Training play behavior in a 5-year-old boy with developmental disabilities

The purpose of the current study was twofold: (a) to investigate if it was possible to train three different games (both as a leader and as a participant) to a child with developmental disabilities through interaction with 4 typically developing peers, and (b) to examine if correct responding would be maintained after the training was faded. A multiple probe design across three games was used. The results showed that the child learned both skills as a leader and as a participant in all three games, and that skills were maintained for a period of 3 weeks after the training had stopped.     

Supervising Consultants in Training: An Application of a Model of Supervision

In this article the author delineates a model of supervision for consultation training. The model is based on Stoltenberg and Delworth's (1987) Integrated Developmental Model of supervision of counselors and has been adapted for supervision of consultation trainees. The model describes trainee characteristics and supervision needs across three levels of development, culminating in an integrated (3i) level with developed skills across eight domains of consultation activity. Development is tracked by monitoring changes in three crucial structures: self- and other-awareness, motivation, and autonomy. Suggestions for supervision approaches for all three levels are presented, and relevant research is discussed.     

Assessing long‐term maintenance of staff performance following behavior skills training in a home‐based setting

We used a multiple baseline across participant design to evaluate the effects of behavior skills training on teaching three behavior therapists to implement discrete trial teaching (DTT) and evaluate the long‐term maintenance of skills acquired through behavioral skills training. For participants whose skills did not maintain, the authors evaluated an independent self‐evaluation procedure on their performance. Following DTT implementation training, maintenance probes were assessed at 2‐, 4‐, 6‐, and 8‐week follow‐ups. The results demonstrated that one participant maintained 100% procedural integrity (PI) through all follow‐ups, one participant decreased below mastery criterion at the 2‐week follow‐up, and one participant dropped below mastery criterion at the 4‐week follow‐up. Those participants that demonstrated decreased accuracy of implementation of DTT programs and were taught to implement a self‐evaluation procedure. Following self‐evaluation, PI maintained for up to 7 weeks for one participant. Our results suggest that if PI does not maintain, self‐evaluation may be a supplementary intervention to increase and maintain PI of new employees.     

Using Psychological Skills Training to Develop Soccer Performance

The present study examined the effects of a soccer, midfielder-specific psychological skills intervention comprising relaxation, imagery and self-talk on position-specific performance measures. Using a multiple-baseline-across-individuals design, five participants had three per-formance subcomponents assessed across nine competitive matches. The results of the study indicated the position-specific intervention to enable at least small improvements on the three dependent variables for each participant. Social validation data indicated all participants to perceive the intervention as being successful and appropriate to their needs. The findings provide further evidence to suggest the efficacy of sport, and position-specific interventions. Suggestions for future research are provided.     

Training kindergarten students lockdown drill procedures using behavioral skills training

During situations in which a gunman is present on a school campus, lockdowns are initiated until the threat is removed. However, there are no data demonstrating an effective teaching strategy to increase students’ correct responding during a lockdown. We evaluated the effectiveness of behavioral skills training (BST) to teach three groups of kindergarten students how to respond during lockdown drills. Results showed that participant groups displayed increases in correct steps and decreases in noise levels after BST was implemented; these effects maintained following training.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Abduction Prevention Program for Young Adults With Intellectual Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training (IST) for teaching abduction prevention skills to young adults with intellectual disabilities. Four individuals, ages 18–24, participated. Five BST sessions were conducted for each participant. Following BST, in situ assessments took place at the participants’ school to assess acquisition of the skills. The data show that none of the participants reached criterion level following BST although some of the participants improved their score from baseline. IST was then implemented with two of the participants achieving criterion level and two participants exhibiting two of the three safety skills.     

A program for increasing manual signing by a nonvocal adult within the daily environment

An instructional program was implemented to increase an adult's repertoire of manual signlanguage skills. The participant was a 39-year-old male with mental retardation who had never demonstrated vocal speech. The program used modified incidental teaching strategies consisting of modeling, verbal prompts, physical guidance, positive reinforcement, and naturally occurring reinforcers within the participant's daily environment. The teaching program was implemented by eight direct care personnel who interacted with the participant and five other residents in a community living arrangement (CLA) on a daily basis. Results indicated that the participant learned to independently use manual signing during structured interactions and that the independent levels of responding were maintained for the duration of this study. Results are discussed regarding the potential benefits of teaching manual signs to nonvocal individuals.     

