AN EVALUATION OF TWO METHODS FOR INCREASING SELF-INITIATED VERBALIZATIONS IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

Three children with autism and mental retardation were treated for deficits in self-initiated speech. A novel treatment package employing visual cue fading was compared with a graduated time-delay procedure previously shown to be effective for increasing self-initiated language. Both treatments included training multiple self-initiated verbalizations using multiple therapists and settings. Both treatments were efffective, with no differences in measures of acquisition of target phrases, maintenance of behavioral gains, acquisition with additional therapists and settings, and social validity.     

BEACHES: AN OBSERVATIONAL SYSTEM FOR ASSESSING CHILDREN'S EATING AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY BEHAVIORS AND ASSOCIATED EVENTS

An integrated system for coding direct observations of children's dietary and physical activity behaviors was developed. Associated environmental events were also coded, including physical location, antecedents, and consequences. To assess the instrument's reliability and validity, 42 children, aged 4 to 8 years, were observed for 8 consecutive weeks at home and at school. Results indicated that four 60-min observations at home produced relatively stable estimates for most of the 10 dimensions. Interobserver reliabilities during live and videotaped observations were high, with the exception of “consequences” categories that occurred in less than 1% of observed intervals. Evidence of validity was provided by findings that antecedents were associated with respective dietary and physical activity behaviors. The five physical activity categories were validated by heart-rate monitoring in a second study. The Behaviors of Eating and Activity for Children's Health Evaluation System is appropriate for studying influences on diet and physical activity in children in a variety of settings.     

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN HOMES 13 TEACHING EMPATHY SKILLS TO CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

The purpose of this study was to teach empathetic responding to 4 children with autism. Instructors presented vignettes with dolls and puppets demonstrating various types of affect and used prompt delay, modeling, manual prompts, behavioral rehearsals, and reinforcement to teach participants to perform empathy responses. Increases in empathetic responding occurred systematically with the introduction of treatment across all participants and response categories. Furthermore, responding generalized from training to nontraining probe stimuli for all participants. Generalization occurred from dolls and puppets to actual people in a nontraining setting for 2 participants. Generalization was observed initially to the nontraining people and setting for the other participants, but responding subsequently decreased to baseline levels. Introduction of treatment in this setting produced rapid acquisition of target skills.     

CONTINGENT OBSERVATION: AN EFFECTIVE AND ACCEPTABLE PROCEDURE FOR REDUCING DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR OF YOUNG CHILDREN IN A GROUP SETTING1

Since a major task of childhood is learning to get along in a group without disrupting other children's activities, caregivers need explicit guidelines for gentle but effective procedures for dealing with disruptive behaviors in child-care settings. In a day-care center for normal 1- and 2-yr-old children, an effort was made to develop a procedure that appeared sufficiently humane and educational to be acceptable to parents and daycare workers, and yet effective in reducing disruptive play behaviors. Caregivers used the occasion of disruptive behavior to instruct the child in appropriate alternatives, then had the child sit on the periphery and observe the appropriate social behavior of the other children, “sit and watch”, for a brief period before inviting him or her to rejoin the play activities. The effectiveness of this procedure was compared with a method commonly recommended for use with young children: instructing the child, then distracting or redirecting the child to an alternative toy or activity. Contingent observation, combining instruction with a brief timeout (from being a participant in an activity to becoming an observer of the activity), proved considerably more effective in maintaining low levels of disruptions and was considered by caregivers and parents to be an appropriate and socially acceptable method of dealing with young children's disruptive behaviors. Therefore, contingent observation can be recommended for general use in day-care programs for young children.     

AN UNEXPECTED EFFECT OF RECORDING FREQUENCY IN REACTIVE SELF-MONITORING

Two young competitive swimmers self-monitored their swimming using three different frequencies of recording. Contrary to the findings of previous studies, in which greater reactivity was associated with more frequent recording, swimming appeared to increase (compared to an instructions-only baseline) only with the least frequent of the recording schedules. The results highlight the importance of matching recording procedures to the performance of interest.     

