Snoezelen: an overview of research with people with developmental disabilities and dementia.

PURPOSE: This paper was to provide an overview of the research studies on snoezelen with people with developmental disabilities and dementia. METHOD: Computerized and manual searches were carried out to identify the aforementioned studies. Within-session, post-session, and longer-term effects of snoezelen were examined. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Twenty-one research studies were identified, 14 concerning people with developmental disabilities and seven people with dementia. Of those studies: 14 reported positive within-session effects; four positive post-session effects; and two positive longer-term effects. These findings were discussed in relation to: (1) methodological aspects (weaknesses) of the studies; (2) the cost of arranging a snoezelen programme and possibilities of reducing the range of stimuli available in the programme; and (3) some research issues for advancing the understanding and effectiveness of intervention programmes with people with developmental disabilities and dementia.

Effects of living room, Snoezelen room, and outdoor activities on stereotypic behavior and engagement by adults with profound mental retardation.

Two experiments were conducted to test the effect of a room with sensory equipment, or Snoezelen room, on the stereotypic behavior and engagement of adults with profound mental retardation. In Experiment 1, participants were observed in their living room before and after attending the Snoezelen room. Results showed that there tended to be a reduction in stereotypy and increase in engagement when participants went from their living room to the Snoezelen room, and a return of these behaviors to pre-Snoezelen levels in the living room. Positive effects in the Snoezelen room did not carryover to the living room. In Experiment 2, the living and Snoezelen rooms were compared to an outdoor activity condition with the same participants and target behaviors. Results showed that the outdoor condition was superior, the Snoezelen condition intermediate, and the living room least effective in their impact on stereotypic behavior and engagement. Conceptualizations regarding factors that maintain stereotypic behavior and engagement were discussed in the context of the three experimental conditions.

Development and function of consequence classes in operant behavior.

The term class has been discussed extensively in the behavioral literature for groups of stimuli or responses that share a common function. In contrast, the concept of consequence class, including its definition, its formation, and other relevant characteristics, has not been the topic of much attention in the literature. Issues pertaining to consequence classes are discussed to provide a more thorough analysis of the units of operant and discriminated operant functional relations. The concept of class for consequences provides a means to integrate data and theory from the behavior-analytic literature.

Response allocation to concurrent fixed-ratio reinforcement schedules with work requirements by adults with mental retardation and typical preschool children.

The present experiments examined the effect of work requirements in combination with reinforcement schedule on the choice behavior of adults with mental retardation and preschool children. The work requirements of age-appropriate tasks (i.e., sorting silverware, jumping hurdles, tossing beanbags) were manipulated. Participants were presented with their choice of two response options for each trial that varied simultaneously on both work requirement and reinforcement schedule. Results showed that when responding to both choices occurred on the same reinforcement schedule, participants allocated most of their responses to the option with the easier work requirement. When the response option requiring less work was on a leaner reinforcement schedule, most participants shifted their choice to exert more work. There were individual differences across participants regarding their pattern of responding and when they switched from the lesser to the greater work requirement. Data showed that participants' responding was largely controlled by the reinforcement received for responding to each level of work. Various conceptualizations regarding the effects of work requirements on choice behavior are discussed.

Social skills training for adults with mental retardation in job-related settings.

The authors discuss the rationale for social skills training for workers with mental retardation, definitions and behavioral standards of these skills, and differences in the interaction patterns between workers with and without mental retardation. Various intervention strategies were reviewed critically, and their strengths and limitations were examined. Based on these analyses, the following recommendations are made. First, trainees' environments of ultimate functioning should be considered and contextual variables assessed and used. Second, social validation should be conducted to identify the social behavior that needs to be trained. Third, some procedures that have been found effective in other areas might be used for social skills training for persons with mental retardation in job-related settings. Fourth, active programming should be included in the intervention package for trainees to generalize and maintain the acquired social skills.

Comparison of prototype and rote instruction of English names for Chinese visual characters.

This study compared prototype and rote instruction of English names for Chinese visual characters. In the prototype condition, participants were taught the meaning of the prototype that served as the distinctive feature of multicomponent characters. In the rote condition, participants traced the character and wrote its translation. Participants learned more rapidly and maintained more words in the prototype condition.

Stimulus equivalence instruction of fraction-decimal relations.

