DIFFERENTIAL REINFORCEMENT OF CORRECT RESPONSES TO PROBES AND PROMPTS IN PICTURE-NAME TRAINING WITH SEVERELY RETARDED CHILDREN

A systematic sequence of prompt and probe trials was used to teach picture names to three severely retarded children. On prompt trials the experimenter presented a picture and said the picture name for the child to imitate; on probe trials the experimenter did not name the picture. A procedure whereby correct responses to prompts and probes were nondifferentially reinforced was compared with procedures whereby correct responses to prompts and probes were differentially reinforced according to separate and independent schedules of primary reinforcement. In Phase 1, correct responses to prompts and probes were reinforced nondifferentially on a fixed ratio (FR) 6 or 8 schedule; in Phase 2, correct responses to prompts were reinforced on the FR schedule and correct responses to probes were reinforced on an FR schedule of the same value; in Phase 3, correct responses to prompts were reinforced on the FR schedule and correct responses to probes were reinforced on a continuous reinforcement (CRF; every correct response reinforced) schedule; in Phase 4, correct responses to prompts were reinforced on a CRF schedule and correct responses to probes were reinforced on the FR schedule; in Phase 5, a reversal to the conditions of Phase 3 was conducted. For all three children, the FR schedule for correct responses to prompts combined with the CRF schedule for correct responses to probes (Phases 3 and 5) generated the highest number of correct responses to probes, the highest accuracy (correct responses relative to correct responses plus errors) on probe trials, and the highest rate of learning to name pictures.     

Choosing your informant: weighing familiarity and recent accuracy

In two experiments, children aged 3, 4 and 5 years (N= 61) were given conflicting information about the names and functions of novel objects by two informants, one a familiar teacher, the other an unfamiliar teacher. On pre‐test trials, all three age groups invested more trust in the familiar teacher. They preferred to ask for information and to endorse the information that she supplied. In a subsequent phase, children watched as the two teachers differed in the accuracy with which they named a set of familiar objects. Half the children saw the familiar teacher name the objects accurately and the unfamiliar teacher name them inaccurately. The remaining half saw the reverse arrangement. In post‐test trials, the selective trust initially displayed by 3‐year‐olds was minimally affected by this intervening experience of differential accuracy. By contrast, the selective trust of 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds was affected. If the familiar teacher had been the more accurate, selective trust in her was intensified. If, on the other hand, the familiar teacher had been the less accurate, it was undermined, particularly among 5‐year‐olds. Thus, by 4 years of age, children trust familiar informants but moderate that trust depending on the informants’ recent history of accuracy or inaccuracy.     

An exploratory analysis of task-interspersal procedures while teaching object labels to children with autism

Research has demonstrated that interspersing mastered tasks with new tasks facilitates learning under certain conditions; however, little is known about factors that influence the effectiveness of this treatment strategy. The initial purpose of the current investigation was to evaluate the effects of similar versus dissimilar interspersed tasks while teaching object labels to children diagnosed with autism or developmental delays. We then conducted a series of exploratory analyses involving the type of reinforcer delivered for correct responses on trials with unknown or known object labels. Performance was enhanced under the interspersal condition only when either brief praise was delivered for all correct responses or presumably more preferred reinforcers were provided for performance on known trials rather than on unknown trials.     

Embedded prompting may function as embedded punishment: detection of unexpected behavioral processes within a typical preschool teaching strategy

This study describes an unexpected behavioral process that influenced behavior during the teaching of concepts to a 4-year-old girl. The efficacy of and preference for three strategies that varied in teacher directedness were assessed in a multielement design and concurrent-chains arrangement, respectively. The strategy that involved the most teacher direction was most efficacious and preferred. In addition, embedded teacher prompts, common in child-led teaching procedures, functioned as a punisher for the child's toy play. Implications for designing effective and preferred teaching conditions are discussed.     

AN ANALYSIS OF A GROUP TEACHING PROCEDURE FOR PERSONS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

This study evaluated whether a concurrent group teaching procedure, in which all students respond simultaneously, could be used for persons with moderate or severe mental retardation. The teaching procedure used was the Task Demonstration Model, a program based on stimulus-control research and the fading techniques of behavioral psychology. Three teachers and three groups of students participated. Results showed that the teachers increased their rates of questions and instructions, positive feedback, and use of functional materials, but they reduced their rate of prompts to almost zero. Students increased their percentage and rate of correct responding as well as their engaged time. In addition, maladaptive responding, for which there were never any direct consequences, decreased from 45% to 10% for 8 of the 14 students. Results are discussed primarily in two areas: (a) changing stimulus control from teacher prompts to critical elements of the items being taught, and (b) reasons for the reduction of maladaptive behavior for 8 of the subjects.     