AN EMPIRICAL METHOD FOR DETERMINING AN APPROPRIATE INTERVAL LENGTH FOR RECORDING BEHAVIOR

The study sought to examine the effects of varying interval length on the representation of data obtained using modified frequency time sampling. A 7-category scale was used to observe reliably the behavior of eight psychiatric inpatients. Using electronic real time recording equipment, it was possible to computer analyze the obtained data at varying interval lengths, the shortest interval being 1.0 seconds. It was found that increasing the interval length had little effect on the percentage of total duration recorded within each behavioral category, suggesting that this is a relatively stable measure of behavior. Percentage total events for each category was less stable with increasing interval lengths. The number of recorded events within each category tended to decrease, while their average durations tended to increase, as a function of increasing the interval length. The data suggest that the current practice of determining interval length in an arbitrary fashion, or on the basis of convention, should be abandoned. Rather, such a decision should be empirically determined for each particular observation scale and subject group. One method by which this might be achieved is presented.     

浙江儿童身体发育的一些規律

問題 早在1925年,阿泼雷頓(V.B.Appleton)就研究过浙江儿童的发育問題,但他只收集了224个女学生的資料,每年龄組的人数只有4—39人,所以統計学上的意义不大。其后翟培庆(1938)搜集了6,311个杭州儿童的体貭資料,但未分出男女性別与每組的人数。解放以后,在1956年,几乎同时发表了两个关于杭州市儿童身体发育的調查研究     

INCREASING THE IMMUNIZATION OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN; AN EVALUATION OF APPLIED COMMUNITY INTERVENTIONS

We evaluated the relative impact of four procedures designed to encourage parents to obtain immunizations for their children. In a public health setting, the families of 1,133 immunization-deficient preschool children were randomly assigned to six conditions: (a) a general prompt; (b) a more client-specific prompt; (c) a specific prompt and increased public health clinic access; (d) a specific prompt and monetary incentives; (e) contact control; and (f) no contact control. All interventions, except the general prompt, produced some evidence of improvement when compared with the control groups. The monetary incentive group revealed the largest effect, followed by the increased access group, specific prompt group, and general prompt group, respectively. The data suggest that relatively powerful and immediate effects on preschoolers' clinic attendance for immunization may be produced by monetary incentives in conjunction with client-specific prompts. However, client-specific prompts alone appear to be the most cost-effective of the interventions.     

儿童自我控制研究述评

儿童自我控制指的是儿童对优势反应的抑制和劣势反应的唤起的能力.文章概述了近年来国外该领域研究的一些主要成果及研究动态,包括自控涵义上的争论、早期发生的认知基础及其表现、稳定性与性别差异上的表现、注意及语言与自控的关系、父母抚养方式对自控形成的影响等.最后,对该领域未来的发展趋势作了展望.     

MOTIVATING STAFF PERFORMANCE IN AN OPERANT LEARNING PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN

Staff performance in a residential child-treatment facility was measured by counting the number of jobs completed and number of new procedures implemented within one week of their assignment. Public notices were posted listing each staff member's duties and new procedures to be implemented during the week. The notices produced an immediate increase in performance levels, which quickly tapered off. Staff members were then given tokens worth $1.00 each for performing jobs and implementing procedures within one week of assignment. The tokens regained and sustained high levels of performance when used in conjunction with the public notices. The use of public notices alone and tokens alone maintained better performance than baseline levels, but neither was as effective in starting and maintaining high-performance levels as was the combined use of the two.     

PROGRAMMING PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: PARENTS' USE OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ACTIVITY SCHEDULES

The parents of 3 boys with autism were taught to help their children follow photographic activity schedules depicting a variety of home-living tasks. A multiple baseline across participants showed that the home-based intervention produced increases in children's engagement and social initiations and decreases in disruptive behavior, which were maintained for as long as 10 months.     

