Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss self-management as a valuable aid in the treatment of problematic social behaviors in autism. Within this treatment, the child is taught to determine whether or not a target behavior has occurred, how to record the occurrence of the behavior, and how to recruit or obtain reinforcement. The use of self-management permits a large amount of behavior management without the continual presence of a treatment provider, thus increasing the amount of treatment provided as well as the number of settings where treatment takes place. Self-management is especially ideal for individuals whose primary treatment goals are in the area of pragmatic or social skills. In environments where it would be especially intrusive or stigmatizing to have a clinician present, self-management (in the absence of a clinician) may have significant advantages. Not only is it less stigmatizing without the presence of a therapist, but it also is more likely that opportunities for natural social exchanges will occur under such conditions. Self-regulation during such exchanges also has the potential for fine-tuning social skills as a result of peer modeling and feedback. Because children with autism have many characteristics that make their behavior difficult for a single therapist to modify, incorporating self-management into a treatment package is especially advantageous. This is true to a large extent because of the need to observe and provide consequences for numerous behaviors across many settings. Further, although some of these behaviors occur infrequently, they are severely problematic when they do occur, thus requiring the therapist to maintain continuous vigilance over extended periods of time. For example, children with autism (1) exhibit low-probability excess behaviors that disrupt their environments; (2) fail to exhibit numerous appropriate behaviors that can enhance their development; and (3) exhibit certain behaviors that, even though they may occur rarely, have a major impact on nonhandicapped individuals judgments of autism. These characteristics result in the need for continuous and vigilant treatment intervention across significant portions of the day in order to produce socially meaningful treatment impacts. Self-management addresses this need by incorporating the child as an active contributor to his/her own treatment. The following characteristics of autism illustrate how self-management can be useful.
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Koegel, R.L., Frea, W.D., Surratt, A.V. (1994). Self-Management of Problematic Social Behavior. In: Schopler, E., Mesibov, G.B. (eds) Behavioral Issues in Autism. Current Issues in Autism. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9400-7_5
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