06/29/2026
By Tien Pham

The College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Psychology, invites you to attend a Master’s thesis defense by Tien Pham on “Establishing Independent Self-Feeding Using Frequency Building Procedures for Big 6+6 Motor Skills."

Candidate: Tien Pham
Degree: Master's
Defense Date: Friday, July 10, 2026
Time: 1 to 3 p.m.
Location: Coburn Hall, Room 410 (South Campus)

Thesis Title: "Establishing Independent Self-Feeding Using Frequency Building Procedures for Big 6+6 Motor Skills"

Committee

  • Anita Li, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Rocio Rosales, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Douglas Johnson, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Brief Abstract:
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly exhibit motor difficulties in early childhood. Such deficits have been shown to have a cascading effect, disrupting the development of social skills, communication skills and daily living skills, including self-feeding. Chaining procedures are among the most commonly employed procedures for teaching daily living skills, though the empirical support for chaining procedures in establishing self-feeding is lacking. Research from the field of Precision Teaching has demonstrated that fluent responding with pre-requisite component skills can lead to the acquisition of larger composite skills with minimal or no instruction on the composite skill itself. This study recruited three children with ASD and employed frequency-building procedures to build fluent responding for three component Big 6+6 motor skills; reaching+placing, pinching and twisting. Repeated 15-second sprints were conducted with personal-best based goal setting. A simulated feeding task was used to test for the adduction of fluent component repertoires for self-feeding with appropriate utensil use. The lateral tripod grasp for spoon use did not emerge for any participant, but all participants demonstrated improved movement rates for some component skills and were able to complete self-feeding movements using other spoon grips.