THE EFFECTS OF BEHAVIOR SKILLS TRAINING ON CORRECT TEACHER IMPLEMENTATION OF NATURAL LANGUAGE PARADIGM TEACHING SKILLS AND CHILD BEHAVIOR

Natural Language Paradigm (NLP) is a naturalistic teaching strategy for children with autism that increases immediate and delayed imitative utterances, spontaneous utterances and new words, and production of utterances. NLP includes increasing child choice, varying stimulus items, loose shaping contingencies for communicative attempts, and providing reinforcers with a direct relationship to the response. Only one previous study investigated the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) on staff acquisition and generalization of implementation of NLP and child behavior. A BST package of instructions, modeling rehearsal and feedback, was used to train teachers to implement NLP teaching procedures with three pre‐school children with autism spectrum disorder. Training increased correct teacher performance systematically across all three teachers during NLP teaching sessions and with children for whom teachers did not directly receive training. Correct teacher performance increased appropriate child vocalizations and decreased maladaptive behavior for four of six children. BST is effective in quickly training teachers in the generalized implementation of complex NLP teaching procedures across children. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

THE DISCRIMINATION OF OBJECT NAMES AND OBJECT SOUNDS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: A PROCEDURE FOR TEACHING VERBAL COMPREHENSION

We assessed whether 2 preschoolers with autism learned to discriminate between the sounds of musical instruments more rapidly than the spoken names of the instruments. After the children learned the sound‐object relations more rapidly than the name‐object relations, we then evaluated a prompt‐delay procedure for transferring stimulus control from the sounds to the names of the instruments. The prompt‐delay procedure facilitated the acquisition of name—object relations for both children.     

Evaluating preschool children's preferences for motivational systems during instruction

Preschool teachers rely on several strategies for motivating children to participate in learning activities. In the current study, we evaluated the effectiveness of and preference for three teaching contexts in which embedded, sequential, or no programmed reinforcement was arranged. The embedded context included highly preferred teaching materials, the sequential context included highly preferred edible items for correct responding, and a control context included neither. In addition, an exclusively play-oriented activity was included as a fourth option to determine if one of the direct teaching contexts could compete with a relatively unstructured and exclusively child-led activity. All participants preferred the sequential context (use of high-quality consequences) over the embedded context (use of high-quality teaching materials), 2 of the 4 participants preferred some motivational system to none at all, and the play area was selected over all variants of the instructional contexts during the majority of trials. We found either no or small differences in correct responding in the different instructional contexts; however, rates of undesirable behavior were highest in the least preferred interaction area for 3 of the 4 participants. Implications for the design of effective and preferred teaching environments for young children are discussed.     

Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder to tact auditory stimuli

Studies on teaching tacts to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have primarily focused on visual stimuli, despite published clinical recommendations to teach tacts of stimuli in other sensory domains as well. In the current study, two children with ASD were taught to tact auditory stimuli under two stimulus‐presentation arrangements: isolated (auditory stimuli presented without visual cues) and compound (auditory stimuli presented with visual cues). Results indicate that compound stimulus presentation was a more effective teaching procedure, but that it interfered with prior object‐name tacts. A modified compound arrangement in which object‐name tact trials were interspersed with auditory‐stimulus trials mitigated this interference.     

EFFECTS OF RESPONDING TO A NAME AND GROUP CALL ON PRESCHOOLERS' COMPLIANCE

We assessed teacher—child relations with respect to children's name calls, instructions, and compliance in a preschool classroom. The most frequent consequence to a child's name being called was the provision of instructions. We also observed a higher probability of compliance when children attended to a name call. Next, we evaluated the effects of teaching preschoolers to attend to their names and a group call on their compliance with typical instructions. We used a multiple baseline design across subjects and a control‐group design to evaluate whether gains in compliance were a function of treatment or routine experience in preschool. Results showed that compliance increased as a function of teaching precursors for all children in the experimental group, and the effects on compliance were maintained despite a reduction of the occurrence of precursors. Moreover, it appeared that precursor teaching, not routine preschool experience, was responsible for the changes in compliance.     

TEACHING RECEPTIVE NAMING OF CHINESE CHARACTERS TO CHILDREN WITH AUTISM BY INCORPORATING ECHOLALIA

The facilitative effect of incorporating echolalia on teaching receptive naming of Chinese characters to children with autism was assessed. In Experiment 1, echoing the requested character name prior to the receptive naming task facilitated matching a character to its name. In addition, task performance was consistently maintained only when echolalia preceded the receptive manual response. Positive results from generalization tests suggested that learned responses occurred across various novel conditions. In Experiment 2, we examined the relation between task difficulty and speed of acquisition. All 3 participants achieved 100% correct responding in training, but learning less discriminable characters took more trials than learning more discriminable characters. These results provide support for incorporating echolalia as an educational tool within language instruction for some children with autism.     

