The Comparison of Three Behavioral Therapy Approaches for Children with Autism in Terms of the Acquisition (2009 - Present)

Investigator:  Sheila Quinn, Salve Regina University
Mentor:  Stephen Sheinkopf, Brown University

Abstract:  While the effectiveness of therapy techniques based on applied behavior analysis (ABA) has been empirically verified¹ the relative effectiveness of different varieties of discrete trial training has not been established. This project will employ 3 different types of discrete trial training (traditional vs. mastery-interspersed vs. incidental) to compare their effectiveness in terms of the speed of acquisition and strength of generalization of this important social skill.

The initial phase of the project will be limited to 9 participants but an additional 9 participants will be added during each subsequent phase. The dependent measures will include scores on standardized tests administered pre and post-intervention, as well as the percent of correct responses per session and number of trials and sessions required to reach the mastery criteria during both the acquisition and generalization phases.

Initially, the choice of statistical techniques will limited by the small-n approach appropriate for this study. Data analysis will include standard small-N design methods² as well as time-series methods for behavioral data³ when appropriate.  Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) will be increasingly appropriate as the project goes into subsequent stages and, consequently, the n increases.  At the completion of the second phase of this study (n = 18), a preliminary analysis relating the effectiveness of each type of discrete trial to participant characteristics (test scores) will be done in order to address the question of relative effectiveness of trial types.