Graduation Year
2022
Date of Submission
12-2021
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Neuroscience
Reader 1
Ben Aaronson
Reader 2
Anna Wenzel
Reader 3
Caitlin Courshon
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and related disorders refer to a group of developmental disabilities that may cause significant social and behavioral difficulties in affected individuals. ADHD is among the most common neurobehavioral disorders in children and adolescents; it affects approximately 10% of children aged 4-17 in the United States (Fabiano et al., 2014). An estimated 1.68% of children in the United States have an ASD diagnosis, a prevalence that has more than doubled from 2000 to 2012 (Baio et al., 2014; Xu et al., 2018). One proposed treatment, the Summer Treatment Program (STP), uses evidence-based interventions and a structured reward and response token economy to promote the development of functional skills (Fabiano et al., 2004). This first study in this thesis will examine the efficacy of the STP and its time out protocols on a cohort of children with ADHD or ASD. The second study investigates the effectiveness of the STP protocol on a child with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), tracking the child’s behaviors over a five week period. ODD is a common comorbidity of ADHD and ASD, and is characterized by emotional dysregulation and social dysfunction in diagnosed children (Schoorl et al., 2016). The results from both studies strongly support the efficacy of the STP in reducing negative behaviors in affected children. Research on effective behavioral interventions is critical to treat affected children in a way that can be generalized to their academic and social lives, increasing assimilation with the general population at a faster rate.
Recommended Citation
Koneti, Ananya, "Assessing the Effectiveness of the Summer Treatment Program as a Behavioral Intervention Therapy for Children with Autism and ADHD" (2022). CMC Senior Theses. 2893.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2893
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
