Increasing behavior incompatible with catatonia in a young adolescent girl with autism spectrum disorder

Catatonia is a syndrome of motor disturbances and is characterized as a cluster of abnormalities in speech, movement and overall behavior. A common treatment of catatonic symptoms is lorazepam and/or electroconvulsive therapy. Only three papers were found that reportedly used behavioral interventions. Nevertheless, treatment procedures were often partially described, and outcomes were often based on clinician impressions, as opposed to objective measures. The following is an experimental analysis of the effects of a prompt-fading behavioral treatment package on the daily living skills of an adolescent girl with autism spectrum disorder and catatonia. Data were collected on the completion of four activities: blow drying hair; using a hair barrette; vacuuming a rug; and using a paper shredder. Initially, following the verbal direction to engage in the target activity, the instructor provided full manual guidance to assist the participant to complete each component response in the task analysis. Over time, manual prompts were faded. A functional relation between prompt fading and the percentage of independent responses completed across four activities was demonstrated in this paper. As manual prompts were systematically faded, independent responding emerged. Future researchers will want to investigate the effectiveness of prompt fading across different educational settings and across different individuals with similar profiles or with more or less severe symptoms of catatonia.