ABSTRACT
Many children with severe developmental disabilities emit idiosyncratic gestures that may function as verbal operants (Sigafoos et al., 2000). This study examined the effectiveness of a functional analysis methodology to identify the variables responsible for gestures emitted by 2 young children with severe developmental disabilities. Potential verbal operants for each participant were functionally analyzed using a multi-element design. Results indicate that gestures were maintained by access to tangible items or the delivery of information about novel stimuli. This study extends the use of functional analysis to identify conditions under which children with developmental disabilities emit gestural verbal behavior.
ABSTRACT
Previous research suggests that language-training procedures for children with autism might be enhanced following an assessment of conditions that evoke emerging verbal behavior. The present investigation examined a methodology to teach recognizable mands based on environmental variables known to evoke participants' idiosyncratic communicative responses in the natural environment. An alternating treatments design was used during Experiment 1 to identify the variables that were functionally related to gestures emitted by 4 children with autism. Results showed that gestures functioned as requests for attention for 1 participant and as requests for assistance to obtain a preferred item or event for 3 participants. Video modeling was used during Experiment 2 to compare mand acquisition when video sequences were either related or unrelated to the results of the functional analysis. An alternating treatments within multiple probe design showed that participants repeatedly acquired mands during the function-based condition but not during the nonfunction-based condition. In addition, generalization of the response was observed during the former but not the latter condition.
Subject(s)
Autistic Disorder/therapy , Imitative Behavior , Language Therapy/methods , Verbal Behavior , Autistic Disorder/psychology , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Gestures , Humans , Learning , Male , Video RecordingABSTRACT
The effects of self-monitoring on the procedural integrity of token economy implementation by 3 staff in a special education classroom were evaluated. The subsequent changes in academic readiness behaviors of 2 students with low-incidence disabilities were measured. Multiple baselines across staff and students showed that procedural integrity increased when staff used monitoring checklists, and students' academic readiness behavior also increased. Results are discussed with respect to the use of self-monitoring and the importance of procedural integrity in public school settings.
Subject(s)
Behavior Therapy/methods , Developmental Disabilities/therapy , Education of Intellectually Disabled/methods , Self-Assessment , Adult , Child, Preschool , Educational Status , Humans , Token EconomyABSTRACT
Food aversion was shown to be effective in the reduction of plastic pica by a 4-year-old boy with autism. The participant was suffering from digestive complications due to the ingestion of plastic from a variety of toys. The intervention was initially conducted in the child's preschool classroom during instructional periods and was systematically generalized to the entire preschool classroom, and eventually to both classrooms within the preschool and across 25 teachers. The success of the intervention in decreasing pica was enhanced by its achievement in not reducing interactions with toys, considering appropriate play skills were a target goal.
Subject(s)
Association Learning , Autistic Disorder/therapy , Avoidance Learning , Behavior Therapy/methods , Pica/therapy , Taste , Autistic Disorder/psychology , Child, Preschool , Early Intervention, Educational , Education of Intellectually Disabled , Food Preferences/psychology , Generalization, Psychological , Humans , Male , Pica/psychology , Play and Playthings , Reinforcement, PsychologyABSTRACT
Interteaching is a new method of classroom instruction that is based on behavioral principles but offers more flexibility than other behaviorally based methods. We examined the effectiveness of interteaching relative to a traditional form of classroom instruction-the lecture. In Study 1, participants in a graduate course in special education took short quizzes after alternating conditions of interteaching and lecture. Quiz scores following interteaching were higher than quiz scores following lecture, although both methods improved performance relative to pretest measures. In Study 2, we also alternated interteaching and lecture but counterbalanced the conditions across two sections of an undergraduate research methods class. After each unit of information, participants from both sections took the same test. Again, test scores following interteaching were higher than test scores following lecture. In addition, students correctly answered more interteaching-based questions than lecture-based questions on a cumulative final test. In both studies, the majority of students reported a preference for interteaching relative to traditional lecture. In sum, the results suggest that interteaching may be an effective alternative to traditional lecture-based methods of instruction.
Subject(s)
Teaching/methods , Universities , Achievement , Adult , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
Two young boys with autism who used the picture exchange communication system were taught to solve problems (improvise) by using descriptors (functions, colors, and shapes) to request desired items for which specific pictures were unavailable. The results of a multiple baseline across descriptors showed that training increased the number of improvised requests, and that these skills generalized to novel items, and across settings and listeners in the natural environment.
Subject(s)
Autistic Disorder , Communication , Problem Solving , Teaching/methods , Visual Perception , Child, Preschool , Generalization, Psychological , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
We compared the effects of guided lecture notes versus completed lecture notes on pre- to postlecture improvements in quiz performance across two sections of a college course. The results of a counterbalanced multielement design did not reveal consistent differences between the two note formats on students' mean quiz scores. However, fewer errors occurred on complex (analysis-level) quiz questions in the guided notes condition than in the completed notes condition.
Subject(s)
Achievement , Students , Teaching/methods , Educational Measurement , Humans , Time FactorsABSTRACT
We conducted a brief computer-based assessment involving choices of concurrently presented arithmetic problems associated with competing reinforcer dimensions to assess impulsivity (choices controlled primarily by reinforcer immediacy) as well as the relative influence of other dimensions (reinforcer rate, quality, and response effort), with 58 children. Results were compared for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were and were not receiving medication, and with typically developing children without ADHD. Within-subject and between-groups analyses of the ordinal influence of each of the reinforcer dimensions were conducted using both time- and response-allocation measures. In general, the choices of children with ADHD were most influenced by reinforcer immediacy and quality and least by rate and effort, suggesting impulsivity. The choices of children in the non-ADHD group were most influenced by reinforcer quality, and the influence of immediacy relative to the other dimensions was not statistically significant. Results are discussed with respect to the implications for assessment and treatment of ADHD.
Subject(s)
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/psychology , Choice Behavior , Impulsive Behavior/diagnosis , Reinforcement, Psychology , Adolescent , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/drug therapy , Case-Control Studies , Child , Female , Humans , Impulsive Behavior/psychology , Male , Reinforcement ScheduleABSTRACT
This study examined the effects of modeling versus instructions on the choices of 3 typically developing children and 3 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) whose academic responding showed insensitivity to reinforcement schedules. During baseline, students chose between successively presented pairs of mathematics problems associated with different variable-interval schedules of reinforcement. After responding proved insensitive to the schedules, sessions were preceded by either instructions or modeling, counterbalanced across students in a multiple baseline design across subjects. During the instruction condition, students were told how to distribute responding to earn the most reinforcers. During the modeling condition, students observed the experimenter performing the task while describing her distribution of responding to obtain the most reinforcers. Once responding approximated obtained reinforcement under either condition, the schedules of reinforcement were changed, and neither instruction nor modeling was provided. Both instruction and modeling interventions quickly produced patterns of response allocation that approximated obtained rates of reinforcement, but responding established with modeling was more sensitive to subsequent changes in the reinforcement schedules than responding established with instructions. Results were similar for students with and without ADHD.
