Comparação da Eficiência da Implementação de Ensino Incidental Via Profissional e Via Cuidador Sobre o Desempenho de Crianças com TEA

Abstract

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is considered an effective, solid and promising science for the treatment of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Trans- latency (ASD), due to the results obtained and described in the literature in recent years. Among the possibilities of intervention for this public, the intervention via caregivers has shown efficacy for increasing behavioral repertoire and presents similar results to the intervention via professionals; however, comparative studies between both interventions are still scarce. Therefore, the objective of this study was to compare the implementation of Incidental Teaching, for teaching the verbal operant mand, on the performance of children diagnosed with ASD, conducted by professionals (Group 1) and by caregivers (Group 2). In addition to group design, it was also possible to evaluate the effect of intra-subject intervention using multiple baseline design. In Group 1, an average of 4.8 teaching sessions were needed to achieve learning criteria, and in Group 2, an average of 7.8 sessions were needed. In contrast, Group 2 implemented a lower average number of teaching attempts compared to Group 1. These results conclude that professionals teach the mand repertoire in less time and with more teaching attempts, whereas caregivers need more intervention sessions and fewer attempts.