Using the TEACCH Program and Positive Reinforcement to Increase Self-Regulation of a Preschool Child with Autism

Abstract

    Children with autism often have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and lack of self- regulation, and therefore they needed assistant or prompting. The TEACCH program and positive reinforcement are effective teachings to increase self-regulation. This study was a single-subject design with an A-B-A-B design and aims to determine the result of using the TEACCH program and positive reinforcement to increase self-regulation of a preschool child with autism. The case study was selected by purposive sampling, a 5 years old boy, who was treated at the Child Psychiatric Unit, Maharaj Nakhon Chiang Mai Hospital. The instruments used in this study included the materials of the TEACCH program, the individualized education plan, the reinforcement assessment form, and the observation prompt form. These instruments were developed by the researcher and all instruments have been evaluated the content validity (IOC) by experts. Data were analyzed by using simple statistics and descriptive statistics The results showed that the trainer's promptings score steadily decrease, the baseline (A1) has a prompting score of 2.69, the first treatment period (B1) has a promptings score of 1.67, withdrawn the treatment (A2) has a promptings score of 1.59 and the second treatment period (B2) has a promptings score of 1.15. these results mean self-regulation of the case study increased after using the TEACCH program and positive reinforcement