Resurgence is the recurrence of target responding when reinforcement conditions have worsened. Resurgence of clinically relevant behavior can occur during planned and unplanned changes in treatment. Although resurgence is possible across many treatment contexts and participants, it may be especially relevant to the treatment of children. The…

When problem behavior is controlled by a synthesized reinforcement contingency, a simple omnibus mand that yields access to all reinforcers simultaneously has been shown to effectively replace problem behavior. The question arises as to whether teaching an omnibus mand will preclude the acquisition of specifying mands for each of the combined…

The current study evaluated a procedure used to teach two children with autism to ask "why" questions maintained by causal information about an event. To increase the value of information as a reinforcer, the experimenter denied access to preferred items and did not provide a reason for the denial. Participants were taught to ask…

The high-probability (high-p) instructional sequence typically consists of the delivery of a series of high-p instructions immediately followed by the delivery of a low-probability (low-p) instruction and is a commonly used procedure to increase compliance among children with intellectual disabilities. In the current study, we used withdrawal…

This study compared contingent and noncontingent access to therapy dogs during educational tasks for children with autism spectrum disorder using a multielement design. The experimenters assessed whether initial preference for the dog predicted reinforcer efficacy and how preference changed across time. A higher response rate during contingent dog…

This article reviewed behavioral treatment of restricted and repetitive behavior and interests (RRBIs) specifically for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) 8 years of age and younger. Empirical studies published in the last decade that examined the effects of behavioral interventions for RRBIs in young children with ASD were reviewed.…

Prompt cues for recording in self-monitoring interventions can be delivered through a number of different modalities. The current study evaluated a self-monitoring intervention using a discreet auditory prompt (via a single wireless in-ear headphone) plus reinforcement for recording accuracy on increasing on-task behaviors in individuals with…

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who engage in stereotypy may also emit a prior, temporally contiguous, high-risk response to access stereotypic behaviors. For example, the participant in this study who was diagnosed with ASD engaged in a chained response that included elopement, often in unsafe locations, to access light…

Restricted or repetitive behavior (RRB) is common for individuals with visual impairment (VI), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and intellectual disability. Previous reviews have suggested that VI may moderate the effectiveness of behavioral interventions to decrease RRB. A search of the single case literature resulted in 30 studies and 40…

Error correction is a ubiquitous instructional component for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the context of alternating treatment with repeated acquisition design, we taught four young Chinese children with ASD three sets of a match-to-sample task using multiple response repetition error correction with and without reinforcement.…

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effect of implementing differential reinforcement at different times relative to the onset of teaching new skills to learners with autism spectrum disorder. Specifically, we first determined the most efficient differential reinforcement arrangement for each participant. Using the most efficient…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display impairments in communication, such as limited echoic behavior, few vocal-verbal responses, and a lack of functional communication. One potential way to foster the acquisition of vocal responses in individuals with disabilities is by conditioning vocalizations as reinforcers. Conditioning…

Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate fewer and less varied play behaviors than children with typical development. This article describes two studies designed to increase two aspects of play complexity--diverse play actions and sequential play actions--in a child with ASD. In Study 1, we use a multitreatment single-case…

We sought to evaluate the efficacy of successive matching training for establishing generalized reflexive matching across 4 children with autism. In Experiment 1, differential reinforcement with delay fading was efficacious in establishing "yes" and "no" matching and nonmatching responses in 2 participants when 2 identical or…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine if the RIRD intervention is effective in reducing vocal stereotypy in an individual with an autism spectrum disorder in the natural classroom setting with and without immediate reinforcement. The RRBs displayed by individuals with ASD may have a negative effect on the individual's ability to…