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Social Interaction and Repetitive Motor Behaviors

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Abstract

Students with autism have difficulty initiating social interactions and may exhibit repetitive motor behavior (e.g., body rocking, hand flapping). Increasing social interaction by teaching new skills may lead to reductions in problem behavior, such as motor stereotypies. Additionally, self-monitoring strategies can increase the maintenance of skills. A multiple baseline design was used to examine whether multi-component social skills intervention (including peer training, social initiation instruction, and self-monitoring) led to a decrease in repetitive motor behavior. Social initiations for all participants increased when taught to initiate, and social interactions continued when self-monitoring was introduced. Additionally, participants’ repetitive motor behavior was reduced. Changes in social behavior and in repetitive motor behavior maintained more than one month after the intervention ended.

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Acknowledgment

This research was funded, in part, through a grant from the Organization for Autism Research.

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Author notes

  1. Rachel L. Loftin

    Present address: Institute for Juvenile Research, Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago, 1747 W. Roosevelt, M/C 747, Chicago, IL, 60608, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Rachel L. Loftin

  2. Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Samuel L. Odom

  3. Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Johanna F. Lantz

Authors
  1. Rachel L. Loftin
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  2. Samuel L. Odom
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  3. Johanna F. Lantz
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Correspondence to Rachel L. Loftin.

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Loftin, R.L., Odom, S.L. & Lantz, J.F. Social Interaction and Repetitive Motor Behaviors . J Autism Dev Disord 38, 1124–1135 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-007-0499-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-007-0499-5

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