Other
Contents
- Tutor Training
- Teaching a Gestural Prompt
- Using a Progressive Variable Ratio Schedule to Fade out Reinforcement for Appropriate Mealtime Behavior
Tutor Training
Brian MacNeill (2015)
Abstract
One of the diagnostic criteria for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder is communication deficits (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The mand, or request, is typically the first type of verbal behavior that humans acquire (Bijou & Baer, 1967; Skinner, 1957) and should be the focus of early language training (Sundberg & Michael, 2001). A time-delay training procedure has been shown to increase spontaneous mands in children with autism (Charlop, Shreibman, & Thibodeau, 1985). Additionally, Halle, Baer, and Spradlin (1981) trained teachers to use a time-delay procedure, which increased percentage of opportunities they used the procedure and mands in children with who they worked. The present study determined the effects of a time-delay training procedure on undergraduate student behavior technicians’ use of the procedure and autistic children’s requests during teaching sessions. Behavioral Skills Training (BST) was used to teach the technicians and a multiple baseline design across teacher/student dyads was used to determine the effectiveness of the procedure. The current study provides data to support the use of naturalistic teaching procedures in an Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) preschool classroom.
Teaching a Gestural Prompt
Wendy Comba (2012)
Abstract
When using Discrete Trial Training (DTT) to teach children diagnosed with a developmental delay, various prompting methods are used to accelerate the rate of acquisition of new skills. A common prompt used for this purpose is the gestural, or pointing, prompt. However, there is little research on how to effectively teach a child to appropriately respond to a gestural prompt. Additionally, there is no procedure to properly teach this skill in the Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) classroom in which this study was conducted. A new procedure was designed to promote accurate stimulus control by the gestural prompt. This procedure was expected to better teach responding to a gestural prompt to children in an ECSE classroom, and to generalize to other procedures and settings (such as prompts for match to sample procedures). This would allow tutors to use this less intrusive prompt if a child were struggling to acquire a new skill. All children acquired the skill through the procedure, however not all children automatically generalized the skill to other procedures. Other ways to achieve generalization were tested and implications are discussed.
Keywords
prompts, prompting, less intrusive prompting, stimulus control
Materials
Using a Progressive Variable Ratio Schedule to Fade out Reinforcement for Appropriate Mealtime Behavior
Megan Harper (2017)
Abstract
A four-year old receiving applied behavior analytic services in a special education classroom drank from only a bottle. When presented with other cups, he would push them away, cry, and turn away from the table. An intervention was implemented to teach the child to drink from a developmentally-appropriate cup through shaping and the use of an iPad as a reinforcer. Drinks from his cup were reinforced and, as long as he drank every 15 seconds, he avoided losing the iPad. This resulted in an increase in independent drinking rate at lunch, but once the iPad was removed his drinking rate decreased. Additionally, this continuous-reinforcement method would not be feasible for his future kindergarten teachers to implement. The next intervention implemented a progressive variable-ratio schedule of reinforcement for sips and bites of food. This intervention attempted to thin the schedule of reinforcement and foster more independent responses as well as incorporate food consumption in order to avoid its reduction. If successful, the child’s rate of lunch consumption will increase, he will eat more of his lunch, and he will finish his lunch without the presence of the iPad.