Problem behavior in transitions between activities

Abstract

The purpose of the current experiment was to extend the procedures of Pálsdóttir et al. (2023) with experimental analyses on problem behavior during academic and leisure activities among two children diagnosed with autism. Two analyses were conducted in this study. The first one aimed to examine if the problem behavior was maintained by escape from demands, and the second one to evaluate whether the behavior was the result of transitioning between activities. The results demonstrated that the longest latency of starting activities occurred when transitioning from rich to lean activities for both participants. No problem behavior occurred in the functional or transition analysis for one of the participants, and solely when transitioning from rich to lean activities for the other. In addition, two separate interventions were conducted. One participant received an advance notice before lean activities that did not decrease the latency to move between rich to lean or lean to lean activities. For the other one, moderate activities were added between rich to lean activities which decreased problem behavior to zero levels. Keywords: Functional analysis, Transition analysis, Target behavior, Academic activity, Leisure activity, Autism