The Effects of Task Selection Techniques on Task Avoidance Behavior of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in DTT Intervention

Abstract

Discrete trial teaching (DTT) is a teaching strategy based on applied behavior analysis and has been widely used for children with autistic disorders and other developmental disabilities. The purpose of this study is to examine the functional relationship of whether avoidance behavior decreases when the task selection technique is applied across tasks given to children with autism spectrum disorders during the intervention of individual trial professors. This study was conducted from March to May 2020 based on ABAB design. During baseline 1, no task selection technique was administered, and change of avoidance behavior was sought in comparison with intervention 1 when the task selection technique was provided. The same procedure was repeated under the same conditions to expand experimental control and to examine the functional relationship. We also investigated whether these effects could persist with other moderators when a generalized setting was given for 1 week after the ABAB intervention. As a result, more avoidance behavior was found to take place during both baseline 1 and baseline 2, where the task selection technique' was not provided, and the number of avoidance behaviors was reduced during intervention 1 and intervention 2 when the task selection technique was provided. Also, in the generalization setting, the occurrence rate of avoidance behavior is lowered to 0, which means that generalization is well managed. In the conclusion of this study, discussion, limitations, and suggestions based on the results of this study were addressed.