ERRORLESS EMBEDDING IN THE REDUCTION OF SEVERE MALADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR DURING INTERACTIVE AND LEARNING-TASKS

A 5-year-old girl diagnosed with autism exhibited aberrant behavior when exposed to specific interactive and learning tasks (subsequently referred to as ''problem'' tasks). In a multiple baseline across three tasks, we moderated the effects of the problem tasks on the behavior of the child by embedding intervals of these tasks into trials of a task associated with low levels of aberrant behavior (i.e., ''moderating'' task). Initial, problem tasks comprised only a small proportion of session time but were gradually increased in duration across sessions until the moderating task was completely faded. Maladaptive behavior was reduced by more than 60% for each task with the use of the intervention. Increases in on-task behavior and correct performance were also observed.