Preparing staff to enhance active participation of adults with severe disabilities by offering choice and prompting performance during a community purchasing activity.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a multicomponent staff training package on the number of choice responses and performance responses made by adults with disabilities in a community purchasing activity. The multicomponent training package included an inservice (written manuals, a verbal explanation of the information, role play activities, and video examples) performance feedback sessions in the community context, and self-monitoring instruction. Primary data were collected on how each staff offered choices and prompted performance with an individual with severe disabilities in three different fast food restaurants per week. Secondary data were collected on the number of choices individuals with disabilities made and the level of their performance during a purchase in a fast food restaurant. The findings showed that all four of the staff did not give opportunities for choices and used intrusive prompting or performed the skill for the person in baseline, but mastered these skills the first probe after the training sessions. In addition, the staff generalized offering choices and prompting performance across settings and adults with disabilities and maintained the skills. Also, the adults with disabilities increased the number of choice responses they made as well as their level of performance (compared to baseline) after the staff received the intervention.

Empirically based methods to assess the preferences of individuals with severe disabilities.

A literature review was conducted to provide a synthesis of 18 years of research on preference assessment with individuals who have severe disabilities (e.g., severe mental retardation, autism, multiple disabilities). Through this synthesis, several procedural variables were identified that may influence the outcome of preference assessment, including context, assessment stimuli, selection response, and format. Recommendations were given for designing preference assessment, and questions were raised for future research.

Inclusion of older adults with mental retardation in leisure opportunities.

Leisure satisfaction is associated with life satisfaction for older Americans. For those with mental retardation, obtaining inclusive leisure opportunities can be impeded by changes in health and social status, limited access to the community, underdeveloped leisure skills, and the need for support to participate in leisure opportunities. These challenges can be overcome through support for inclusion in the varied leisure opportunities generally available for older adults. Making such support possible may require conversion of traditional resources, such as adult day programs. We described the transition of one program towards providing support for inclusive leisure and made recommendations for future practice and research.

Comparison of sight word training procedures with validation of the most practical procedure in teaching reading for daily living.

The effectiveness and efficiency (training trials and training errors through criterion) of stimulus fading, stimulus shaping, time delay, and a feedback only procedure were compared in teaching three adults with moderate developmental delays sight words encountered in activities of daily living. In Experiment 1, the four procedures were assessed during training in a controlled environment to identify the most effective and efficient procedure for each participant. All three adults acquired the target words, and the four procedures were found to be of comparable efficiency in total training sessions, whereas individual differences were found in training errors to criterion. In Experiment 2, the feedback only procedure was used to teach the three participants sight words in community settings. Participants learned new words in the community settings and used the previously trained words in daily living activities. The benefit of conducting a preliminary evaluation of instructional procedures during controlled training is discussed.

Effects of community and center-based settings on the alertness of persons with profound mental retardation.

We studied effects of different settings on the behavior of persons with profound mental retardation. Adaptive (alert) and nonadaptive behaviors were observed in two community settings and a center setting. Results of the descriptive assessment showed that participants engaged in a higher percentage of adaptive behaviors and a lower percentage of nonadaptive behaviors in the "high stimulation" community setting. The results are discussed in light of environmental setting events on persons with profound mental retardation.

Teacher use of descriptive analysis data to implement interventions to decrease students' problem behaviors.

We conducted two field studies using a behavioral consultation approach to reduce children's problem behaviors in public school settings. The first study consisted of a descriptive analysis in which the students and their teachers were observed during naturally occurring classroom activities. The results of the descriptive analysis provided hypotheses regarding the operant function of the students' problem behaviors. The hypotheses were tested in the second experiment directly through a modified experimental analysis and indirectly through an evaluation of the treatment effects. The interventions were designed to disrupt the inappropriate response-reinforcer relation by discontinuing contingent reinforcement (i.e., extinction), providing the reinforcer contingent on appropriate play behaviors, and teaching the students verbal skills functionally equivalent to the inappropriate response. The classroom teachers were trained to implement the interventions and conduct the experimental analyses during classroom activities in which the problem behaviors occurred most frequently. The interventions were effective in decreasing the students' problem behaviors while concurrently increasing their appropriate verbal skills.

Review of research on sight word instruction.

This review of 20 years of literature on sight word instruction for individuals with handicaps identifies several effective procedures. These procedures are described for the two types of learning required in sight word instruction--word recognition and comprehension. Criteria for procedural selection are recommended. Research limitations are critiqued with suggestions provided for further evaluation of sight word instruction.

Community-referenced activities: implications for establishing stimulus control.

Community-referenced activities involve skill clusters that may be extended over time and/or intertwined with collateral skills. Such multiplex response chains differ in numerous ways from the discrete responses shaped in repetitive trial instruction. Specifically, community living response chains are characterized by the length of the chain, the response classes contained in the chain, and the implicit variations within the chain. Characteristics of these activity chains were analyzed in order to exact implications for enhancing instructional procedures. Given the variety of stimulus control strategies available, this discussion may effect a more deliberate selection of a procedure that is applicable to the varied stimuli and responses in daily living activities.

Effects of experimenter surveillance on reactive self-monitoring.

Two women with mild and moderate mental retardation self-monitored their work productivity with and without experimenter surveillance. For both subjects, reactive effects of self-monitoring were found without surveillance. However, reactivity was much greater when an observer was present while subjects self-monitored their work output. Reactive effects for one subject did not occur until she experienced surveillance in a previous experimental phase, suggesting that the history of surveillance established the reactivity of self-monitoring. Surveillance is viewed as a setting event that may be an important variable in achieving and maintaining benefits of self-management programs for persons with developmental disabilities.

Analysis of demand conditions associated with stereotypy.

Possible escape/avoidance functions of stereotypic behavior were investigated in a classroom setting using functional academic tasks. A 6-year-old boy's stereotypic mouthing was assessed during high vs low response activities, familiar vs novel activities and avoidance vs partial-avoidance conditions. Results showed that stereotypy occurred at higher rates during more difficult activities (i.e. those that were novel or required a greater number of responses), and when stereotypy was allowed to effect a delay in instructional demands. Treatment procedures based on these analyses were implemented by the classroom teacher and shown to be effective.

Movement training: when trainer initiated reinforcement and self-monitoring are not enough.

Trainer initiated reinforcement and client self-monitoring have been used successfully to increase the vocational productivity of individuals with moderate and severe mental retardation. Some previous research, however, has reported cases in which reinforcement strategies had minimal influence on productivity. The current study introduced reinforcement and self-monitoring sequentially in an attempt to improve the productivity levels of five clients with moderate and severe mental retardation in an adult development center. In a subsequent alternating treatments phase, the self-monitoring was compared to self-monitoring with movement training--prompting through a task analysis of the most efficient movements to perform a task. In a final phase, the most effective treatment of the alternating treatments for each subject was replicated across sessions. Four of the five subjects responded minimally to trainer initiated reinforcement or self-monitoring but showed improvement with movement training. This increase was replicated across sessions for three of these four subjects. A fifth subject increased productivity substantially with reinforcement, maintained the increase with self-monitoring, and replicated the increase across sessions with self-monitoring alone. This fifth subject did not increase productivity with movement training.