through the problem behavior Actively walking person through compliance (Poor Approach) Providing a Concurrent Choice Intervention (Better)

39. Why is Enforcing Compliance Poor Compared with a Concurrent Choice Approach? Enforced Compliance Concurrent Choice Provides an acceptable way to escape demands (e. g., asking for a break) Responds to Communication with Escape From Demand Provides Powerful Reinforcement for Compliance Permits Shaping Compliance beginning with Very Small Efforts on Learner’s part Establishes Instructor as ALWAYS helping the Student learn, Just on the Instructor’s terms • Uses Guidance to Produce Compliance -> Attention follows Problem Behavior • Ensures we respond immediately to problem behavior • Escape from Task and Guidance is Reinforcement of Compliance  Potentially makes task aversive • Correlating Prompting with Task to be Escaped, Potentially making Prompting from Instructor aversive

40. Details of a Concurrent Choice Procedure • If you want to escape a demand, just hand me the break card • Each time you do you get a 2 minute break from instruction (we set a white timer) • You can do this as often as you like – I will never force you to complete a task • On break you don’t get anything else…. But I stop the demand • If you try to escape through hitting, etc. I just guide you to give (perhaps even just throw) the break card at me • Then you escape the task… • BTY, I’ve got access to some stuff you will work for…… • If you earn 5 red tokens, you can have a five minute break (Let’s use the red timer!) from demands to play with that stuff. • We start by giving you 4 tokens and having you earn the 5th by doing a VERY small amount of work • Once you get that type of break for having all 5 tokens, we quickly increase the amount of work you need to do for each token –earning all 5. • Oh, you don’t get any tokens on 2 minute breaks, but you can get them anytime you ask….. Hoch et al., 2002. JABA 35, 155–169

41. When the behavior serves a function of making a demand(DEMAND): Teach the individual a more appropriate behavior or communication strategy

42. When the behavior serves a function of getting attention: • Attend and Ignore: Ignore inappropriate behavior (if not dangerous) and give lots of praise for good behavior – especially targeting incompatible behaviors • Use Pivot Praise – Praise a peer for incompatible behavior while “ignoring,” and immediately praise any appropriate behavior • Quietly and unemotionally redirect dangerous behavior (Asking the person to do something else, and praising compliance) and arrange for prevention while attending to other behavior

43. When the behavior serves a function of self-stimulation: • Use reinforcement to get and keep the individual engagedin appropriate activities. • Demonstrate HOW to use materials/do activity. • Teach communication to request activities preferred over self-stimulation

44. A-B-C Review

45. ANTECEDENT • An action, event, or situation, that occurs immediately prior to a specific behavior

46. BEHAVIOR • Any observable and measurable act of an individual • Basically fall into 3 categories • Attention-getting behaviors • Behaviors related to a lack of communication/getting their needs across to others • Behaviors related to trying to escape from a demand

47. CONSEQUENCES • Anything presented immediately after a specific behavior has occurred

48. ConsequencesSHOULD relate to the function of the behavior • Attention-getting behavior? • planned ignoring, redirection to an appropriate activity, praise • Behavior related to communication? • teach to communication • Behavior related to trying to escape from a demand? • have the individual follow through before doing anything else

49. A-B-C ANALYSIS(What in the world is happening?)

50. A-B-C ANALYSIS(What in the world is happening?)