The effects of graduated exposure, modeling, and contingent social attention on tolerance to skin care products with two children with autism
Section snippets
Participants
The participants were two young children with autism, independently diagnosed using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) (Schopler, Reichler, DeVellis, & Daly, 1980). Four-year-old Duke had a CARS score in the mild to moderate range (33) and was also diagnosed as having a “severe language disorder”. He was intolerant to skin lotion and his mother requested assistance in applying lotion to prevent severe dry skin. She usually attempted to apply lotion after his bath in the evening. She
Results
Interobserver agreement on all measures of Sam's behavior Sam ranged between 75 and 100%. Baseline IOA for rejecting responses was 97%, for accepting responses was 91%, and for steps completed was 100%. Scores for rejecting responses in all treatment sessions scored ranged between 75 and 100%. Scores for positive responses in all treatment sessions scored ranged between 86 and 100%. IOA for steps completed during sessions was 100%.
Discussion
The results of this study show that graduated exposure together with modeling and contingent social attention were successful in teaching tolerance of skin products for Duke and Sam. Not only did the children tolerate application of these products, but verbal and nonverbal accepting responses increased in frequency while rejecting responses decreased in frequency. For Duke, his mother reported 3 years later that he still had no problems with lotion or similar tactile stimuli. Follow up with Sam
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