Negative reinforcement plus edibles and praise produced about 90 percent correct responding for four severely retarded/autistic children (six to eight years old), while edibles and praise alone were much less effective. Use of negative reinforcement with noncompliant or difficult- to-motivate behaviorally disordered children appeared to be an…

This study assessed the effects and side effects of using stereotypic behavior as a consequence for correct responding with two autistic children (five and eight years old). Results supported previous research suggesting that stereotypic behavior has reinforcement value and can be used as a reinforcer. (Author/CL)

After a brief review of the literature the research proposal focuses on the comparative effectiveness of non-verbal positive reinforcement vs. verbal negative reinforcement in the reduction of self-inflicted injury on 23 elementary age autistic children. In the two phase study each child would be paired by age, sex, length of time in school,…

Alternative reinforcement strategies on a differential reinforcement of low rates of behavior schedule resulted in significant reduction of self-stimulatory behavior of 9- and 11-year-old autistic boys. Efforts were made to match the sensory consequences derived from the reinforcement to those presumed to be maintaining the self-stimulatory…

A short overcorrection procedure involving appropriate play with target toys was used to consequate the stereotypic manipulation of objects by an autistic child (6 years old) in a free play situation. The results indicate that overcorrection does not necessarily possess educative value. (Author/CL)

A leisure education program for three children (seven and eight years old) with autistic-like behavior included choice of high and low interest recreational activities in three conditions. The prompt and praise condition was superior in encouraging participation in low interest recreational activities. (Author)

In a study of visual discrimination tasks with three autistic children (ages five-six), multiple sensory reinforcers maintained responding over more trials than did multiple edible reinforcers. Single sensory reinforcers and single edibles however, resulted in nearly equal numbers of trials to satiation. Sensory reinforcers produced higher…

To test reports that the development of programs for producing durable extra-therapy responding lags behind the development of programs for producing initial behavior change, responding was recorded continuously in both the therapy and extra-therapy settings for three autistic males (7 to 11 years old). (Author)

When positive reinforcement was presented via teacher verbalizations in a noncontingent fixed-time schedule, two autistic children (six and nine years old) increased their percentage of correct responding on difficult and easy tasks. (Author/CL)

The article presents the case study of an autistic 12-year-old boy who was taught to increase the quality and decrease the size of his written letters. (PHR)

A study examined the effectiveness of the Power Card Strategy in teaching sportsmanship skills to a 10-year-old girl with autism. The strategy incorporates special interests to teach and reinforce academic, behavior, and social skills. The strategy was effective in teaching sportsmanship skills and the behavioral generalized across multiple…

Children (ages 7-12) were invited to carry out two tasks. Sabotage resulted in the experimenter appearing to have a false belief. Whereas children with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (n=12) corrected the false belief in the rewarded task condition, children with autism (n=10) were not influenced by task condition.…

Reading comprehension, indicated by motor behavior and multiple-choice picture selection called for in written instructions, was taught to an autistic child (12 years old). (Author/PT)