Multisensory Environmental Therapy (Snoezelen) for Job Stress Reduction in Mental Health Nurses: a Randomised Trial

This independent measures experimental design study conducted in the UK and USA, assessed the benefits of multisensory environmental therapy (MSET) using a snoezelen room to reduce occupational stress in sixteen mental health nurses. An independent staff member randomly allocated each participant to one of two intervention conditions: either the hospital /university unit lounge (control group n = 8) or MSET (experimental group n=8). The intervention was undertaken for four weeks, two sessions per week, for thirty minutes. Measures of pulse rate were obtained both pre-and post-intervention. In addition, pre-and post-measures were obtained on the State-Trait Anxiety Scale and the Profile of Mood States and, upon conclusion of the study, an intervention satisfaction questionnaire was completed. Sixteen participants were included in the analysis of the primary outcomes. A significant treatment by pre-post interaction was found for pulse rates, the State Anxiety Scale, and on the Confusion Bewilderment sub-scale of the Profile of Mood States scale. In conclusion, nurses reported unanimous satisfaction with MSET and felt their on-the-job performance was enhanced in the areas of holistic caring for patients and problem solving.The Hope Foundatio

Using video modeling to teach complex social sequences to children with autism

This study comprised of two experiments was designed to teach complex social sequences to children with autism. Experimental control was achieved by collecting data using means of within-system design methodology. Across a number of conditions children were taken to a room to view one of the four short videos of two people engaging in a simple sequence of activities. Then, each child’s behavior was assessed in the same room. Results showed that this video modeling procedure enhanced the social initiation skills of all children. It also facilitated reciprocal play engagement and imitative responding of a sequence of behaviors, in which social initiation was not included. These behavior changes generalized across peers and maintained after a 1- and 2-month follow-up period

Setting generality and stimulus control in autistic children.

This study was designed to assess the transfer of treatment gains of autistic children across settings. In the first phase, each of 10 autistic children learned a new behavior in a treatment room and transfer to a novel extra-therapy setting was assessed. Four of the 10 children showed no transfer to the novel setting. Therefore, in the second phase, each child who failed to transfer participated in an analysis of stimulus control in order to determine the variables influencing the deficit in transfer. Eachof the four children who did not transfer were selectively responding to an incidental stimulus during the original training in the treatment room. Utilizing a reversal design, each of the four children responded correctly in the extra-therapy setting when the stimulus that was functional during training was identified and introduced into the extra-therapy setting. The extreme selective responding and the resulting bizarre stimulus control found are discussed in relation to the issue of setting generality of treatment gains

Treatment of psychotic children in a classroom environment: I. Learning in a large group

The purpose of this study was to investigate systematically the feasibility of modifying the behavior of autistic children in a classroom environment. In the first experiment, eight autistic children were taught certain basic classroom behaviors (including attending to the teacher upon command, imitation, and an elementary speaking and recognition vocabulary) that were assumed to be necessary for subsequent learning to take place in the classroom. Based on research documenting the effectiveness of one-to-one (teacher-child ratio) procedures for modifying such behaviors, these behaviors were taught in one-to-one sessions. It was, however, found that behaviors taught in a one-to-one setting were not performed consistently in a classroom-sized group, or even in a group as small as two children with one teacher. Further, the children evidenced no acquisition of new behaviors in a classroom environment over a four-week period. Therefore, Experiment II introduced a treatment procedure based upon “fading in” the classroom stimulus situation from the one-to-one stimulus situation. Such treatment was highly effective in producing both a transfer in stimulus control and the acquisition of new behaviors in a kindergarten/first-grade classroom environment

Research on the difference between generalization and maintenance in extra-therapy responding.

Many authors have reported that the development of programs for producing durable extra-therapy responding lags behind the development of programs for producing initial behavior change. In Experiment I, responding was recorded continuously in both the therapy and extra-therapy settings. The results showed that one child did not generalize to the extra-therapy setting, but that other children did. However, for the children who generalized, extra-therapy responding was not maintained. Therfore, in Experiment II two variables affecting the durability of extra-therapy responding were assessed and found to be influential: (a) the use of partial reinforcement schedules in the original treatment environment; and (b) the presence of noncontingent reinforcers in the extra-therapy environment. The results suggest that there are two distinct parameters of extra-therapy responding: generalization and maintenance. A technology for producing durable extra-therapy responding is discussed in terms of different treatment procedures required for different deficits in extra-therapy responding

The relative motivational properties of sensory and edible reinforcers in teaching autistic children.

We compared the effects of sensory and edible reinforcers on resistance to satiation in three autistic children while learning visual discrimination tasks. Within-subject designs were used to compare a single sensory reinforcer with a single edible reinforcer and to compare multiple sensory reinforcers with multiple edibles. Results indicated that multiple sensory reinforcers maintained responding over more trials than did multiple edible reinforcers; however, the use of single sensory reinforcers and single edibles resulted in about equal numbers of trials to satiation. Both multiple and single sensory reinforcers produced higher percentages of correct responses than edible reinforcers. The findings are discussed in terms of the advantages of sensory reinforcers in teaching autistic children

Assessing and training teachers in the generalized use of behavior modification with autistic children.

This study investigated the feasibility of developing reliable, valid criteria for measuring and training the skills necessary to teach autistic children. The behaviors of 11 teachers and 12 autistic children were recorded in a series of different teaching situation. Teacher-training was initiated at different times for different teachers. The results showed: (1) it was possible to asses empirically whether a teacher was correctly using defined behavior-modification techniques; (2) generally, for any given session, systematic improvement in the child's behavior did not occur unless the teacher working in that session had been trained to use the techniques to a hight criterion; (3) all 11 teachers were rapidly trained to use these techniques; and (4) the teachers learned generalized skills effective with a variety of children and target behaviors

The technical drift of applied behavior analysis

Four dimensions (applied, analytic, general, conceptual) were selected from Baer, Wolf, and Risley's (1968) seminal article on the nature of applied behavior analysis and were monitored throughout the first 10 volumes of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Each of the experimental articles in Volumes 1 through 6 and the first half of Volumes 7 through 10 was rated on each of these dimensions. The trends showed that applied behavior analysis is becoming a more purely technical effort, with less interest in conceptual questions. We are using simpler experimental designs and are conducting fewer analogue studies. Although concern for maintenance is increasing, other forms of generality are being measured or analyzed less often. These trends are discussed in terms of a technical drift in applied behavior analysis