Autism Therapy: reinforce

definition of reinforce: not yet defined.

No Factsheets to Display

Improving Social Initiations in Young Children with Autism Using Reinforcers with Embedded Social Interactions
J Autism Dev Disord, by Koegel, RL, Vernon TW, and Koegel LK, published in 2009, summarized May 6, 2010

Children with autism who are rewarded with social interactions during therapy may learn to seek out and initiate social interactions.

The purpose of this study was to see if social exchange could be used to as a reinforcer during speech therapy. This means that rather than giving a reward, the therapist provides social exchange as the reward. The data show that speech therapy sessions with social exchanges helped the child to be more engaged and have higher affect ratings. The authors hope that teaching social exchange will also improve speech and behavior. They also hope that helping children to learn to connect with the therapist will help the child learn to connect with other children.


Manipulating the Evocative and Abative Effects of an Establishing Operation: Influences on Challenging Behavior during Classroom Instruction
Behavioral Interventions, by OReilly, MO, Edrisinha C., Sigafoos J., Lancioni G., Cannella H., Machalicek W., and Langthorne P., published in 2007, summarized Aug 9, 2007

Parents and teachers should look closely at the day's routine to see if anything might somehow be rewarding a child with autism for bad behavior.

This study was designed to see if letting children with bad behavior have a snack before a class lesson (instead of afterwards) caused better behavior during the lesson. The authors found that this approach worked very well for a student with autism and severe disabilities. When he didn't receive a snack before the lesson, he was much more likely to hit staff and hit his head. The authors believe that this bad behavior was his effort to stop the lesson and get the snack that he could see on the counter. When the lesson was stopped and he got his snack afterwards during snack time, the snack was reinforcing his bad behavior.


PECS: Potential Benefits and Risks
The Behavior Analyst Today, by Bondy, AS, published in 2001, summarized Nov 7, 2006

This article concludes that the picture-exchange communication system (PECS) can help children with autism communicate effectively, and perhaps learn to speak. The authors begin this overview by pointing out that, when a child is learning to speak, the role of the listener is to reinforce the child. This reinforcement can be given both as a natural consequence of the child's speech (child says: "I want a cookie," reinforcement is: cookie), and also as a social consequence (child says: "I want a cookie" reinforcement is: "Oh! You want a cookie! Here it is."). For a child with autism who has trouble with speech, both kinds of reinforcement may be rare. The authors comment that PECS provides this reinforcement without requiring the child to speak. They then outline the phases of PECS training (described in the PECS fact sheet). Finally, there is a brief discussion of the potential risks and benefits of PECS. For example, while some parents have feared that PECS will result in delayed use of speech, one major benefit of PECS is that children using PECS often do develop speech. Another benefit of using PECS is that many people in the child's community can use the system without special training.


Neurofunctional Mechanisms in Autism
Psychol Rev., by Waterhouse, L., Fein D., and Modahl C., published in 1996, summarized Sep 25, 2006

In this article, the authors propose that complex human behaviors, such as those seen in children with autism, are the result of abnormalities in multiple overlapping portions of the brain.

They suggest that, in addition to sexual intercourse, there are three social interactions that are critical for human survival. These are: 1) mother-child, 2) societal motor imitation (like hiding from a predatory animal), and 3) conversation. They hypothesize that the environment of the young child can either improve or aggravate symptoms of autism. This could at least partially explain the wide variations among children who have autism. For example, when a human engages in one of the social interactions listed above, two hormones (vasopressin and oxytocin) are released. These hormones reinforce the behavior and cause the person to be more likely to initiate or participate in the social interaction at the next opportunity. Thus, it would theoretically be possible to change a child's nervous system by placing the child in an extremely social and interactive environment from a very young age.


Showing 4 results

Meditation as Therapy for Asperger's Syndrome

Jul 17, 2009

Emily Breder, who meditates herself, thought it might help her son with Asperger syndrome learn to concentrate. She discovered that it was 1) important to practice meditating yourself, and 2) do it with your child to make it a family experience. Breder recommends using a large circle of color as the main focus in meditation: "Use white, yellow, black, or red paint, preferably oils or watercolor. Red indicates beauty, yellow is energy, black is relaxation, white is peace." Then, after getting used to meditating yourself, start with your child for only a minute or two. Gently remind your child to keep thinking about the color circle. Try to spend this time together everyday to reinforce consistency and focus.

Read original article.


Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy Makes its Way Across India

Apr 15, 2009

Smita Awasthi is the only board certified behavior analyst in India, but she is determined to spread the benefits of applied behavior analysis (ABA). She plans on training parents, teachers, and other therapists so that more children with autism can be reached at an earlier age. She is assisted in this endeavor by Radhika Poovayya, Speech Pathologist and Director of Samvaad Institute who states, "Learning ABA principles is not all that hard. But one needs to painstakingly observe behaviour, analyse and reinforce consistently."

Read original article.


New Computer Specifically Designed to Help Kids with Autism

Mar 24, 2009

The Puzzle Piece laptop computer has been designed by Continuum specifically for use with children with autism. The laptop, which is still in the design stage, is based on the flow of applied behavior analysis (ABA) - a reward and consequence process. Continuum designers followed ABA teachers as they worked with children and found that, "There were grown adults, sitting at children's tables, trying to record data in big binders." With Puzzle Piece, the teacher is at one side of the laptop, while the child sits at the other. The prompts and responses will be recorded into the laptop as the child learns the appropriate behaviors. In order for parents to be involved in the process and reinforce the therapy, what the child learns will be loaded onto a flash drive that parents can load onto their own computer at home.

Read original article.


California County Opens Two New Preschools for Children with Autism

Feb 2, 2009

In response to the growing number of children diagnosed with autism, Humboldt County in California has opened two new preschools for these children. While these preschools cater to children on the austism spectrum and provide early intervention for children 1-3 years of age, the focus is to mainstream the kids into kindergarten. The preschools work with children on communication skills - primarily through the picture exchange communication system (PECS) and visual schedules. Both these methods can be used at home by the parents to reinforce what the children learn in preschool.

Read original article.


Showing 1-4 of 5 results

No Comments to Display


Please comment on reinforce or other autism therapy topics.

  • Factsheet
  • Research
  • News
  • Comments.
    • Synonyms for reinforce include: reinforcers
    Share |