Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Behavioral Skills Training to Improve the Abduction-Prevention Skills of Children with Autism

  • Brief Practice
  • Published:
Behavior Analysis in Practice Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A concurrent multiple baseline across participants design evaluated the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) on abduction-prevention skills of four children with autism. Across phases, confederates presented four types of abduction lures: (a) simple requests, (b) appeals to authority, (c) assistance requests, and (d) incentives. During baseline, lures resulted in children leaving with confederate strangers. During intervention, BST targeted a three-step response (i.e., refuse, move away, and report) and the abduction-prevention skills of all participants improved. Improvements generalized to novel settings and confederates and were maintained at 4 weeks.

There is currently limited research on abduction-prevention pertaining to individuals with ASD. BST can be used to teach abduction-prevention skills to individuals with ASD. BST can be effective at teaching appropriate responses to multiple types of abduction lures. The effects of BST on multiple responses to multiple types of lures can generalize across settings and people and maintain over time.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson, C., Law, J. K., Daniels, A., Rice, C., Mandell, D. S., Hagopian, L., et al. (2012). Occurrence and family impact of elopement in children with autism spectrum disorders. Pediatrics, 130, 870–877. doi:10.1542/peds.2012-0762.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, K. V., & Miltenberger, R. G. (2009). Evaluation of a commercially available program and in situ training by parents to teach abduction-prevention skills to children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 761–772.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bergstrom, R., Najdowski, A. C., & Tarbox, J. (2014). A systematic replication of teaching children with autism to respond appropriately to lures from strangers. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 47, 861–865. doi:10.1002/jaba.175.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Finkelhor, D., Hammer, H., & Sedlak, A. J. (2002). Nonfamily abducted children: national estimates and characteristics. In NISMART: National Incidence Studies on Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrown-away Children. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

  • Gunby, K. V., Carr, J. E., & LeBlanc, L. A. (2010). Teaching abduction-prevention skills to children with autism. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 43, 107–112. doi:10.1901/jaba.2010.43-107.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gunby, K. V., & Rapp, J. T. (2014). The use of behavioral skills training and in situ feedback to protect children with autism from abduction lures. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 47, 856–860. doi:10.1002/jaba.173.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, B. M., Miltenberger, R. G., Egemo-Helm, K., Jostad, C. M., Flessner, C., & Gatheridge, B. (2005). Evaluation of behavioral skills training for teaching abduction prevention skills to young children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 38, 67–78. doi:10.1901/jaba.2005.26-04.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Miltenberger, R., Gross, A., Knudson, P., Bosch, A., Jostad, C., & Breitwieser, C. B. (2009). Evaluating behavioral skills training with and without simulated in situ training for teaching safety skills to children. Education and Treatment of Children, 32, 63–75. doi:10.1353/etc.0.0049.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stokes, T. F., & Baer, D. M. (1977). An implicit technology of generalization. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 10, 349–367. doi:10.1901/jaba.1977.10-349.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

No funding was received to support this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinic for Autism Research Evaluation and Support, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA

    Katherine Ledbetter-Cho, Russell Lang, Katy Davenport, Melissa Moore & Allyson Lee

  2. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Katherine Ledbetter-Cho, Mark O’Reilly, Laci Watkins & Terry Falcomata

  3. Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX, 78666-4684, USA

    Russell Lang

Authors
  1. Katherine Ledbetter-Cho
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Russell Lang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Katy Davenport
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Melissa Moore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Allyson Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Mark O’Reilly
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Laci Watkins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Terry Falcomata
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Russell Lang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ledbetter-Cho, K., Lang, R., Davenport, K. et al. Behavioral Skills Training to Improve the Abduction-Prevention Skills of Children with Autism. Behav Analysis Practice 9, 266–270 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-016-0128-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-016-0128-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation