Establishing a broad-based leisure repertoire through shifting preference of newly acquired activities

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2016

First Committee Member

Bancroft, Stacie

Second Committee Member

Sassi, Jessica

Third Committee Member

Karsten, Amanda

Abstract

"Teaching leisure to individuals with developmental disabilities often consists of solely teaching a leisure skill to mastery. An individual’s preference or likelihood of selecting and engaging appropriately with that activity in the context of unstructured downtime is rarely assessed. It can therefore be unclear to practitioners whether teaching a skill to mastery is sufficient to incorporate the activity into a leisure repertoire, or whether additional measures are required to promote independent selection and appropriate engagement. Participants included three young men diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who attend a residential facility for children with developmental disabilities. During Phase 1, we examined whether teaching leisure activities to mastery was sufficient to increase preference and appropriate independent engagement with targeted activities during a brief response restriction preference assessment. If teaching the skill to proficiency was not sufficient to increase engagement during a preference assessment, Phase 2 focused on methods such as identifying additional reinforcing components of leisure activities through a concurrent chain assessment, and if necessary other interventions such as the use of arbitrary reinforcers to increase engagement in targeted activities. Inter-observer agreement was recorded in about 33% of the sessions. This study used a multiple baseline design across activities. The interventions were effective in increasing the preference for and appropriate engagement with leisure activities for all participants."

This document is available upon request to Western New England University faculty, students, and staff. Please contact D'Amour Library at dref@wne.edu for access.

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