Stimulus control technology was applied to the instruction of fraction ratio (e.g., (1/5)) and decimal (e.g., 0.20) relations, with 7 students who demonstrated difficulty in fraction and decimal tasks. The students were trained to match pictorial representations of fractions (B comparison stimuli) to printed counterpart fraction ratios (A sample stimuli), and to match printed decimals (C comparison stimuli) to pictorial representations of counterpart quantities (B sample stimuli). Posttest performance by all participants indicated the emergence of equivalence relations between fractions represented as ratios, decimals, and pictures. Limited generalization of fraction-decimal relations was observed.

Effect of response practice variables on learning spelling and sight vocabulary.

Four experiments were conducted to examine variables associated with response practice as an instructional technique for individuals with intellectual disabilities. In Experiment 1, the effect of the cover component in the "cover write" method was evaluated, as were the comparative effects of written versus oral practice of spelling words by rehabilitation clients. The results showed that the cover procedure generally did not enhance performance over and above that produced by practice alone, and written practice generally was not superior to oral practice. Experiment 2 demonstrated that less response practice (i.e., five times) was as effective as more practice (i.e., 10 and 15 times) for teaching spelling to adolescents with developmental disabilities. Experiments 3 and 4 also showed that even less response practice (i.e., one time) was as effective as more practice (five times), and irrelevant practice following errors was as effective as relevant practice for teaching spelling and sight vocabulary to adolescents with behavior disorders and developmental disabilities, respectively. The findings suggest that a parsimonious procedure of limited response practice and positive reinforcement may be effective for the tasks and populations studied.

Maintenance and generalization of behaviours after treatment of persons with traumatic brain injury.

This review of behavioural research literature was conducted to determine if persons who have experienced a traumatic brain injury are able to maintain and generalize behaviours after training, and to identify formal programming strategies that might have been utilized to enhance maintenance and generalization. Studies reviewed included those that employed behavioural procedures to increase adaptive behaviours or reduce maladaptive behaviours and collected maintenance and generalization data. Results of the review indicate that persons who have experienced a traumatic brain injury have experienced successful response maintenance and generalization of community-referenced tasks. It is suggested that impaired memory does not keep persons from maintaining and generalizing such tasks, and that strategies to promote maintenance and generalization need to be included in behavioural programming.

Textual prompts as an antecedent cue self-management strategy for persons with mild disabilities.

Providing learners written task analyses to be used as textual prompts was examined as a self-management strategy for persons with mild disabilities. Initially, modeling, corrective verbal feedback, and contingent descriptive praise were employed to train participants to use the written task analysis to perform one home maintenance task. Subsequently, participants were tested on their use of different task analyses combined with general feedback to perform two novel home maintenance tasks. No training was provided on how to use these new task analyses. Either a multiple baseline or a multiple probe across settings experimental design was used to control extraneous variables. Results indicated that the written task analyses served as self-administered textual prompts and, along with general feedback, provided stimulus control for the second and third tasks. When the self-management task analyses and general feedback were withdrawn, transfer of stimulus control occurred to the natural discriminative stimuli for the majority of tasks. The research suggests that written task analyses, as presented in the present study, may have utility for the self-management of instruction by persons with mild disabilities.

Promoting stimulus control with textual prompts and performance feedback for persons with mild disabilities.

We assessed whether written task analyses would serve as textual prompts for performing functional tasks by persons with mild disabilities. Several variables that could influence the effectiveness of textual prompts to promote stimulus control were examined across four groups. A consistent finding was that written specific task analyses combined with end-of-trial performance feedback were effective for promoting the acquisition and generalization of several tasks. Performance transferred immediately to natural discriminative stimuli when the written task analyses and feedback were withdrawn for most tasks and participants. For 2 participants, transfer of stimulus control was accomplished by prompt fading, using individualized written task analyses either with or without performance feedback (Group 1). When feedback was not provided, the effectiveness of written specific task analyses was inconsistent across groups. In contrast to the controlling effects of written specific task analyses, written generic task analyses, which specified only major task outcomes, when combined with performance feedback (Group 1) did not control responding. Overall, this research demonstrated the effectiveness of written specific task analyses and performance feedback to promote stimulus control for persons with mild disabilities.

Effects of community-based, videotape, and flash card instruction of community-referenced sight words on students with mental retardation.

