Improving transitions between activities using an Activity Schedule for an adolescent with ASD
Luca Vascelli, Vanessa Artoni, Federica Berardo
This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of an Activity Schedule (McClannahan and Krantz, 2010) on the participant’s emission of problem behaviours. The Activity Schedule was in a written paper format. The Schedule contained, along with the sequence of activities to be carried out, a space in which the participant had to indicate the activity to perform after completing the sequence of requested tasks. A 17-year-old student diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder took part in this study. The participant was selected because he exhibited a high number of problem behaviours during transitions between different activities. For this study an experimental ABABC design was implemented (Cooper, Heron and Heward, 2007). The results show that the procedure proved to be effective in reducing the number of problem behaviours emitted by the student in the learning centre environment as well as at home.
Keywords
Autism Spectrum Disorder, activity schedule, problem behaviours.
