Indirect functional assessment of stereotypy in children with autism spectrum disorders

An Analysis of Treatment Efficacy for Stereotyped and Repetitive Behaviors in Autism

“…The majority of reinforcement-and skills-based treatments in this category evaluated the use of noncontingent access to matched stimuli. Given that 90 % of stereotypy in individuals with ASD is automatically reinforced (Wilke et al 2012), it is possible that the stereotypy of the participants in these studies was maintained by automatic reinforcement and would account for the decrease in stereotypy reported. However, these treatments should not be implemented arbitrarily as Wilke et al (2012) also reported that the stereotypy of 10 % of participants was maintained by social consequences.…”

“…Specifically, this theory suggests that repetitive behavior may be maintained by reinforcing consequences automatically produced by engaging in the behavior (Lovaas et al 1987). While most repetitive, ritualistic, and stereotyped behaviors may be maintained by automatic reinforcement, it is also possible that these behaviors could be maintained by external social consequences (Wilke et al 2012). Wilke et al (2012) evaluated the function of stereotyped behavior for 53 individuals with ASD using indirect functional analysis.…”

“…While most repetitive, ritualistic, and stereotyped behaviors may be maintained by automatic reinforcement, it is also possible that these behaviors could be maintained by external social consequences (Wilke et al 2012). Wilke et al (2012) evaluated the function of stereotyped behavior for 53 individuals with ASD using indirect functional analysis. While the majority of stereotyped behaviors were found to be maintained by automatic reinforcement, 10 % of the participants demonstrated stereotyped behavior which was maintained by social consequences.…”

Using ABC narrative recording to identify the function of problem behavior: A pilot study

“…In a more recent study, Lerman, ABC NARRATIVE RECORDING 7 Hovanetz, Strobel, and Tetreault (2009) probabilities, lag sequence analyses). For example, researchers have shown that stereotypy is maintained by nonsocial reinforcement in more than 90% of cases (Matson et al, 2009;Wilke et al, 2012). Assume that a child with an autism spectrum disorder engages in hand flapping maintained by nonsocial reinforcement, but that his mother consistently provides attention contingent on the behavior (e.g., she asks him to stop).…”

Behavioral Interventions for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities Exhibiting automatically-Reinforced Challenging Behavior: Stereotypy and Self-Injury

“…It is important to note that several lines of research support gathering information about both behavioral functions and motivating operations to have the best success with interventions, where motivating operations are defined as environmental, biological, social, or cognitive elements that can influence the effectiveness of consequences used in operant conditioning techniques during behavior modification [18][19][20][21]. Although assessment of functions can be helpful, it is common for observers to assume that stereotypic behaviors are maintained by automatic reinforcement [22]. In addition, the majority of the literature using our current assessment options suggests that automatic reinforcement maintains most stereotypy [16] and researchers frequently refer to the neurobiological source of stereotypy, using evidence from nonhuman studies [23] Stereotypy is even referred to as "stimming" in the literature and field to signify how the behavior is self-stimulatory in nature [24].…”