Sweetening The Pie -- Enhancing Social Reinforcement For Learners With Autism

The term “social reinforcement” is used frequently in behavioral literature. However, it is seldom well-defined. For parents, teachers and therapists, social reinforcement may be the most important tool in their tool bag. This session strives to increase understanding of why effective social reinforcement is particularly important for people on the autism spectrum, and to enhance the social reinforcement skills of participants. This workshop will focus on skills that can be immediately applied to increase effectiveness and enhance reinforcement effects. Sweetening the Pie -- Enhancing social reinforcement for learners with autism.

 (This session is intended to be presented in a workshop format. Lecture includes video examples. Also included will be some simple exercises, and brief time for Q and A at the end.)

 Introduction and theoretical framework

Applied Behavior Analysis is known to have proven effective principles and procedures for helping people with autism, and reinforcement is the most widely applied principle of behavior analysis.

 Probably the most commonly used type of reinforcer in applied behavior analysis is “social reinforcement.” Because weakness in social skill areas is a defining characteristic of autism, it can be of tremendous benefit to people on the autism spectrum to develop a predilection for social reinforcement -- rating certain social experiences as more reinforcing perhaps than certain food items or electronic play. A fondness for social reinforcement can increase awareness of others, awareness of and ability to read facial expressions, body gestures, etc. This increase in awareness and "playing" to social cues can represent a lessening of a core social deficit and an increase in social skill.

 Parents, teachers and therapists can have an easier time teaching and caring for learners who respond well to social reinforcement. In group settings for example, it can create distraction to be reinforcing one student’s behavior with a tangible food item that a nearby classmate is not allowed to have. Also, there are a lot of logistics involved with preparing, having on hand, and delivering tangible reinforcers that are not part of the equation with social reinforcement.

 For teaching and caregiving to become easier, the adults supporting a student need to make themselves more reinforcing. As consultants to behavior programs, we need to be able to teach parents, teachers and caregivers how to be more socially reinforcing. Although many therapists, teachers, and parents believe they understand social reinforcement, their social interactions with persons with autism often result in an increase in some problem behaviors. Here are some of the reasons.

 In more neurotypical development, signs of approval and disapproval are learned reinforcers by virtue of the close coupling of these events with other reinforcers. Eye contact, facial expressions, praise and physical contact become powerful reinforcers in their own right. However, this process is often confounded when the learner is diagnosed with autism. Eye contact and facial expressions are often not observed. Physical contact that many neurotypical children find reinforcing is often experienced as aversive to a person on the autism spectrum. Many learners with autism don’t have the verbal skills to fully benefit from various forms of praise.

 Often, what would serve as signs of disapproval for a more neurotypical student -- and act as punishers, reducing behaviors -- serve as social reinforcers for the person on the autism spectrum, increasing the likelihood of problem behaviors being repeated. 

 The term "social reinforcement" is frequently found in much of the behavior literature. However, there is often very little in the way of detailed description of the topography of that reinforcement. What exactly is being done? How is the value of the social reinforcement assessed?

Volmer and Hackenburg  highlighted several areas of basic and applied research that suggest a need for a more fundamental understanding of social reinforcement. (Vollmer, T.R., & Hackenberg, T. D. (2001). Reinforcement contingencies and social reinforcement: some reciprocal relations between basic and applied research. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 34, 241-253.) This presentation is an attempt to advance some of that understanding.

 There is an attitude among some teachers that social reinforcement is not a good idea, because it will detract from the intrinsic motivation of the student. (Heward, W. L. (2003). Ten faulty notions about teaching and learning that hinder the effectiveness of special education. The Journal of Special Education, 36, 186-205.) This notion will be debunked. In fact, research has shown that there is a connection between reinforcment and increased motivation, and does not support the reverse. 

In the same article, Heward looks at the frequency of social reinforcement in some learning environments. "Observational studies in general education and special education classrooms over the past 25 years have consistently found low rates of teacher praise." (p. 193) In our experience, not only are the rates of social reinforcement low in many home and educational environments for individuals diagnosed with autism but also the quality of that reinforcement is often poor. What is assumed to be reinforcing is not.. The magnitude of the social reinforcement does not vary, and that magnitude is consistently low.