An evaluation of in situ training to teach sexual abuse prevention skills to women with mental retardation

The current study evaluated a behavioral skills training (BST) program in combination with in situ training to teach sexual abuse prevention skills to five women with mild to moderate mental retardation. In situ assessments were conducted following BST and in situ training sessions were conducted for those who were unable to demonstrate the skills in the natural setting. The results showed that generalization of the safety skills to the natural setting occurred for three of the five participants following one to two in situ training sessions. One participant required 12 in situ training sessions and three booster training sessions to reach criterion level. Three of four participants assessed 1 month following training maintained the skills. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Counselors' Evaluation of Rogers-Perls-Ellis's Relationship Skills

Twenty-two participants (12 employment counselors and 10 counselor supervisors) attended a three-week workshop on enhancing relationship skills, after which each participant evaluated the Rogers, Perls, and Ellis film, Three Approaches to Psychotherapy, on 15 skills. Results indicate that there was general agreement between the counselors and the supervisors when judging levels of therapist functioning by the relationship skills. However, they also show that within each group there is wide divergence of judgment. Neither counselors nor supervisors agree among themselves on their evaluation of the relationship skills of Rogers, Ellis, and Perls. Implications are drawn for the use of the film as a training/evaluation aid for employment counselors and supervisors.     

THE EFFECTS OF BEHAVIORAL SKILLS TRAINING ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PICTURE EXCHANGE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

The effectiveness of a behavioral skills training (BST) package to teach the implementation of the first three phases of the picture exchange communication system (PECS) was evaluated with 3 adults who had no history teaching any functional communication system. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training package, which consisted of a video, written and verbal instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. Results showed significant improvements relative to baseline in a short amount of training time and that skills generalized to a learner with a severe developmental disability. Skills were maintained at 1 month follow‐up for 1 participant.     

Using Behavioral Skills Training to Teach Interview Skills to Young Adults with Autism

With unemployment rates for adults with autism as high as 85%, it is important for young adults to learn necessary prevocational skills (e.g., interviewing) to help them succeed in their search for employment. There is little research showing that individuals with autism can be taught to respond appropriately during an interview to secure future employment opportunities. We replicated the results of Stocco et al. (J Appl Behav Anal 50:495–510, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.385) who evaluated the effects of behavioral skills training on the interview skills of college students. We used a multiple baseline design across three responses (i.e., asking questions, answering questions and appropriate body language) to extend these results to three young adults with autism. During baseline, responding was low across all three responses for all three participants. Behavioral skills training consisted of role-playing simulated interviews, providing feedback and performance rehearsals. For two of the participants, behavioral skills training alone was effective at increasing all three responses. For the third participant, we added textual cues and reinforcement during behavioral skills training to reach criterion performance. Results demonstrated that adults with autism can benefit from modified behavioral skills training to improve interview skills and employment opportunities. Social validity of responses was assessed by asking community members to rate video-taped segments of the interviews.

     

智力和元认知技能在发现学习中的作用:任务复杂性的影响

采用自编的计算机模拟发现学习任务,以49名大学生为被试,探讨了在简单和复杂发现学习任务中,智力、元认知技能和学习成绩三者之间的关系。结果发现:在简单任务中,三者关系基本符合混合模型;进行过多的元认知活动,并不能提高学习效果。在复杂任务中,智力对学习成绩起主要预测作用。随着任务复杂性的增加,智力对学习的影响也随之变化,符合难度阈限理论的假设。任务复杂性不同时,智力、元认知技能和发现学习成绩之间的关系也不同,在一定程度上验证了难度阈限扩展理论。     

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.     

Mosques,Churches, and Civic Skill Opportunities in Indonesia

This article examines the role of houses of worship as institutions where individuals acquire civic skills that can be deployed for political participation in the world's largest Muslim‐majority democracy: Indonesia. Drawing on participant observation and interviews in Muslim, Protestant, and Catholic religious communities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, this article investigates three questions: (1) What opportunities exist for individuals worshipping in Indonesian churches and mosques to develop and practice civic skills as part of their religious engagement? (2) Does civic skill opportunity vary across religious denominations? and (3) What factors might explain variation across different religious settings? The study shows that mosques offer fewer prospects for their worshippers to develop civic skills than do churches. These denominational differences can be explained by a house of worship's management practices, which are shaped by its degree of autonomy, style of worship, and the relative size of the religious denomination.     

