A REVIEW OF COMPARISON STUDIES IN APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

Applied Behavior Analysis in Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Scoping Review

This manuscript provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of applied behavior analysis (ABA) on children and youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Seven online databases and identified systematic reviews were searched for published, peer-reviewed, English-language studies examining the impact of ABA on health outcomes. Measured outcomes were classified into eight categories: cognitive, language, social/communication, problem behavior, adaptive behavior, emotional, autism symptoms, and quality of life (QoL) outcomes. Improvements were observed across seven of the eight outcome measures. There were no included studies that measured subject QoL. Moreover, of 770 included study records, only 32 (4%) assessed ABA impact, had a comparison to a control or other intervention, and did not rely on mastery of specific skills to mark improvement. Results reinforce the need for large-scale prospective studies that compare ABA with other non-ABA interventions and include measurements of subject QoL to provide policy makers with valuable information on the impacts of ABA and other existing and emerging interventions.

A Comparison of Procedures for Teaching Receptive Labeling of Sight Words to a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

We compared the effectiveness and efficiency of a modified simple-conditional method and the conditional-only method for teaching receptive labeling of sight words. Jon, a 6-year-old boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, participated. Across three comparative evaluations, the conditional-only method resulted in fewer sessions to mastery than a modified simple-conditional method. Textual responses emerged after Jon mastered the sight words as receptive labels. Practitioners should avoid teaching component simple discriminations as a strategy for facilitating conditional discrimination training in clinical practice.