Community-referenced sight words and phrases were taught to adolescents with mild and moderate mental retardation using three instructional methods in two locations. Words were presented on flash cards in a school setting, on videotape recordings in a school setting, and on naturally occurring signs in the community. During each session, participants were taught one third of the words in each of these conditions and were then tested at the community sites. A constant prompt delay procedure was used to promote stimulus control to the experimenter's cue initially and then to transfer control to the textual stimuli used for training. A multiple baseline across participants design was employed. Results showed rapid acquisition of the community-referenced sight words in all three training conditions and generalization from the flash card and videotape conditions to the community sites.

Cumulative and interspersal task sequencing in self-paced training for persons with mild handicaps.

The effectiveness of cumulative and interspersal task sequencing of self-paced instruction was evaluated. Young adults with mild disabilities were taught savings account, bill paying, and money order skills. A self-paced workbook, with its content sequenced in either a cumulative or interspersal format, was used to provide instruction. Ten participants were randomly assigned to each of the two sequencing conditions. Results showed that both task-sequencing methods produced statistically significant and comparable improvements in performance. Gains maintained on 1-week and 1-month follow-ups. Cumulative and interspersal sequencing appear to be equally suitable for teaching complex monetary skills in a self-paced format.

A personalized system of instruction for teaching checking account skills to adults with mild disabilities.

This study evaluated the efficacy of a personalized system of instruction to teach checking account skills to persons with mild disabilities. Using a self-paced manual, 8 participants in two groups were taught to write checks, complete deposit slips, and reconcile monthly bank statements. Four participants were assessed for generalization from the classroom to community sites and demonstrated nearly perfect performance. A multiple probe design showed that acquisition occurred sequentially for each skill only after training using the self-paced manual. Follow-up sessions demonstrated that participants maintained the checking account skills. The results provide evidence of the effectiveness and adaptability of a personalized system of instruction for teaching complex monetary skills to persons with mild disabilities.

Training self-advocacy skills to adults with mild handicaps.

We developed and empirically evaluated an instructional program to teach self-advocacy skills to eight young adults with mild handicaps. Participants were taught to discriminate whether or not possible violations of legal rights occurred in socially validated scenarios and, if so, to role-play how to redress rights violations. Experimental control was demonstrated with a multiple probe design across four general legal rights categories for the discrimination component of training, and a multiple probe across groups of subjects for the redressing legal rights component of training. Participants' behavior was probed in simulations and deceptions of legal rights violations in natural settings. There were marked increases in dependent measures after instruction. Difficulties in assessing generalization and maintenance of low-rate behaviors and suggestions for future research are presented.

Training apartment upkeep skills to rehabilitation clients: a comparison of task analytic strategies.

The research was designed to validate procedures to teach apartment upkeep skills to severely handicapped clients with various categorical disabilities. Methodological features of this research included performance comparisons between general and specific task analyses, effect of an impasse correction baseline procedure, social validation of training goals, natural environment assessments and contingencies, as well as long-term follow-up. Subjects were taught to perform upkeep responses on their air conditioner-heating unit, electric range, refrigerator, and electrical appliances within the context of a multiple-probe across subjects experimental design. The results showed acquisition, long-term maintenance, and generalization of the upkeep skills to a nontraining apartment. General task analyses were recommended for assessment and specific task analyses for training. The impasse correction procedure generally did not produce acquisition.

Teaching a functional leisure skill cluster to rehabilitation clients: the art of macrame.

Disabled people often do not use leisure time productively. Past research has focused on teaching specific recreational activities isolated from related skills that would provide subjects a functional independent living repertoire. In the present study disabled subjects were taught the art of macrame. Additionally, they role-played related shopping skills such as buying materials, engaging in appropriate social-interpersonal skills, making monetary transactions, and securing their own transportation to and from the store. Subjects were taught six basic macrame knots using an instructional manual, series of error-correction procedures, and social reinforcement. After mastering those basic knots they independently used the instructional materials to make three complete macrame projects without direct instruction on the projects themselves. Subjects also demonstrated skill maintenance and generalization by making a novel project after independently engaging in all relevant shopping behavior. Two varieties of the multiple baseline design were employed. The importance of teaching a leisure skill cluster and adapting instructional materials were emphasized.