Biomedical subjects

D B Crimmins

Publications and source records attributed to D B Crimmins.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1988

Identifying the variables maintaining self-injurious behavior.

Reliability and validity data are reported for an instrument designed to identify variables maintaining self-injurious behavior. The Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) is a 16-item questionnaire that addresses the situational determinants of self-injurious behavior in persons with autism and other developmental disorders. The reliability study indicated that teachers of 50 developmentally disabled persons could agree on the variables presumably maintaining their student's self-injury (interrater reliability), and that they would be in agreement again 30 days later (test-retest reliability). The validity study indicated that teacher's ratings on the MAS of 8 subjects' self-injury predicted how their students would behave in analogue situations. Specifically, the MAS predicted the subjects' self-injurious behavior in situations with decreased adult attention, with increased academic demands, with restricted access to tangibles, and in unstructured settings. The MAS is presented as an alternative or adjunct to more formal functional analyses in efforts to identify the variables controlling self-injurious behavior.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1987

Assessment and treatment of psychotic speech in an autistic child.

The psychotic speech of autistic and other developmentally disabled children can be defined as words or phrases that are intelligible, but appear out of context. In the present investigation we conducted an analysis of the psychotic speech of a 9-year-old autistic boy. Three experiments were constructed to determine the functional significance of this child's psychotic speech and a method of intervention. The first study involved an analysis of the role of adult attention and task demands in the maintenance of psychotic speech. When task demands were increased, the frequency of psychotic speech increased. Varying adult attention had no effect on psychotic speech. We then performed a second analysis in which the consequence for psychotic speech was a 10-second time-out. Psychotic speech increased, suggesting that it may have been maintained through escape from task demands. Finally, the third experiment involved teaching an appropriate escape response ("Help me"). Psychotic speech was greatly reduced by this intervention. Thus, teaching an appropriate equivalent phrase proved to be a viable alternative to interventions using aversive consequences. The present study represents the first observation that psychotic speech may serve to remove children from unpleasant situations and also introduces a nonaversive intervention for this behavior.

Autistic Disorder↗

PubMed1984

A training technique for improving the parent-child interaction skills of an abusive-neglectful mother.

Several recent investigations have shown that abusive and neglectful parents exhibit deficits in skills for interacting with their children. In the current study, an inattentive and neglectful parent was taught to provide positive verbal and physical attention towards her 4-year-old child. Training was accomplished using a "bug-in-the-ear" microphone device while the parent interacted with her child in a clinic playroom. After use of the device was discontinued, the parent continued to use the newly trained skills at rates higher than during baseline. Four month follow-up and at home observations were suggestive of skill maintenance. Training of this kind may prove useful for parents who lack skills for effective interaction with their children.

Adult↗

PubMed1976

Processing interaction between two dimensions of nonphonetic auditory signals.

In 1974 Wood proposed a hybrid serial-parallel model to account for the within-stimulus interactions between the acoustic cue of "pitch" and the phonetic cure of "place." Three of the five experiments in this paper replicate the Wood findings with analogous, clearly nonphonetic stimuli and thus refute Wood's implicit assumption of the involvement of any uniquely phonetic processes as factors in his results. The experiments in this paper demonstrate that the patterns of interaction found by Wood are independent of the experience of the subjects, the order of cue presentation, and whether the cues are presented simultaneously or sequentially. We conclude that the given patterns of interaction are general characteristics of the auditory system. These characteristics probably are not related to backward or forward "recognition" masking but may be a function of several other general factors.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Childhood psychosis and 24-h rhythms: A behavioral and psychophysiological analysis.

Three investigations were performed to examine behavioral and physiological variation with respect to rhythmicity in psychotic children. Case report I observed periodicity in certain stereo-typed behaviors, and provided data on extinction of self-stimulation and self-injurious behavior for a 72 h period. Case report II monitored psychophysiological reaction in an orienting response paradigm. Results indicated significant changes as a function of time of day. Study I indicated differences in amplitude of the temperature rhythm between normal controls and the psychotic group. The results of these investigations are discussed in terms of their potential for etiological and diagnostic research. Further, specific treatment implications are presented.

Arousal↗