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Functional equivalence of autistic leading and communicative pointing: Analysis and treatment

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Abstract

Several studies have demonstrated that behavior problems can be reduced by teaching new, socially desirable responses that serve the same function as the undesirable behaviors being replaced. The present study was under-taken to extend this strategy systematically to a different area of child development, specifically, language disorder. A less desirable form of requesting, autistic leading, was treated by strengthening a more desirable form of requesting, pointing. The study was conducted using a multiple baseline design across four children with autism. Intervention included verbal and physical prompting of the pointing response as well as tangible reinforcement for child-initiated instances of that response. In a later phase, verbal requesting was also taught to accompany the pointing. Following intervention, response generalization was observed; that is, as pointing became frequent, leading became rare. In addition, stimulus generalization was observed; that is, pointing was exhibited in the presence of new adults, new settings, and new tangible objects. Results are discussed with respect to the principle that functional equivalence and response efficiency can be combined procedurally to treat a variety of undesirable behaviors in an educationally constructive manner.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Suffolk Child Development Center, USA

    Edward G. Carr & Duane C. Kemp

  2. Department of Psychology, State University of New York, 11794-2500, Stony Brook, New York

    Edward G. Carr

Authors
  1. Edward G. Carr
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  2. Duane C. Kemp
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Additional information

This investigation was supported in part by Cooperative Agreement #G0087C0234 from the U.S. Department of Education, “A Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Community Referenced Technologies for Nonaversive Behavior Management.” Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis, Milwaukee, May 1986. We thank Martin Hamburg, Executive Director, Suffolk Child Development Center, for his generous support and Susan O'Leary and Laura Palumbo for their helpful comments.

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Carr, E.G., Kemp, D.C. Functional equivalence of autistic leading and communicative pointing: Analysis and treatment. J Autism Dev Disord 19, 561–578 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02212858

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