Out-of-seat and talking-out behaviors were studied in a regular fourth-grade class that included several "problem children". After baseline rates of the inappropriate behaviors were obtained, the class was divided into two teams "to play a game". Each out-of-seat and talking-out response by an individual child resulted in a mark being placed on the chalkboard, which meant a possible loss of privileges by all members of the student's team. In this manner a contingency was arranged for the inappropriate behavior of each child while the consequence (possible loss of privileges) of the child's behavior was shared by all members of this team as a group. The privileges were events which are available in almost every classroom, such as extra recess, first to line up for lunch, time for special projects, stars and name tags, as well as winning the game. The individual contingencies for the group consequences were successfully applied first during math period and then during reading period. The experimental analysis involved elements of both reversal and multiple baseline designs.

Accurate description of an individual's communication status is critical in both research and practice. Describing the communication status of individuals with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities is difficult because these individuals often communicate with presymbolic means that may not be readily recognized. Our goal was to design a communication scale and summary score for interpretation that could be applied across populations of children and adults with limited (often presymbolic) communication forms. Methods The Communication Complexity Scale (CCS) was developed by a team of researchers and tested with 178 participants with varying levels of presymbolic and early symbolic communication skills. Correlations between standardized and informant measures were completed, and expert opinions were obtained regarding the CCS. Results CCS scores were within expected ranges for the populations studied and inter-rater reliability was high. Comparison across other measures indicated significant correlations with standardized tests of language. Scores on informant report measures tended to place children at higher levels of communication. Expert opinions generally favored the development of the CCS. Clinical implications The scale appears to be useful for describing a given individual's level of presymbolic or early symbolic communication. Further research is needed to determine if it is sensitive to developmental growth in communication.

Of 79 overweight adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities who participated in a weight loss intervention, 73 completed the 6-month diet phase. The emphasis in the intervention was consumption of high volume, low calorie foods and beverages, including meal-replacement shakes. Lower calorie frozen entrees were recommended to control portion size. A walking activity was encouraged. Participants attended monthly meetings in which a small amount of cash was exchanged for self-recorded intake and exercise records completed on picture-based forms. Average weight loss was 13.2 pounds (6.3%) of baseline weight at 6 months, with weight loss shown by 64 of the 73 individuals enrolled. Those completing a 6-month follow-up phase showed weight loss of 9.4% of baseline. Increased choice and control are discussed as possible contributors to individual success.

The eSLD and CD provided clinically meaningful weight loss over 18 months in adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

NCT02722382.

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The objective of this study was to teach manual signs through an automated matching-to-sample procedure and to test for the emergence of new conditional relations and imitative behaviors. Seven adults with mild to severe mental retardation participated. Four were also hearing impaired. Relations between manual signs (set A) and pictures (set B) were initially taught, followed by the training of corresponding printed words (set C) and pictures (set B). Further presentations of conditional discriminations tested for the emergence of AC, followed by tests for the emergence of imitative signing behavior (D) in the presence of either pictures (B) or printed words (C). Each stimulus set was comprised of 9 elements. The stimuli were still pictures, printed words, and dynamic presentations of manual signs. A pretest was conducted to determine which signs the participants could make pre-experimentally. Teaching was arranged in a multiple baseline design across 3 groups of 3 words each. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether participants would emit manual signs in expressive signs tests as a result of observation (video modeling) during match-to-sample training in the absence of explicit training. Five of the 7 subjects passed tests of emergence and emitted at least 50% of the signs. Two were hearing impaired with signing experience, and 3 were not hearing impaired and had no signing experience. Thus, observation of video recorded manual signs in a matching-to-sample training procedure was effective at establishing some signs by adults with mental retardation.

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