Master of Arts (Applied Psychology)

Challenging behaviours among children with developmental disorders have been commonly reported. In addressing challenging behaviours, the use of antecedent-based interventions has garnered promising outcomes in recent decades. In this study, a singlesubject multi-element experimental design was employed to evaluate effectiveness of using antecedent-based interventions to reduce challenging behaviours (vocalisations, self-injurious behaviours and hand-flapping behaviours) of three Singaporean young children between ages five and seven with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Three phases were conducted. In the first two phases, a series of assessments which included indirect and direct assessments, as well as analogue assessments involving systematic manipulation of specific antecedent variables to determine participants’ unique treatment package were implemented. In phase three, parents implemented the intervention and data on treatment fidelity and social validity were collected. Results found a reduction in challenging behaviours across all participants during intervention compared to baseline. High social validity was reported based on parents’ rating on the Treatment Acceptability Rating Form.