The Behavioral Effects of Noncontingent Breaks from Task with Access to Sensory Activities during Pediatric Occupational Therapy Sessions

Sensory-based interventions are commonly utilized by pediatric occupational therapy practitioners when working with children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of fixed-time breaks with access to sensory stimuli on behavior that interfered with participation in pediatric occupational therapy sessions. Two boys who were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and who were receiving applied behavior analysis services participated in this study. These children had previously been discharged from occupational therapy at another community-based clinic due to their problem behaviors that interfered with their participation in occupational therapy sessions. Three occupational therapy practitioners collaborated with a doctoral-level behavior analyst to design the conditions of the study. At first, the occupational therapy practitioners implemented breaks from task with access to sensory activities contingent upon problem behavior. Then, in a second condition, the practitioners presented breaks from task with access to sensory activities under a yoked fixed-time (FT) schedule. Each condition was repeated. Results showed that for both participants, problem behavior occurred more often when breaks were presented contingent on problem behavior than when breaks were presented under the FT schedule. The results suggest that when breaks with access to sensory activities are used therapeutically, the timing of the breaks could be an important factor. Moreover, these findings were the result of the collaborative efforts between practitioners of occupational therapy and behavior analysis. In this context, we discuss the nature of the collaboration and the respective roles. A framework for future collaborations is also presented.