Teaching students with autism spectrum disorder to tolerate haircutting

Abstract

We describe intervention with 2 adolescent male students who had autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and resisted haircutting performed by care providers at a residential school. The students were exposed to a graduated hierarchy of steps including the presence of hair clippers, and increased duration of hair clippers against their scalp and hair. Edible reinforcement was presented contingent on completion of a step without interfering behavior. Both students learned to tolerate all of the steps in the graduated hierarchy and a full haircut with maintenance at 2-, 4-, and 6-month follow-up. The study supports previous tolerance-training research with children and youth who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and resist personal care and hygiene routines.

Telehealth mask wearing training for children with autism during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Thus, caregivers did not have to implement extinction and other potentially restrictive procedures. These results are consistent with studies with individuals with disabilities that targeted compliance with healthcare routines such as wearing eye glasses (DeLeon et al, 2008), tolerating a haircut (Buckley et al, 2020) and undergoing a neuroimaging scan (Cox et al, 2017). Further, we obtained similar outcomes across culturally diverse participants regardless of whether the caregiver conducted sessions in English, Spanish, or Tamil.…”

“…Behavioral strategies such as graduated exposure (stimulus fading), contingent positive reinforcement, and response prompting have previously been tested for their efficacy in improving compliance with healthcare routines. For example, Buckley et al (2020) used graduated exposure and positive reinforcement to teach two adolescent males with autism to tolerate a haircut. The exposure hierarchy involved gradually increasing proximity to the haircutting equipment and then increased contact duration with the equipment.…”

Increasing Hairdressing Compliance With a Child With Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Previous study (Buckley, Luiselli, Harper & Shlesinger, 2020) that focused on increasing tolerance to haircutting of children with ASD by using shaping procedure was focused on two adolescents, 16 and 17 years of age. Their research also included two phases, which were the same as in this paper, with the exception of the number of steps, the first phase has been divided into 16 and the second phase into 11 steps.…”

Relato de caso de uma intervenção comportamental para adesão ao corte de cabelo em crianças com Transtorno do Espectro Autista

“…Um item comestível de sua preferência era fornecido contingente à conclusão bemsucedida de cada etapa programada pelo estudo, sendo gradualmente aumentado o período de exposição ao corte, começando com 5 segundos de duração até chegar a 160 segundos, permitindo, ao final da intervenção, que a cuidadora conseguisse cortar os cabelos da criança na ausência de escapes e comportamentos de inconformidade. Buckley, Luiselli, Harper & Shlesinger (2020) avaliaram os efeitos de uma intervenção baseada em exposição gradual de reforço contingente de adesão, sem o uso de procedimentos de extinção de fuga, para ensinar dois adolescentes do sexo masculino, com idades de 16 e 17 anos, diagnosticado com Transtorno do Espectro Autista, ambos com baixos níveis cognitivos não verbal, a tolerar o corte de cabelo. Os participantes apresentavam severos problemas de comportamento (autolesivos, heterolesivos e agitação motora) e de baixa tolerância na atividade de cortar cabelo.…”

“…O cortar os cabelos é convencionalmente considerado uma tarefa habitual ao cuidado com a higiene pessoal (Dowdy et al, 2018), porém, pais e cuidadores de crianças autistas relatam dificuldade na realização dessa atividade com esse público específico, pois eles causam transtornos quando são expostos a ambientes como barbearias e salões de beleza (Buckley et al, 2020). O objetivo deste relato de uma série de casos é apresentar o resultado de uma intervenção com o intuito de aumentar a tolerância de duas crianças com diagnóstico de TEA aos cortes de cabelos sem o uso de procedimentos baseados em extinção.…”