Background Identifying successful interventions for children with persistent behaviors maintained by automatic reinforcement is quite challenging.Methods This study analyzed the effects of interventions based on sensory integration (SI) on the automatic reinforcement behavior of two preschool boys with Autism Spectrum Disorders(ASD). First, we performed a functional analysis to determine whether the challenging behaviors were maintained by automatic reinforcement. Next, two sensory integration intervention assessments were used to identify the sensory disorders of the participants’ automatic reinforcement behaviors. Finally, this study implemented a sensory integration-based intervention and an adopted A-B-A-B design to verify the effectiveness of the intervention.Results The functional analysis results revealed that the participants’ target behaviors were maintained through automatic reinforcement. The findings suggested that the sensory integration-based intervention, which was designed depending on the results of the functional analysis and sensory integration assessments, positively affected the levels of automatic reinforcement behavior.Conclusions This study demonstrated that an intervention strategy based on the sensory integration theory had considerable effects on the automatic reinforcement behaviors of two preschool children.In the future, parents and professional therapists could apply this model for improving sensory integration disorders in children with ASD.
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