THE BEHAVIOR OBSERVATION INSTRUMENT: A METHOD OF DIRECT OBSERVATION FOR PROGRAM EVALUATION1

The background and development of a multicategory direct observation system, the Behavior Observation Instrument (BOI), is described. This time-sampling procedure for recording the behavior of persons is demonstrated in several treatment settings and the results applied to issues of program evaluation. Elements that have prevented direct observation from being widely adopted, such as costs, manpower, and training requirements, are systematically analyzed. A basic psychometric analysis of the instrument is used to determine optimum frequency and duration of observation intervals as well as observer agreement. The results imply that direct observation methods, once assumed by some to belong to the special province of the single-subject design, can be used to assess the effects of programs on groups of psychiatric clients in an efficient and economic manner.     

A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF EMPIRICALLY DERIVED CONSEQUENCES FOR THE TREATMENT OF PICA

Individualized treatment packages were developed for 3 children with high-rate severe pica using a discrimination training paradigm and a behavioral assessment-based procedure known as empirically derived consequences. Children received empirically derived reinforcers for eating under appropriate stimulus conditions (i.e., eating food only from a plate and placemat that served as a discriminative stimulus) and empirically derived punishers for attempts to engage in pica. This treatment package resulted in marked reductions in pica and an increase in appropriate eating for all 3 children in a “baited” analogue condition. In addition, low rates of pica were maintained for 9 months for all 3 children. These results suggest that treatment effectiveness may be enhanced when behavioral assessment data are used to identify potent consequences.     

学龄前智力落后儿童早期干预的教学研究

本研究旨在通过一项早期教学实验,探索教育智力落后儿童学习的有效方法;描述智力落后儿童的心理特点和行为障碍,找出促进智力落后儿童学月进步的因素,为在我国开展这方面工作积累资料。 北京新运弱智儿童养育院20名2—7岁儿童参加了这项教学实验。经过一年教学、训练,17名儿童进步明显。文中还讨论了三种所用的教学方法的优缺点;语言障碍的特点和有效的教育方法以及3名儿童进步不大的原因。     

A TOKEN SYSTEM FOR A CLASS OF UNDERACHIEVING HYPERACTIVE CHILDREN

Using a BAB design, a token system requiring cooperative interaction was used to change the reading and vocabulary performance of an 18-member class of third-grade hyperactive boys. Four different colored tokens, which could be exchanged for 15 minutes of play on electrovideo games, were earned by successful completion of two tasks that involved learning to read and to use new vocabulary words in sentences, and two tasks in which the student served as a proctor to a student who had not yet completed those tasks. The mean number of tasks completed during the intervention periods rose to over nine times the number completed during reversal. Additionally, the average completion rate for the school district's standardized weekly reading level examinations rose from four to eight fold during the token conditions. All 18 students responded to the token program by increasing their academic performance.     

小学儿童形象与語詞記忆特点的初步实驗研究

目的根据馬克思列宁主义反映论的观点,記忆过程和其他心理过程一样,是客观現实在人脑中的反映。客观現实的对象和現象对人的作用,不外是形象的与語詞的两种主要形式,因此,形象的东西利語詞的材料,就构成了記忆过程和其他心理过程反映的主要內容。形象的、語詞的材料,不仅是人的記忆的主要內容,而且从个体記忆的发展来看,形象     

儿童同伴群体活动中的性别排斥

实验一以图片为材料研究了儿童同伴群体活动中的性别刻板印象。实验二以情景故事法研究了儿童在不同排斥情景中发生性别排斥的原因即其与性别刻板印象的关系。被试为幼儿园大班、2年级和5年级儿童。结果发现,（1）在同伴群体活动中三个年龄段的儿童都存在着明显的性别刻板印象。（2）同伴群体活动中的性别排斥行为并不是由性别刻板印象引起的。（3）儿童会以道德和亲社会行为为理由接纳异性儿童,会因为群体认同、群体功效和刻板印象而排斥异性儿童。