Establishing initial auditory‐visual conditional discriminations and emergence of initial tacts in young children with autism spectrum disorder

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display impaired listener skills, and few studies have evaluated procedures for establishing initial auditory‐visual conditional discrimination skills. We developed and evaluated a treatment package for training initial auditory‐visual conditional discriminations based on the extant research on training such discriminations in children with ASD with at least some preexisting skills in this area. The treatment package included (a) conditional‐only training, (b) prompting the participant to echo the sample stimulus as a differential observing response, (c) prompting correct selection responses using an identity‐match prompt, (d) using progressively delayed prompts, and (e) repeating trials until the participant emitted an independent correct response. Results indicated all participants mastered all listener targets, and the two participants for whom we tested the emergence of corresponding tacts showed mastery of most tacts without direct training. We discuss these results relative to prior research on listener skills and tacts.     

Can pictures promote the acquisition of sight‐word reading? An evaluation of two potential instructional strategies

Sight‐word instruction can be a useful supplement to phonics‐based methods under some circumstances. Nonetheless, few studies have evaluated the conditions under which pictures may be used successfully to teach sight‐word reading. In this study, we extended prior research by examining two potential strategies for reducing the effects of overshadowing when using picture prompts. Five children with developmental disabilities and two typically developing children participated. In the first experiment, the therapist embedded sight words within pictures but gradually faded in the pictures as needed using a least‐to‐most prompting hierarchy. In the second experiment, the therapist embedded text‐to‐picture matching within the sight‐word reading sessions. Results suggested that these strategies reduced the interference typically observed with picture prompts and enhanced performance during teaching sessions for the majority of participants. Text‐to‐picture matching also accelerated mastery of the sight words relative to a condition under which the therapist presented text without pictures.     

教师解决结构不良问题策略的发展研究

以成人期个体解决结构不良问题的有关认知加工理论为框架,运用多因素设计的方法,对９０名不同年龄的教师在解决教育和教学实践中常见的三种冲突情景下使用策略的情况进行了探讨。结果发现,教师在解决结构不良问题时,从总体上说不存在年龄差异,但在处理教师与教师、教师与家长等较为复杂的冲突问题时,随着年龄的增长,更趋向于使用元认知和认识论认知策略。该研究对教师培训中如何根据不同年龄特点来进行教育机智训练有一定的理论意义和应用价值。     

Teacher Training: Effects of Directed Rehearsal on the Teaching Skills of Physical Education Majors

Directed rehearsal was used to improve the teaching skills of six preservice elementary physical education teachers during a teaching practicum. The teaching skills lesson introduction, lesson closure, task presentation, and general and specific subject-matter feedback were assessed using a multiple baseline design across behaviors for each teacher. Social validity, in the form of the acceptability of directed rehearsal as a teacher training intervention, was also assessed using a questionnaire. Directed rehearsal was effective in improving the teaching skills of the teachers to either 100% correct implementation or, in the case of subject-matter feedback, to an established rate. In addition, the intervention was acceptable to the teachers and the practicum instructor. These results extend both the error correction and the research on teacher education literatures.     

THE FACILITATIVE EFFECTS OF INCIDENTAL TEACHING ON PREPOSITION USE BY AUTISTIC CHILDREN

In a comparison of incidental teaching and traditional training procedures, three language-delayed autistic children were taught expressive use of prepositions to describe the location of preferred edibles and toys. Traditional highly structured training and incidental teaching procedures were used in a classroom setting, and generalization was assessed during free-play sessions. Results clearly indicate that incidental teaching promoted greater generalization and more spontaneous use of prepositions. These findings have important implications for language programming and teacher training, suggesting that incidental teaching should be included as a standard component of language development curricula for autistic and other developmentally delayed children.     

Delayed Match Retrieval: a novel anticipation‐based visual working memory paradigm

We tested 8‐ and 10‐month‐old infants’ visual working memory (VWM) for object‐location bindings – what is where – with a novel paradigm, Delayed Match Retrieval, that measured infants’ anticipatory gaze responses (using a Tobii T120 eye tracker). In an inversion of Delayed‐Match‐to‐Sample tasks and with inspiration from the game Memory, in test trials, three face‐down virtual ‘cards’ were presented. Two flipped over sequentially (revealing, e.g. a swirl pattern and then a star), and then flipped back face‐down. Next, the third card was flipped to reveal a match (e.g. a star) to one of the previously seen, now face‐down cards. If infants looked to the location where the (now face‐down) matching card had been shown, this was coded as a correct response. To encourage anticipatory looks, infants subsequently received a reward (a brief, engaging animation) presented at that location. Ten‐month‐old infants performed significantly above chance, showing that their VWM could hold object‐location information for the two cards. Overall, 8‐month‐olds’ performance was at chance, but they showed a robust learning trend. These results corroborate previous findings (Kaldy & Leslie, 2005; Oakes, Ross‐Sheehy & Luck, 2006) and point to rapid development of VWM for object‐location bindings. However, compared to previous paradigms that measure passive gaze responses to novelty, this paradigm presents a more challenging, ecologically relevant test of VWM, as it measures the ability to make online predictions and actively localize objects based on VWM. In addition, this paradigm can be readily scaled up to test toddlers or older children without significant modification.