Effekten av Forsinkelser i Forsterkning på Personer med Autismespekterforstyrrelser.

A guideline when teaching people with autism spectrum disorder is that delivery of the reinforcer should be immediate or within three seconds, this is especially true in Discrete Trial Teaching. However, there is not much empirical support for this guideline. We explored the effects of delayed reinforcement on the responding in people with an autism spectrum disorder. Two delays were used, 1 second delay and 2 second delay. Fourteen participants ranging from 9 to 21 years of age, with different level of functioning participated. Participants pressed a blue button on a tablet resulting in either immediate or delayed reinforcement in the form of geometric animations. The sessions stopped when the participant did not press the button for 20 seconds. A reversal design was used. Results showed that all participants, except for one, clicked the button more during immediate reinforcement compared to delayed. Participants also had longer sessions during immediate reinforcement. The decrease in response rate from immediate to delayed reinforcement was greater at 2 seconds of delay compared to 1 second. The three participants who had the largest decrease in reponing had comorbid ADHD diagnosis. The results support and supplements previous findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]