Teaching Children to Tact Their Emotions as a Replacement for Problem Behavior
Abstract
Private events are stimuli and behaviors that occur within one's own skin and are
only observable to the person experiencing them. Children diagnosed with autism
spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty describing their private events, which can
lead to difficulty in communicating and bouts of problem behavior. It is important
for children diagnosed with ASD to learn to tact private events, such as emotions,
to effectively communicate how they are feeling. A popular parenting practice is to
teach children to tact their emotions during naturally occurring, teachable moments
when they are demonstrating those emotional responses. This study looked to
examine the effects of a teaching package designed to teach children to tact their
negative emotions while experiencing them. The purpose of the current
investigation was twofold. The first purpose was to examine the effects of
contriving establishing operations on tacting one’s own emotions. The second
purpose was to examine the potential collateral effects on problem behavior as the
tact repertoire increased. Children with problem behavior maintained by access to
tangibles, as determined through a functional analysis, participated in this study.