Faculty Articles
Parent-Assisted Modification of Pivotal Social Skills for a Child Diagnosed with PDD
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2000
Publication Title
Journal of Positive Behavior
Volume
2
Issue/Number
3
First Page
183
Last Page
188
Abstract/Excerpt
The social skills training literature for children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) has recently emphasized the parent's role in generalizing treatment gains, and several studies have promoted the utilization of parents as the primary treatment providers for their children. In this study, two parents were instructed in implementing a token reinforcement and shaping program designed to improve the social behavior of their 8-year-old boy diagnosed with PDD. Interestingly, although the child's parents directly targeted only eye gaze for change, question response latency also improved during treatment. This is one of just a few studies to demonstrate positive response generalization by targeting one "pivotal" behavior. Although as a clinical replication the study lacks many of the experimental controls characteristic of more formal research designs, the study demonstrates that procedures developed in laboratory settings can be meaningfully replicated in "real world" settings.
DOI
10.1177/109830070000200308
NSUWorks Citation
Reitman, D.,
Hupp, S. D.
(2000). Parent-Assisted Modification of Pivotal Social Skills for a Child Diagnosed with PDD. Journal of Positive Behavior, 2(3), 183-188.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/846