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Biomedical subjects

R G Romanczyk

Publications and source records attributed to R G Romanczyk.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Play interactions of family members towards children with autism.

The play interactions of family members towards children with autism were examined in the current study. Siblings, mothers, and fathers of nine families of a child with autism were observed in dyadic play interactions with the child. Results revealed that mothers and fathers exhibited more play behaviors towards children with autism than siblings, while the children with autism initiated more interactions towards siblings than towards parents. Vineland scale scores were correlated with parental behaviors and the initiations of children with autism towards parents. Results suggest that parents may compensate for their child's disability level by initiating more play interactions. Implications include teaching parents how to pace play interactions to allow children with autism to initiate play interactions.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1994

Escape behavior in task situations: task versus social antecedents.

We designed an investigation to differentiate two types of challenging behaviors occurring in teaching situations: those evoked by task stimuli (i.e., task avoidance), and those evoked by social stimuli present in teaching situations (i.e., social avoidance). Four students with developmental disabilities who exhibited challenging behaviors in teaching situations were exposed to social interaction in a play situation and task demands in a teaching situation. Results indicated that the students exhibited two distinct behavior patterns. Two of the students exhibited a behavior pattern consistent with task avoidance and the other two students exhibited a behavior pattern consistent with social avoidance. Implications concerning task versus social avoidance and the need for more fine-grained analyses of the stimuli associated with escape behavior are discussed.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1994

Generating hypotheses about the function of student problem behavior by observing teacher behavior.

We examined whether, as predicted by research on child effects, we could generate hypotheses about the function of student problem behavior by observing the amount of attention teachers provided to students. In the first phase of the study, we observed the amount of attention teachers distributed among small groups of students who exhibited problem behavior in individual or small-group instructional settings (problem behavior presumably maintained by attention or escape). Based on the amount of attention each student received, we generated hypotheses about the function of his or her problem behavior. In the second phase of the study, we determined the accuracy of these predictions by conducting a brief functional assessment with each student. Results confirmed that, for 14 of the 15 students, we were able to generate accurate hypotheses about the function of their problem behavior. These results suggest the potential efficacy of using the amount of attention teachers distribute among groups of students to generate empirically based hypotheses about the function of student problem behavior maintained by attention and/or escape. These results also illustrate the efficiency of this procedure; by observing teacher behavior, we were able to generate hypotheses about the function of problem behavior for several students at one time.

Attention↗
PubMed1991

Response patterns of children with learning disabilities: is impulsivity a stable response style?

A correlational analysis was conducted to assess the relationship among various assessment instruments, including Kagan, Rosman, Day, Albert, and Phillips's (1964) Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT), and actual classroom performance vis-à-vis impulsive responding. Subjects were 22 children (16 male, 6 female), ages 5 to 11 years, enrolled in an academic remediation program. The results do not support a relationship between impulsivity, as measured by the MFFT, and academic progress in a classroom setting. Implications for task-specific measures of impulsivity and remediation are discussed.

Achievement↗
PubMed1975

Increasing isolate and social play in severely disturbed children: intervention and postintervention effectiveness.

A group treatment procedure was instituted in Study 1 to increase the isolate and social play of 4 severely disturbed children. The results indicated that play behavior could be increased significantly by the use of food and social reinforcement and by the use of passive shaping, but that it quickly declined when the intervention was terminated. Social play, however, did remain above baseline levels during extinction. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 with a second group of older children, also severely disturbed. However, the procedure of fading adult intervention proved an effective method for increasing the resistance of social play to extinction relative to Study 1. A PROCEDURE OF CONtinuous and multiple-observer reliability assessment was employed for both studies, and the positive results and the methodological implications of the procedure are discussed.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1973

Measuring the reliability of observational data: a reactive process.

Reliability of observational data was measured simultaneously by two assessors under two experimental conditions. During overt assessment, observers were told that reliability would be measured by one of the two assessors, thus permitting computation of reliability with an identified and an unidentified assessor. During covert assessment, observers were not informed of the reliability measured. Throughout the study, each of the assessors employed a unique version of a standard observational code. In the overt assessment condition, reliability of observers with the identified assessor was consistently higher than reliability with the unidentified assessor, indicating that observers modified their observational criteria to approximate those of the identified assessor. In the covert assessment condition, reliability with the two assessors was substantially lower than during overt assessment. Further, observers consistently recorded lower frequencies of disruptive behavior than the two assessors during covert assessment.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1973

Self-evaluation by adolescents in a psychiatric hospital school token program.

Nine adolescent boys with a history of high rates of disruptive classroom behavior were selected from a psychiatric hospital school and placed in a remedial reading class after school in which various factors in a token reinforcement program involving self-evaluation were investigated. The effects of self-evaluation, in the form of a rating the students gave themselves about the appropriateness of their classroom behavior, were first assessed. While the students' ratings of their own behavior correlated highly with the teacher's ratings and evaluations made by independent observers, the self-evaluations did not lead to a reduction in disruptive behavior. A token reinforcement program, in which the teacher rated the students' level of appropriate behavior and in which the students traded earned rating points for prizes, clearly led to a reduction of disruptive behavior. When the students were given the opportunity to evaluate their own behavior and to receive rewards in exchange for the evaluation, they returned to their former rates of disruptive behavior.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Specificity of treatment effects for learning disabilities in a boy prenatally exposed to dilantin.

The present case study provides evidence that a specific deficit can be improved by a treatment specific intervention in a boy who was prenatally exposed to Dilantin and presented with a learning disability. After implementation of a focused intervention for reading, standardized test scores revealed that the child demonstrated a dramatic improvement in reading performance, but remained consistent in other academic areas. This indicated that his reading improvement was the direct effect of specific training in reading, but did not generalize to other content areas. This finding is significant because it provides support for treatment specificity in contrast to treatment generalizability.

Anticonvulsants↗
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↗