Antecedent Analysis to Enhance Social Interactions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Antecedent Analysis to Enhance Social
Interactions in Children with Autism Spectrum
Disorders  

• Taketo Nakao
• Elizabeth L. W. McKenney
• Glenn M. Sloman
• Maureen A. Conroy
• Jennifer M. Asmus
• University of Florida
• Supported by U.S. Department of Education
• Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative
  Services (H324D020023)

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Project GATORSS

• Goals
• To develop a process for increasing the prosocial
  behavior of young children with Autism Spectrum
  Disorders (ASD) in early childhood settings.
• Development of functional and structural analysis
  techniques designed to address social skill
  deficits
• Development of individualized social skill
  interventions using assessment-based behavioral
  intervention strategies

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Objectives of Presentation

• Presentation attendees will learn 3 steps to
  examine the effects of antecedent interventions
  on the social behavior of a student with autism
• Descriptive observation to identify naturally
  occurring antecedent events relevant to social
  interaction
• A structural analysis to experimentally validate
  antecedent events identified through the
  descriptive observation process
• A treatment plan generated from the results of
  the structural analysis

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Presentation Outline

• Overview of the literature on antecedent
  interventions
• Review descriptive observation techniques
• Describe structural analysis techniques
• Present a case study and video examples to
  illustrate procedures

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Why Study the Social Behavior of Children
with ASD?

• Children with autism experience difficulty in
  three areas
• Behavioral excesses and deficits observed as
  restricted and repetitive behavior
• Behavioral deficits in display of developmentally
  and age-appropriate communication and social
  behavior
• Difficulty with social reciprocity is
  considered the central and defining feature of
  autism (NRC, 2001)

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Why Study the Social Behavior of Children
with ASD (contd)?

• Poor social skills and display of problem
  behavior often interfere with successful
  inclusion in early childhood programs (Odom et
  al., in prep)
• Placement in inclusive settings alone will not
  produce positive and lasting changes in
  appropriate social behavior by children with ASD
  (McConnell, 2002)
• There is a lack of evidence-based interventions
  to address and remediate their social skill
  deficits

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Antecedent Interventions

• An antecedent intervention entails manipulating a
  setting event or immediate antecedent previously
  found to influence social behaviors.
• Setting events and antecedents often interact
  with each other to increase the likelihood of
  social behavior.
• Antecedent interventions are often determined by
  the outcomes of descriptive observation.
• Examples
• changes in activity type
• the length of time spent in an activity
• the individual working with the student
• how statements are made to the student
• peer group size

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Why Do We Need More Antecedent
Interventions?

• Most antecedent intervention research has focused
  on problem, transition, and academic behavior of
  children with ASD (Pace, Dunn, Luiselli, Cochran,
  Skowron 2005 Cote, Thompson McKerchar, 2005
  Eckert, Ardoin, Daly III, Martens 2002).
• Research literature is missing systematic methods
  of assessment that address the underlying
  functions and examine the occurrence of social
  behavior (Stichter Conroy, 2005).
• Next steps are to address the individual needs of
  children and develop functionally-linked
  interventions.

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Method

• Descriptive Observation (DO) of Contextual
  Factors
• Approximately 6 hours of direct, sequential
  recording of behavior in a variety of natural
  contextual factors within classroom setting
• Observation of peer and target child social
  behavior in presence/absence of different
  contexts including activity type, play format,
  and level of adult engagement
• Outcomes of social interactions

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Method (contd)

• Experimental Analysis
• Structural Analysis (SA) (Cooper et al., 1990
  Peck et al., 1997)
• Condition
• High preferred social activity and materials
• Low preferred social activity and materials
• Neutrally preferred social activity and materials
• Interventions
• Utilization of contextual factors that increase
  likelihood of appropriate social behavior
• Increase appropriate social behavior within
  identified contexts

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Case Study Greg

• Participant
• Autism
• Communicates with simple sentences
• Academically precocious Teachers report
  superior reading skills
• 7 years old
• Caucasian
• Public Elementary School Fully Included
• 21 typically developing peers and two peers
  exhibiting developmental disabilities
• Identified Concern
• Social withdrawal
• Very limited interactions with peers across
  settings

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Operational Definitions of Social Behavior

• Social initiation
• Target child or peer behavior that attempts to
  evoke a social response, attention, or access to
  objects/activities.
• Response to social initiation
• Target child or peer behavior that acknowledges
  an initiation within 3 seconds.
• No response
• Target child or peer ignores the initiation,
  and/or continues to engage in the same play
  behavior (may not have heard/seen initiation).
• Interaction
• Sequence of 3 social behaviors between a target
  child and peer (initiation-response-interaction).
  The interaction begins with the third behavior in
  the sequence.

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Descriptive Observation

• 1. Approximately 6 hours of videotaped,
  classroom-based observation
• 2. Across a variety of contextual factors
• -activities (art, snack, computer, books, games,
  dance/music)
• -group size (large, small, one-on-one)
• -level of adult participation (active, passive,
  or no adult engagement)
• -amount of adult direction (child or
  adult-directed activity).
• 3. Approximately 30 min. of videotaped data for
  
• each contextual factor.

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Descriptive Observation Results

• Greg rarely initiated to peers regardless of
  group size, adult participation, or amount of
  adult direction.
• Initiated the most during structured games (.10
  per minute) that had clear rules and
  expectations, and involved a small group of peers
  (three).
• A similar rate of initiations was found during
  computer time (.08)
• Highest rates of responding to peer initiations
  during structured games (.43).
• Was more likely to respond during small group
  (.20) or one-on-one activities (.21), and if the
  activity was child (.27) instead of adult
  directed (.10).
• Was most likely to engage in social interactions
  (a series of initiations and responses) during
  structured games.

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Next Steps for Greg

• Conduct an experimental assessment
• Structural Analysis (SA)
• To determine additional contextual factors that
  affect the occurrence of social behavior
• Link experimental assessment results to
  intervention

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SA Procedures

• Activity type appeared to affect Gregs social
  behavior in the DO
• Three activities were chosen for comparison
• Books
• Computer
• Bingo
• Greg played 1 on 1 in each activity with a
  typically developing peer for 5 minutes

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SA Procedures Contd

• The peer student did not initiate to Greg, but
  responded to all of Gregs initiations
• Two variables were measured Gregs rate of
  initiation and the duration of interactions
  (sequence of 3 or more social behaviors)

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Structural Analysis Results
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Structural Analysis Results (Contd)
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SA Interobserver Agreement

• IOA (IOA collected during 30 of experimental
  sessions)
• Frequency behaviors (initiations)
• Mean 90 Range 75-100
• Duration behaviors (interactions)
• Mean 99.8 Range 99-100

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Antecedent Interventions

• Based on the results of the DO and SA, we
  recommend the following interventions for Greg
• Provide small, structured play groups
• Include socially-skilled peers to respond to
  Gregs initiations, and/or initiate toward him
• Play structured and cooperative games
• Allow Greg time in preferred activities, such as
  computer or Bingo, to increase appropriate social
  behavior

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Summary

• Antecedent intervention research has not focused
  on appropriate social behavior
• Need instruments that provide information for
  experimental analysis of social behavior
• DO and SA gave information about contextual
  factors affecting Gregs social behavior
• Used to link assessment information to
  intervention efforts
• Findings can lead to the development of more
  effective interventions to increase social
  interactions in inclusive settings for young
  children with ASD

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For More Information

• Contact us at autism_at_coe.ufl.edu
• Check our project website http//www.coe.ufl.edu/
  centers/Autism/gatorss