Functional Analysis and Treatment of Symptoms of Autism

描述（由申请人提供）：自闭症儿童表现出各种不同寻常和重复的活动、兴趣和行为（RAIBS），这些被视为该疾病的“基本”特征，如专注、仪式、强迫、刻板印象和对微小环境变化的强烈反应。许多自闭症儿童还表现出与自闭症相关的严重破坏性行为，如攻击性、异食癖、破坏财产和自残行为。自闭症的基本特征和相关特征都明显干扰了儿童的发展，给家庭生活带来了难以忍受的困难。功能分析方法已被用于更好地理解和治疗异常行为，因为这些方法允许精确识别(a)异常行为可能发生和不可能发生的环境背景（即先决条件），(b)加强或维持行为的后果，以及(c)有效的治疗方法。我们已经开始将功能分析方法应用于自闭症的这些基本症状和相关症状。我们的初步结果表明这些症状有三种操作模式。在一种模式中，基本症状和相关症状具有共同的功能（即，两者都由反应自动产生的感觉强化维持）。在第二种模式中，它们具有独立的功能（例如，一个通过感觉强化来维持，另一个通过逃避需求来维持）。在第三种模式中，它们具有相互关联的功能，其中获得自闭症的基本症状（例如，刻板印象）作为相关症状（例如，攻击）的强化。每种模式导致不同的行为干预，在减少自闭症的基本症状和相关症状方面效果不同。目前的项目旨在进一步研究自闭症的基本症状和相关症状的共同、单独和相互关联的功能。我们假设，从结构和功能方面对这些基本症状和相关症状进行分类和分析，将增强我们对自闭症的理解，并导致更有效的治疗。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Children with autism display a variety of unusual and repetitive activities, interests, and behaviors (RAIBS) that are viewed as "essential" features of the disorder, such as preoccupations, rituals, compulsions, stereotypes, and strong reactions to minor environmental changes. Many children with autism also display severe destructive behaviors that are associated features of autism, such as aggression, pica, property destruction, and self-injurious behavior. Both the essential and associated features of autism markedly interfere with the child's development and cause intolerable hardship to family life. Functional analysis methods have been used to better understand and treat aberrant behavior because these methods permit precise identification of (a) the environmental contexts (i.e., antecedent conditions) in which aberrant behavior is likely and unlikely to occur, (b) the consequences that reinforce or maintain the behavior, and (c) effective treatments. We have begun to apply the functional analysis method to these essential and associated symptoms of autism. Our preliminary results suggest three operant patterns for these symptoms. In one pattern, the essential and associated symptoms have common functions (i.e., both maintained by sensory reinforcement automatically produced by the responses). In the second pattern they have independent functions (e.g., one maintained by sensory reinforcement, the other by escape from demands). In the third pattern they have interrelated functions, in which access to an essential symptom of autism (e.g., stereotypy) functions as reinforcement for the associated symptom (e.g., aggression). Each pattern leads to a distinct behavioral intervention that is differentially effective in reducing both the essential and associated symptoms of autism. The current project is designed to further examine the common, separate, and interrelated functions of the essential and associated symptoms of autism. We hypothesize that categorizing and analyzing these essential and associated symptoms in terms of both their structural and functional properties will enhance our understanding of autism and lead to more effective treatment.