A Practical Strategy to Increase Participation and Reduce Challenging Behavior During Leisure Skills Programming

Abstract

The effects of prompting, reinforcer sampling, and assistance on participation and challenging behavior of two adults with severe disabilities were examined under three conditions during a leisure program. For baseline, leisure materials were absent, but there was opportunity for social interaction. Next, leisure materials were provided, but participants were neither prompted nor assisted to use these materials. During intervention, participants sampled the materials and were assisted to use each item during a 5-minute prompting sequence. A reversal design demonstrated that the prompting sequence was associated with increased participation and reduced challenging behavior. These improvements were maintained as the frequency of the prompting sequence was reduced from four times to once per session.

A Classroom-Based Antecedent Intervention Reduces Obsessive-Repetitive Behavior in an Adolescent With Autism

“…Once distracted, we were able to socially interact with him in ways that he often failed to tolerate in the past. These positive outcomes are consistent with previous studies demonstrating that the provision of structured leisure opportunities can increase engagement and reduce problem behavior among adults with developmental disabilities (Sigafoos et al, 1997;Sigafoos & Kerr, 1994). The present findings extend these preliminary data to a new behavior and to a younger individual with autism.…”

“…The data showed that provision of leisure opportunities was associated with increased engagement, consisting of appropriate use of the leisure materials and collateral reductions in problem behaviors. In a related study, Sigafoos, Tucker, Bushell, and Webber (1997) replicated the positive effects of providing leisure activities on the problem behaviors of two other adult males with developmental disabilities. In this latter study, however, the men required continued prompting by staff to engage appropriately with the leisure materials.…”

“…The present clinical case study was aimed at assessing the effectiveness of this approach to help an adolescent boy with autism, who showed limited engagement in appropriate activities and instead spent much of his time rearranging the position of objects on his desk. The intervention approach was designed to extend previous research (Sigafoos et al, 1997;Sigafoos & Kerr, 1994) by comparing two types of leisure activities that required different levels of object manipulation. In addition, a choice paradigm was incorporated into the procedure to ensure Robert had control over the selection of leisure materials.…”

Does engagement in meaningful occupation reduce challenging behaviour in people with intellectual disabilities? A systematic review of the literature

“…There is an indication that free play is less effective than these structured approaches (Gencoz, 1997;Sigafoos et al, 1997).…”

Effects of an Antecedent Intervention on Repetitive Behaviors of a Child With Autism

“…Antecedent interventions such as providing choices, giving presession attention, and enriching the environment have been demonstrated to be effective at reducing RBs in individuals with developmental disabilities (Sigafoos, Green, Payne, O'Reilly, & Lancioni, 2009;Sigafoos, Tucker, Bushell, & Webber, 1997). Sigafoos et al (2009) demonstrated a classroombased intervention for automatically reinforced object rearrangement that interfered with an adolescent's participation in classroom activities.…”