Acquisition of Mands Through a Behavior Chain Interruption Strategy: Interaction Among Three Students with Autism

Abstract

Examined the effectiveness of the behavior chain interruption strategy for shaping mands in social interactions among 3 adolescent students with autism, and generalization to other contexts. In the interruption operation, the instructor stopped the partners' performance in social interaction; the target behavior was the mand of demanding the interaction partner's performance at the point of chain interruption. Before training, the 3 Ss' bowling skills (nonverbal behavior only) were task analyzed and chained, and the interaction behavior chain (bowling skills) was shaped with a prompting procedure. The target behavior was then trained through the behavior chain interruption procedure. Using the interruption operation, the occurrence of the target behavior in other chain contexts (i.e., Kurohige game and darts) was evaluated. The results show that all Ss acquired the interactive behavior chain and that the strategy was effective in shaping the target behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)