Interest as a Moderator in the Relationship Between Challenge/Skills Balance and Flow at Work: An Analysis at Within-Individual Level

Considering flow as a non-ergodic process (i.e. non-homogeneous across individuals and non-stationary over time) that happens at the within-individual level, in this research we work with Bakker’s model that propose flow as made up by three components: intrinsic motivation, enjoyment, and absorption. Taking into account that flow theory can be considered as an intrinsic motivation theory, and the recent proposals about the need to distinguish between pre-conditions of flow and the flow experience itself, we look at interest as a moderator between the challenge/skills balance and the experience of flow, rather than a component of the flow experience. A total of 3640 recordings were collected from a sample of 58 workers using an experience sampling method (several registers a day, during 21 working days). The data was analyzed using regression techniques in each participant (i.e. at within-individual level). Our work tries to respond to the following two research questions: Will interest play a moderating role in the relationship between challenge/skills balance and flow? Will a non-linear model (cusp catastrophe model) better explain the relationship among challenge/skills balance, interest, and flow? The results suggest that our hypotheses were correct: including interest as moderator better explains the relationship between challenge/skills balance and flow in comparison to a model without moderation (R² values change from 0.33 to 0.50). Additionally, carrying out the analysis following non-linear techniques explained more variance as well (R² = 0.67), and this increment was significant. These results support the idea that interest should be considered as a key precondition for the appearance of flow, and this relationship is non-linear. We could say that these findings are exemplary in the field and brings up questions for their application in further research.     

The effects of fluent levels of Big 6 + 6 skill elements on functional motor skills with children with autism

Functional motor skills are often taught using chaining procedures. Research suggests that chaining procedures are not likely to be effective if they do not focus on the accuracy and speed of composite skill completion. Precision teaching (PT) research suggests that improved performance of a composite skill can be achieved if the performance speed of the component behaviors is increased. This study assessed the effects of repeated timed practice of component motor skills on speed and accuracy of composite skills and the effects of fluent component motor skills on the completion of daily living composite skills. Three children with autism participated. The results suggest that all participants were able to perform the component skills at their individual aims and performed most of the component skills at fluent levels as assessed by retention and endurance checks. Each participant increased the number of composite skill steps performed independently and one decreased the overall time to complete the composite skill. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluating backward chaining methods on vocational tasks by adults with developmental disabilities

Backward chains are widely used to teach complex skills to individuals with developmental disabilities. Implementation of chaining procedures may vary regarding untaught steps and there is little to guide practitioners in the selection of chaining procedures. Moreover, there is a dearth of research evaluating effectiveness and efficiency of procedural variations of behavior chains. The purpose of this study was to extend previous research by evaluating the effectiveness, efficiency, and preference for four procedural variations (i.e., teacher‐completion, participant‐completion, no‐completion, and a control condition) of backward chains across vocational tasks with adults with developmental disabilities. Although procedural variations effectively established vocational skills, the participant‐completion procedure (in which the instructor implemented a least‐to‐most prompt hierarchy during all untrained steps in the chain) was the most efficacious backward chaining procedural variation and efficient in terms of sessions to mastery. The no‐completion procedure (in which the instructor completed all untrained steps in the chain out of view of the participant) was least efficient across trials, sessions, errors, and total duration to mastery. One participant preferred the no‐completion condition while the other two participants showed an initial preference for the teacher‐completion condition that changed to preference for the no‐completion condition. Vocational skills maintained 1‐ and 4‐weeks postmastery. Stakeholders rated goals, procedures, and outcomes as socially valid.     

Merging the Self-Determination Theory and the Broaden and Build Theory through the nexus of positive affect: A macro theory of positive functioning

The Macro Theory of Positive Functioning integrates key aspects of the Self-Determination Theory and the Broaden and Build Theory. The theory posits a model that provides new perspectives on the development of positive characteristics. The Macro Theory proposes that higher levels of intrinsic motivation and basic needs satisfaction as described by the Self-Determination Theory result in high levels of positive affect (consisting of emotions such as joy). The Broaden and Build Theory proposes that high levels of positive affect result in a broadening of perspective resulting in more engagement with opportunities and relationships, which builds beneficial cognitive and behavioural resources and skills. Such resources and skills may manifest as positive characteristics described and studied in the positive psychology approach. These characteristics include self-compassion, self-efficacy, empathy, emotional intelligence, and character strengths. High levels of these characteristics may result in optimal functioning. Results from model testing with concurrent data designs as well as experimental designs provide initial support for the Macro Theory.     

Predicting the relative efficacy of three presentation methods for assessing preferences of persons with developmental disabilities

Choices were presented to 9 individuals with developmental disabilities using a two-choice format. Each pair of items, selected based on prior preference assessment, was presented to each participant in three conditions (actual items, pictures of the items, and spoken-name presentation) using a reversal design. The evaluation was conducted using food items, and was then repeated using nonfood items. The participants were also given a test to measure their skills on discrimination tasks ranging in difficulty from simple to conditional discriminations. The participants' abilities to make consistent choices with food and nonfood items were predicted, with 94% accuracy, by their discrimination skills. The findings suggest that presentation methods can affect the accuracy of a choice assessment, and that the systematic assessment of basic discrimination skills can be used to predict the effectiveness of different presentation methods in this population.