Schramm's 7 Steps ABAI Presentation video 2

Robert Schramm, MA, BCAB presented at the 2011 ABA International Conference in Denver with Allison Kane of Kane ABA Consulting and Megan Miller of Navigation Behavioral Consulting. The presentation was called "Change the Way You Look at Escape Extinction: Motivating Learner Participation without the use of Escape Blocking, Forced Physical Prompts, or Nagging."
Email Robert at [e-mail] for the powerpoint. The videos missing from the powerpoint are available here titled video 1 - 4
Carlin was an almost 5 year old boy who was diagnosed with Autism and was getting education in a special education school. His teachers considered him incapable of being educated in regular education. His mom had many different therapists work with him to little-or-no success. After a very successful day of playing together and seeing how well he responded to our play and toys as reinforcement, Mom asked us if we would please help her get him to drink water. She told us that he had refused to drink anything but chocolate milk for the last 3 years and she was worried about his health and his teeth. Normally, we don't address food or drink issues early in a program and would have waited to address this but, Mom really wanted to see if we could help and because he was so motivated to work with us and so responsive to our reinforcing toys, we agreed. The process involved offering him the chance to take the tiniest sip of water in return for more access to the fun and games that we had brought to him. When he refuses, that was fine with us. We didn't want to force him. We didn't want to make him drink. We only wanted to show him that continued access to our fun and games was contingent on him participating in what we know was a difficult task for him. It was theorized from other therapists that he needed the milk and preferred the thickness and that it was a sensory issue to not want to drink water. However, there were similar problems when mom tried to get him to drink plain milk. So, we put him in a position of motivated options. One option would lead him to better things from us and one would not and we let him take the time he needed to decide if continuing to fight for what he wanted was in his own best interest. We try to avoid giving additional attention and reinforcement for any inappropriate behavior he uses and offering a lot of it after he chooses to take a drink. Within 2 weeks he was happily drinking water and other drinks. He could go out to dinner with his family without having to have chocolate milk brought with them. As a side note, Carlin was in our ABA program for just over 2 years before moving out of the special education school and back to a regular school and he now is getting his education without any additional supports. Not only did ABA support him in increasing his drinking and eating repertoire but we were able to help him completely overcome his language issues through motivated learning. None of his current friends know that he was ever diagnosed with autism earlier in his life. This is not our expectations but it meets our hopes for all of our students of being"happier and more successful in life."