 In our experience, with minimal training, parents, teachers and therapists can dramatically increase their skill at utilizing social reinforcement. 

Functional subtypes

Social reinforcers can come in a variety of forms: attention (sometimes simply looking at a learner could be a form of attention), smiles and other facial expressions, various forms of physical contact, actions of the caregiver, various forms of verbal behavior etc. can function as social reinforcers. Each category can be further broken down. For example: Verbal reinforcers can be divided into praise, verbal reaction (wow!) and reprimand (which can often function as a reinforcer). Verbal reinforcers can also be task relevant, or task irrelevant. Hopefully, a more detailed look at various functional subtypes will broaden the thinking of participants.

 Topography

What is the "shape" of the behavior of the person delivering the reinforcer? For example, the words “Good job”, repeated over and over in a monotone voice without facial expression is a description of the topography of the social reinforcement. With social reinforcement, the person delivering the reinforcer is the medium. As such, that person could have variations in their body movements (large gestures or small, slow or fast, etc.) facial expression (variation and degree of expression, sudden or slow onset, etc.) and voice (tone, pitch, rhythm, volume, words, prosody, speed of reaction, etc.). These features can be combined to enhance the effects of social reinforcement.

 Magnitude

As mentioned above, many people utilizing praise do not vary the magnitude of the praise. For shaping and other purposes, it can be extremely useful to develop at least three levels of magnitude and to practice those levels. Even if we use subjective measures, it may be possible to get some inter-observer agreement on what we are seeing by utilizing Likert scales. (We will show two or three videos, and ask people to score on Likert scales, and then ask for hands to explore agreement on magnitude.)

 NOTE: There are many people who feel that certain types of social reinforcement and magnitudes may be unnatural. In our experience, if the learner with autism does not appear to experience low magnitudes as salient, the magnitudes can be increased initially, and then later normalized. We are not suggesting that therapists need to be functioning at the greatest magnitude all of the time. Absolutely not. However, they will be more effective if they have a range of magnitudes, and if they can turn up the intensity when it would be effective and appropriate to do so.

 There will be a couple of brief and simple exercises involving the practice of topography and magnitude of some forms of social reinforcement. This will serve as a model for how improvements in social reinforcement skills could be taught and practiced.

 Determining what is socially reinforcing for a specific learner

There is literature available on assessing reinforcers. In a majority of articles, the assessment is of tangible reinforcers (including edibles), and not so much on social reinforcers. The same principles can be applied to assess potential social reinforcers. Some social reinforcers can be identified by observing in the natural environment. It is also possible to present various social experiences during play, leisure and social interaction times with learners, and assess preference.

 Examples will be given of unexpected social reinforcers that will expand people's thinking on what might serve as social reinforcement.

 Intentionally conditioning certain social reinforcers

Many social reinforcers can be discovered. Others can be taught. An effort can be made to pair certain reinforcing experiences with social elements. Pairing oneself with a reinforcer involves a particular set of skills. Examples will be demonstrated.

 A special, seldom mentioned form of social reinforcement

It is very possible that not all forms of social reinforcement need to be learned. We feel that one form -- "social stimulus change" (for lack of a better term) -- may function as a primary reinforcer. This will be explained, and video examples will be shown.

Physical contact, and special considerations

In parent/child relationships, various forms of touch will be appropriate. In some teacher/student, and therapist /student relationships, various forms of touch might be appropriate. Although preferences for touch are personal, there are some forms of touch that tend to be more popular with people with autism. Some of these will be demonstrated. When doing a functional assessment of some problem behaviors, it can be seen that there are some people on the autism spectrum who perform problem behaviors so that they will be restrained. They are seeking certain forms of physical contact. This issue will be briefly addressed and case examples will be given that demonstrate an approach to this situation.

 Extinction, and special challenges when the reinforcer is social

It is important to think about how and when to turn social reinforcement on. It is also important to think about how and when to turn social reinforcement off. There will be some discussion of the finer points of ceasing to socially reinforce for the purposes of putting certain behaviors on extinction.

Some time at the end for Q and A.