Increasing the use of empathic statements in the presence of a non-verbal affective stimulus in adolescents with autism

Argott, Paul; Townsend, Dawn Buffington; Sturmey, Peter; Poulson, Claire L.

doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2007.08.004

Cited by 31 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Participants in the current study were taught to discriminate between three categories of affect (joy, frustration, and pain) and respond with a complex empathetic response that consisted of an appropriate verbal statement voiced in the correct intonation, using an appropriate gesture, and a facial expression that corresponded the affect displayed by conversation partner. Data from the current study are consistent with previous research teaching individuals with autism various units of empathetic responding (e.g., Gena et al, 1996;Buffington et al, 1998;Schrandt et al, 2009;Argott et al, 2008) and extend the previous research by teaching those units collectively.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Directly extending the research of Gena and her colleagues (1996,2005), and building upon the research conducted by Argott et al (2008) and Schrandt, et al (2009), Daou et al (2014) effectively increased the use of a more complex empathetic response that included statements, appropriate intonation, and facial expressions in three 9-13-year-old youths with ASD. Once again, reinforcement was provided for the appropriate use of the various components of the empathetic response with modeling and prompting used to teach the skills, Similar to Argott et al (2008) and Schrandt et al (2009), Daou and colleagues used errorless teaching procedures and systematically faded prompts as participants began to respond independently.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Therefore, if some individuals with ASD are sensitive to social reinforcement, the absence of empathetic responding may instead be due to an inability to identify the salient aspects of affective responses that should evoke the empathetic response. However, Argott, Townsend, Sturmey, and Poulson (2008) successfully taught adolescents with ASD to discriminate and differentially respond to affective stimuli that consisted of a facial expression and a gesture with an appropriate empathetic response. In their study, Argott et al used a script-fading procedure to teach appropriate empathetic verbal responses to non-vocal affective stimuli from three categories: joy, frustration, and pain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These procedures also increased appropriate affective responding that generalized to untaught stimuli and settings. Additionally, as previously discussed, Argott et al (2008) incorporated the use of reinforcement and a script-fading procedure to increase the use of appropriate empathetic statements to affective motor discriminative stimuli. Likewise, Schrandt, Townsend, and Poulson (2009) incorporated a prompt-delay procedure using modeling and prompting to teach 4-6-year-old children with ASD to use empathetic statements and gestures towards puppets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Once again, reinforcement was provided for the appropriate use of the various components of the empathetic response with modeling and prompting used to teach the skills, Similar to Argott et al (2008) and Schrandt et al (2009), Daou and colleagues used errorless teaching procedures and systematically faded prompts as participants began to respond independently. Additionally, they used a scriptfading procedure to teach the verbal statements associated with each category of affect and a shaping procedure to reinforce appropriate facial expressions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Acquisition and Generalization of Complex Empathetic Responses Among Children with Autism

Argott

Townsend

Poulson

2017

Behav Analysis Practice

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Empathy can be defined as a social interaction skill that consists of four components: (1) a statement voiced in the (2) appropriate intonation, accompanied by a (3) facial expression and (4) gesture that correspond to the affect of another individual. A multiple-baseline across response categories experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a prompt sequence (video modeling, in vivo modeling, manual and verbal prompting) and reinforcement to increase the frequency of complex empathetic responding by four children with autism. The number of complex empathetic responses increased systematically with the successive introduction of the treatment package. Additionally, generalization was demonstrated to untaught stimuli and a novel adult. Responding maintained over time to varying degrees for all participants. The data illustrate that children with autism can be taught using modeling, prompting, and reinforcement to discriminate between categories of affective stimuli and differentially respond with complex empathetic responses.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Acquisition and Generalization of Complex Empathetic Responses Among Children with Autism

Argott

Townsend

Poulson

2017

Behav Analysis Practice

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Preschool Life Skills: Toward Teaching Prosocial Skills and Preventing Aggression in Young Children

Luczynski

Fahmie

2017

The Wiley Handbook of Violence and Aggression

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In the United States, more than one 1.5 million 4‐year‐olds attended publicly funded preschool in 2012, which is problematic considering that the amount of nonfamilial center‐based childcare experienced between 3 and 54 months of age has been positively correlated with externalizing problem behaviors such as aggression and noncompliance at 4.5 through 10 years of age. Teaching prosocial skills, such as functional communication, that produce the same consequences as problem behavior in early childhood has led to significant reductions in problem behavior and the prevention of problem behavior. We describe the situations that give rise to and maintain problem behavior, the preschool life skills that should be taught in these situations for the prevention of problem behavior, and the strategies used to teach these prosocial skills in early childhood classrooms.

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The use of a discrimination‐training procedure to teach mand variability to children with autism

Brodhead

Higbee

Gerencser

et al. 2015

J of App Behav Analysis

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Repetitive behavior and delays in communication are core deficits of autism spectrum disorder. As a result, individuals with autism often engage in repetitive verbal behavior, and they may not vary their verbal behavior, even when the situation demands it. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a script training and discrimination training procedure on mand variability in preschoolers with autism.Participants were taught to vary their vocal mands in the presence of written scripts, a green placemat, and Lag schedule of reinforcement. They were also taught to not vary their vocal mands in the presence of the same written scripts and a red placemat. When the scripts were removed, all three participants continued to engage in varied manding in the presence of the Lag schedule of reinforcement and the green placemat. All three participants also did not vary their mands in the presence of the red placemat. When the Lag schedule of reinforcement was removed, two participants continued to engage in varied responding in the presence of the green placemat and unvaried responding in the iv presence of the red placemat. One participant did not engage in varied responding when the Lag schedule of reinforcement was removed. However, when the Lag schedule of reinforcement was re-introduced, varied responding re-emerged. Finally, all three participants demonstrated mand variability during snack sessions when their peers were present, and they maintained their varied manding after a 2-week follow-up. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether or not three preschoolers with autism would engage in varied or repetitive requests, depending on the situation.Participants were taught to respond in varied or repetitive requests in the presence of green and red placemats, respectively. Written sentences were also available on each placemat to help participants engage in independent requests. When the written sentences were removed, all three participants continued to engage in varied requests in the presence of the green placemat and when reinforcement was provided for response variability; repetitive requests continued in the presence of the red placemat. Two out of three participants continued to engage in varied requests in the presence of the green placemat when reinforcement was provided for all responses, regardless of whether or not they were varied. Finally, all three participants engaged in varied requests during their typical preschool snack session, and they also continue to vary their requests after a 2-week follow-up. Our results indicate that preschoolers with autism can vary the way they make requests, depending on the context.

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Increasing the use of empathic statements in the presence of a non-verbal affective stimulus in adolescents with autism

Cited by 31 publications

References 12 publications

Acquisition and Generalization of Complex Empathetic Responses Among Children with Autism

Acquisition and Generalization of Complex Empathetic Responses Among Children with Autism

Preschool Life Skills: Toward Teaching Prosocial Skills and Preventing Aggression in Young Children

The use of a discrimination‐training procedure to teach mand variability to children with autism

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