The long-term successful treatment of the very severe behaviors of Adolescent with autism - Assignment Example

The long-term successful treatment of the very severe behaviors of Adolescent with autism A preadolescent with autism elicits severe behaviors that can be fatal to them and people around them. These behaviors include aggression, self-injury, dangerous behavior, inappropriate toileting and sometimes even induced vomiting. Through appropriate techniques, in operant conditioning, all these behaviors can be treated, and this is the primary issue Foxx and Garito’s article addresses. Concisely, Foxx and Garito’s article provides a detailed explanation of how a twelve-year-old autistic boy was treated from severe behaviors.

The step to adopt operant conditioning is mainly initiated only after numerous other treatments have been unsuccessful. This treatment is highly addressed in the article since it has helped the boy achieve greater milestones in terms of social skills and academics. Operant conditioning through dense reinforcement, contingent exercise, and overcorrection helps in successful treatment of severe behaviors of a preadolescent autistic child. Severe forms of behaviors, in autistic patients, have remained untreated due to the mainstream treatment programs that had been adopted previously (Foxx & Garito, 2007).

Evidently, the article primarily focuses on treating these severe behaviors through operant conditioning. However, this paper suggests that Foxx and Garito should have included a comprehensive program that focuses on the patient’s life, in totality. This relates to the aspect that the twelve-year-old autistic patient was treated from a home, a community based center and a self-contained classroom. This type of treatment is significant since the patient is not put to a total confinement (Matson, 2009).

Crisis is also a common factor during the adoption of a treatment program as negative consequences are initiated, in the treatment. Foxx and Garito document, in the article, that this treatment program is less expensive and the patient is kept under watch, and important things recorded. Most physicians usually recommend a treatment program that is based on operant conditioning because before it was initiated a deep background check is done on the patient. This, in a way, proves its efficiency in recording all instances of severe behavior in the autistic patient.

In the method of this program, the patient was studied well, and all instances and types of severe behavior noted. The boy, Ned, was diagnosed with autism and ADHD and the father, neuropsychologists, had put him to numerous treatments, which had failed or registered minimal success. A justifiable aspect is that the program on operant conditioning was initiated only after all the other treatment programs had failed. The setting of this program, as it documented in the article, is school, church and home.

This shows that the program is run in a friendlier environment unlike the other treatment programs where the patient is put in a hospital. The recordings made in four different phases prove how effective the program led to the successful treatment. Authenticity is given to this program as it is done on a long-term basis and all the appropriate recordings made before initiating operant conditioning treatment techniques. The operant conditioning techniques were from phase two of the treatment, which is done at home, and at the community centre.

Reinforcement programs, which are done to delight the patient through tokens for good behavior, are first initiated as part of the operant conditioning program. Therefore, this was a positive reinforcing as the response depicted by the patient was increased. The negative reinforces initiated, in this program, include contingent physical exercise (American Psychological Association, 2004). Through positive and negative punishment, the bad behavior in the patient is decreased. This was done inform of overcorrection and contingent movement.

The program, however, does not focus on other factors that could help treat this severe behavior in the patient. Medication could also have been used to minimize seizures and hyperactivity (Matson, 2009). These of course are some of the symptoms recorded, in the patient, in the earlier years, and which the program has not addressed. Cognitive behavioral therapy has also proved to treat severe behavior in autistic children. This focuses on the thought of the patient as well as the behavior. This aspect is somehow underemphasized in treatment of severe behavior in this article.

Through the hypothesis presented, in the paper, operant conditioning is a very effective tool in treating severe behavior in preadolescent autistic children. In conclusion, this type of treatment used on the twelve-year-old Ned was successful basing mainly on the techniques of operant conditioning adopted. The reinforcement technique, through tokens and contingent physical exercise, proves effective in increasing acceptable behaviors, in the autistic patient. Overcorrection, which is also a form of negative punishment, aided drastically in decreasing extreme bad behavior, in the patient.

Contingent movement also as a technique, in operant conditioning, helps decrease severe behavior like self injury and induced vomiting, in the patient. Therefore, the article has focused on all key techniques in Skinnerian conditioning. References American Psychological Association. (2004). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, DC: American Psychological Assoc. Foxx, R. M., & Garito, J. (2007). The long term successful treatment of the very severe behaviors of a preadolescent with autism.

Behavioral Interventions Matson, J. L. (2009). Applied behavior analysis for children with autism spectrum disorders. New York: Springer.