Effective intervention for decreasing hoarding using a linguistic approach

1. Heather Weiler
SPED 5050-Applied Behavior Analysis II
Changing Hoarding
Behavior

2. Abstract
This study was designed to determine an effective teaching
strategy to decrease hoarding behavior for students with
severe disabilities. The target behavior, hoarding, is defined
as bringing an excessive amount of nonessential items to
school which were never used. A multiple baseline design
was used to determine if the teaching strategy selected
would change the hoarding as well as arrival punctuality.
The teaching strategy selected is based on the cognitive
linguistic research of Paul Bloom, Dan Slobin, and Melissa
Bowerman. The specific research was from the intervention
study for categorization acquisition by Partyka and
Krescheck (1983) By teaching meaning of words within a
positive communicative context, the student will gain
organization and comfort to facilitate transition across
physical settings. The results indicated the intervention
decreased the hoarding but had no effect on arrival time.

3. Subject
•17 year old high school student with severe
deficits in cognitive and language
•5 year history of hoarding for food and nonfood
items
•When limits are set student becomes aggressive
•Sleep cycles are inconsistent. When not
sleeping at night, foraging for items occurs
•School Arrival time late over 90% of days
•Most problematic early morning and late night
and transitioning physical settings

4. Functional Assessment Interview
Results
•Functional Assessment Interview Form O’Neil et al
•High Priority Problematic Behavior Hoarding Items
•Predictors
•Time of Day
•Moving from on Location to another
•Free Time
•Unsupervised Time
•Immediate Antecedents
•Leaving house
•Change in schedule
•Maintaining Consequences
•delays transition
•obtains home based items
•avoids loss of personal possessions
•Reinforcer
Toys CDs
•Food

5. Hypothesis
The target behavior of hoarding increases when
there is a change in structure
1. Physical setting
2. Low to No Structure Activity
It is hypothesized that the hoarding behavior
functions to bring meaning and a comforting
structure to the situation
An effective replacement or competing
behavior would be bringing those objects
related to the immediate context.

6. Research Design
Selection
Multiple Baseline
1. Items brought to School
2. School related objects
3. School Unrelated Objects
4. Arrival Punctuality
The project looked at these variables to
determine the relationship change between
objects and punctuality following a
behavioral teaching intervention

7. Intervention Strategy
Procedure
•Upon classroom entry, teacher engages using a
positive and enthusiastic attitude.
•Student is given a box with name on it.
•Student is instructed to name each item and place
it in the box as teacher records them on a list
•As each item is named, the teacher provides two
attributes for the item. One includes its use
(function) within the educational setting.
•The teacher asks, “Do you need this for school?”
•Student responds “yes/no” or by nod
•Teacher then summarizes every item aloud from
the list and notes ones that are not school related
and then those that are.
•Student puts the box in a cubby within eyesight.

8. Research Basis
•Paul Bloom (2000)
•How Children Learn the Meaning of Words
•Melissa Bowerman (2001)
•Shaping the Meaning for Language
•Partyka and Krescheck (1983)
•A Comparison of Categorization Skills of Normal and
Language –Delayed Children in School
•Dan L. Slobin (2001)
•Form- function relationships:
how do children find out what they are?

9. Data Collection
Procedure
•Data taken daily upon arrival
•Data was a listing of all items brought
•Date recorded for arrival time
•Data taken for 32 days

10. Results
Baseline:
• Number of Objects ranged from 22 – 25
•All objects were nonrelated to school
•Student never initiated any interaction with
objects during school day
Intervention Phase:
•Decrease in Objects
first presentation of procedure resulted
in a decrease from 24 objects to 8
•Increase in School Related Objects
0% to 95%

11. Replacement Behavior
Change
Changes in Transitional Objects for Attending School
30
25
20
Number of Objects Daily
15
Unrelated Objects
School Related
Objects
10
5
0
Dates

12. Behavior Trends
Table 1

13. Number of Objects
10
15
20
30
25
0
5
-5
1/26/09
1/28/09
1/30/09
2/1/09
2/3/09
2/5/09
2/7/09
2/9/09
2/11/09
2/13/09
dates
2/15/09
2/17/09
2/19/09
2/21/09
2/23/09
2/25/09
2/27/09
Trends in Object Types
3/1/09
3/3/09
3/5/09
3/7/09
3/9/09
3/11/09
# of Objects
3/13/09
Unrelated Objects
3/15/09
Linear (# of Objects)
School Related Objects
3/17/09
Linear (Unrelated Objects)
3/19/09
Linear (School Related Objects)

14. Number of minutes late
100
120
20
40
80
60
0
1/26/09
1/28/09
1/30/09
2/1/09
2/3/09
2/5/09
2/7/09
2/9/09
2/11/09
2/13/09
2/15/09
2/17/09
2/19/09
2/21/09
Dates
2/23/09
2/25/09
2/27/09
3/1/09
Punctuality
3/3/09
3/5/09
3/7/09
3/9/09
3/11/09
Relationship of Objects to Arrival
Relationship between Arrival Time and Objects Brought
3/13/09
3/15/09
3/17/09
3/19/09
late
Linear (late)
# of Objects
Linear (# of Objects)

15. Results
Relationship Changes
1. Overall Number of Items Decreased
2. Inverse Relationship for Related to
Unrelated Items
As School Related Items Increased
Unrelated Objects Decreased
3. No relationship change resulted for
Arrival Time and Objects Brought

16. Implications
• The teaching intervention was effective in changing the
problematic behavior to the targeted replacement behavior
•Another analysis to determine another strategy for changing
the punctuality needs to be completed
•Use of positive reinforcement in combination with a cognitive
linguistic intervention technique should be explored for other
students with cognitive and language limitations who display
“hoarding” behavior or “delaying” behaviors during transition
•Further study into the excessive collection of items to determine
whether there is a difference between the DSM IV diagnosis of
hoarding and those who collect items due to a lack of
organization for relevancy due to limited cognitive and linguistic
reasoning strategies
•Further study into hoarding (DSM IV) versus transitional object
use in adolescence and students with significant disabilities