Effects of nutritional and mechanical properties of food on ruminative behavior.

Previous studies have identified a reliable relation between the quantity of food ingested and ruminating in profoundly retarded individuals and have established some parametric characteristics of this relation. The present study investigated three different properties of food that may influence this relation. Experiment 1 examined the role of stomach distention produced by including in the subject's diet wheat bran in amounts equivalent to and exceeding the calculated amount of crude fiber in the starch-satiation diet reported by Rast, Johnston, Drum, and Conrin (1981) and Rast, Johnston, and Drum (1984). There was a decrease in ruminating, although this decrease was smaller and more gradual than in the starch-satiation condition. Experiment 2 showed that increasing calories without increasing food volume resulted in a gradual and moderate decrease in ruminating. Experiment 3 replicated and extended the first two experiments by varying both caloric intake and stomach distention as well as oropharyngeal and esophageal stimulation in a different sequence of conditions. All variables exerted some control over responding. However, the large and immediate effects of the starch-satiation procedure occurred only when subjects were permitted to consume unlimited quantities.     

SMALL GROUP BEHAVIORAL TRAINING TO IMPROVE THE JOB INTERVIEW SKILLS REPERTOIRE OF MILDLY RETARDED ADOLESCENTS

Four retarded adolescents, enrolled in a short-term residential treatment program, received behavioral job interview skills training. Although potentially employable, each was unable to present himself effectively in standard employment interviews. Treatment consisted of a series of behavioral group sessions using instructions, modeling and rehearsal procedures to increase, in multiple baseline fashion, such skills as the adolescents' ability to disclose positive information about their experience and background, convey interest in the position and direct relevant questions to an interviewer. Effectiveness of treatment for each client was assessed by: (1) Objective ratings of performance during individual, structured role-play job interviews following each treatment group; (2) objective ratings of pre- and posttraining performance during tape recorded in vivo generalization job interviews at a fast-food restaurant; and (3) global evaluations of pre- and posttraining in vivo generalization interviews made by experienced personnel interviewers unfamiliar with the nature of the treatment. The results indicated that potentially employable retarded citizens can be successfully taught appropriate job interview behavior using a small group behavioral procedure. The need for such techniques in community and rehabilitation centers for retarded citizens and other clinical populations is discussed.     

The effects of speech output technology in the learning of graphic symbols

The effects of auditory stimuli in the form of synthetic speech output on the learning of graphic symbols were evaluated. Three adults with severe to profound mental retardation and communication impairments were taught to point to lexigrams when presented with words under two conditions. In the first condition, participants used a voice output communication aid to receive synthetic speech as antecedent and consequent stimuli. In the second condition, with a nonelectronic communications board, participants did not receive synthetic speech. A parallel treatments design was used to evaluate the effects of the synthetic speech output as an added component of the augmentative and alternative communication system. The 3 participants reached criterion when not provided with the auditory stimuli. Although 2 participants also reached criterion when not provided with the auditory stimuli, the addition of auditory stimuli resulted in more efficient learning and a decreased error rate. Maintenance results, however, indicated no differences between conditions. Finding suggest that auditory stimuli in the form of synthetic speech contribute to the efficient acquisition of graphic communication symbols.     

THE REPRESENTATIVENESS OF OBSERVATIONAL SAMPLES OF DIFFERENT DURATIONS

The representativeness of behavioral observation samples with durations of less than the whole time of interest was investigated. A real-time recording system was developed to quantify the behavior of 5 profoundly mentally retarded physically handicapped adult students in an institutional training setting. Behavior was observed using six mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories during 2.5-hr observation sessions. Sample observation sessions with durations ranging from 15 to 135 min were computer simulated from the whole-session (150-min) records. It was found that the representativeness of these samples, when compared to whole-session records, was a function of the relative duration of the behavioral categories and of sample duration. The occurrence of relatively high-duration behaviors (lasting for more than 50% of the session) was estimated to within 20% error by samples of less than 60 min, but low-duration behaviors (1 to 3% of the session) were inadequately quantified even from 135-min samples. Increasing irregularity of bouts of behavior in the low-duration behaviors is suggested as the cause of the functions obtained. Implications of the findings for applied behavior analysis are discussed, with the recommendation that the adequacy of observational session durations be empirically assessed routinely.     

The child's sense of existence and the fatal attraction of identification

This paper gives special emphasis to the widening and modification of the sense of existence in relation to the unconscious processes of identification. In our ‘post‐modern’ society there are some parents who, while taking care of their children, use subtle projective identification against them, so as to produce in them a sort of pathological introjective identification, which denies their Self. Ferenczi's thought, which deals with the sense of ‘not‐existing’ in some children, helps us to go into depth in understanding their difficulties and pathologies.     

A SUPERVISION PROGRAM FOR INCREASING FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR SEVERELY HANDICAPPED STUDENTS IN A RESIDENTIAL SETTING

This study was designed to increase the amount of time severely handicapped students living in a residential facility engaged in age-appropriate and functional activities. After a brief in-service training, a program involving instructions to supervisors and staff feedback was implemented in a multiple-baseline design across settings. Results showed that after the supervision program was implemented, the students' participation in activities increased. Further, these increases maintained when feedback was reduced from an average of 3 days a week during treatment, to once a month for a 5-month period.     

LEISURE-DANCE INSTRUCTION FOR SEVERELY AND PROFOUNDLY RETARDED PERSONS: TEACHING AN INTERMEDIATE COMMUNITY-LIVING SKILL

We evaluated an approach for teaching an intermediate community living skill via a leisure-dance activity to institutionalized severely and profoundly retarded persons. The targeted skill was considered as intermediate in contrast to a community living skill per se because it was based on successful performances of higher functioning, noninstitutionalized retarded persons as opposed to nonhandicapped individuals. Definitions for appropriate dancing were established and then validated through observations of the performance of retarded persons living in the local community. The dance skills were then taught to four participants through serial training in leg movements, arm movements, and coordinated leg and arm movements, plus follow-up trainer supervision. Generalization was also programmed by way of multiple trainers and training settings. Results during structured assessments showed that all four residents acquired the dance skills and that both serial training and follow-up supervision were necessary for skill acquisition. Generalized increases in appropriate dancing at dances attended by the participants and retarded persons from the community were also demonstrated. However, in most cases some active supervision by caregivers was needed to enhance the generalized improvements. Results are discussed in terms of the applicability of this approach for validating goals when training other community-related skills to low-functioning populations.     

儿童心理健康发展的家庭生态系统特点研究

通过元分析及变量频数分析技术完成影响儿童心理发展的家庭生态系统关键变量的筛选,运用生态系统发展观,对746名中小学生的家庭生态系统进行了研究。分别从差异模式、关系模式和系统结构模式对健康组和问题组儿童的家庭各子系统关键因素之间的差异,子系统关键因素间、子系统间的关系,以及整体生态系统的特点进行分析,考察了儿童心理健康发展的家庭生态系统特点。