TEACHING THE HANDICAPPED TO EAT IN PUBLIC PLACES: ACQUISITION,GENERALIZATION AND MAINTENANCE OF RESTAURANT SKILLS

This study examined classroom-based instruction in restauranting skills for handicapped persons. Three male students were taught each of four skill components in sequential order: locating, ordering, paying, and eating and exiting. Training was implemented in a multiple baseline design across subjects and consisted of modeling and role playing in conjunction with photo slide sequences and a simulated ordering counter. The use of a menu containing general item classes and a finger matching procedure for identifying errors in the delivery of change greatly reduced the reading and math skills necessary to enter and complete the program. Periodic probes were conducted in a McDonald's restaurant prior to, during, and up to one-year following the termination of training. In addition, two probes (overt and covert observation) were conducted in a Burger King restaurant to assess further generalization to a location different from the one depicted throughout training. Results showed that students' performance on restaurant probes improved as a result of training, generalized to novel settings, maintained over an extended period of time, and was comparable to that of a normative sample of nonretarded persons.     

TRAINING PARENTS IN BEHAVIORAL SELF-MANAGEMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF GENERALIZATION AND MAINTENANCE

This study examined the generalization and maintenance effects of three phases of parent training (Instructions plus Feedback and two Self-management Training phases) on levels of disruptive child behavior and the accuracy with which parents implemented programs. Data were collected from five families in three main settings: the initial training setting (the home), a variety of generalization settings in the community, and the family breakfast. A multiple baseline across subjects design was used. Instructions plus Feedback comprised instructing parents to use a range of behavior management procedures and provided home-based differential feedback concerning accuracy of program implementation. Self-management Training phases involved training parents in goal setting, self-monitoring, and planning skills, specific to their performance of appropriate parenting skills in generalization settings. Results indicated that the Instructions plus Feedback phase was sufficient to produce reduced levels of problem behavior at home and high levels of accurate implementation, but generalization effects out of home were equivocal. Self-management maintained reduced levels of problem behavior at home but, in addition, resulted in generalization effects in community settings for both children and parents. Maintenance probes 3 months following the program revealed the effects had been maintained.     

Naturalistic observations of pathological behavior in hospitalized psychiatric patients

Naturalistic observations were conducted on 19 acutely ill psychiatric patients in the hospital ward milieu. The study was designed to determine relationships between selected social and environment variables and overt atypical behavior. Patients were observed on an individual basis with time-sampling techniques. In total, 16 pathological behaviors were coded and the most frequent (postural deviance, pace, agitation, hyperactivity, withdrawal, foot shake/body sway, leg swing) were selected in order to determine variation in frequency of these behaviors as a function of the following variables: area within hospital, week of hospitalization, distance between the focal subject and his/her nearest neighbor, number of people in an area, and time of day. Results showed differential changes in pathological behavior as a function of week of hospitalization, number of people in a given area, and distance from the focal subject's nearest neighbor. There was no significant change in the frequency of pathological behaviors as a function of area within hospital or time of day. In addition, most pathological behaviors decreased significantly when patients were engaged in the sending or receiving of verbal behavior. Cluster analyses revealed varying degrees of dissociation between pathological behaviors and social-interaction behaviors. These results support (a) a nonunitary concept of the general category pathological and (b) the view that there are inhibitory effects of social interaction on the enactment of atypical behaviors. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.R.H.P. completed this research during his tenure as a postdoctocal fellow in the Department of Psychiatry, Human Ethology Laboratory, UCLA (NIMH Fellowship 1 F32MHO7627-01). Support for this research also came from the Veterans Administration.     

Evaluation of a coaching strategy to reduce swimming stroke errors with beginning age-group swimmers

A coaching strategy to decrease errors in swimming strokes with swimmers who had not improved under "standard" coaching procedures was investigated using a multiple baseline design across subjects and swimming strokes. The procedure resulted in a large decrease in errors on swimming strokes during sessions in a training pool. Stimulus generalization of improved performance to normal practice conditions in the regular pool was observed with all but one swimmer. This improvement was maintained during two maintenance phases lasting approximately 2 weeks, as well as under standard coaching conditions during at least a 2-week follow-up. For two swimmers, error rates on one of the strokes showed a gradual increase between the third and fifth week of follow-up, but brief remedial prompting sessions immediately corrected their performance. Some beneficial response generalization to other components of the stroke being trained was observed, but no improvements were found on untrained strokes. The error correction package did not disrupt practice, require excessive amounts of the coach's time, or necessitate the use of cumbersome apparatus. In addition, the coach and the swimmers considered the procedures to be effective, and expressed their willingness to participate in them again in the future.     

DINING OUT WITH CHILDREN: EFFECTIVENESS OF A PARENT ADVICE PACKAGE ON PRE-MEAL INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR

The effectiveness of an advice package designed to restructure the restaurant environment and encourage parent praise was examined. Experiment 1 assessed the usefulness of the package when used with experimenter assistance. Videotapes were used to record the target child's behavior. Pre-meal inappropriate behavior decreased an average of 51% across target children. Mealtime inappropriate behavior and parent praise and disapproval were also measured. Experiment 2 was designed to determine whether families could implement the package without experimenter assistance and whether effects obtained would generalize to a different restaurant. Data were taken in vivo. Nine families were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Group assignment determined the order in which families went to two restaurants, the number of dinners each family participated in, and the point at which parents received the advice package. The order in which the families went to the two restaurants as well as the number of baseline meals was counterbalanced. Results of Experiment 2 showed that, when using the advice package, parents in all sequences were able to decrease pre-meal inappropriate behavior of their children, and that these effects generalized to a second restaurant.     

EFFECTS OF CONTEXTUAL COMPETENCE ON SOCIAL INITIATIONS

The frequency of social initiations and satisfaction with interactions in three dyads, each consisting of 1 student with disabilities and 1 nondisabled peer, were assessed under two alternating conditions: Condition 1 assessed the interactions around a set of four trained computer games, and Condition 2 assessed interactions when students were playing a set of four untrained computer games. Training was conducted with a multiple baseline design across participants and was followed by social interaction probes using an alternating treatments design. The results indicated greater frequencies of social initiations by 5 of 6 participants, higher degrees of game satisfaction by all participants, and equal or higher degrees of peer satisfaction by 5 of 6 participants when playing trained games in comparison to untrained games.     

TEACHING SELF-ADMINISTRATION OF SUCTIONING TO CHILDREN WITH TRACHEOSTOMIES

We examined the effectiveness of using dolls to teach young children with tracheostomies to self-administer a suctioning procedure. Four children between the ages of 5 and 8 years, who had had tracheostomies for 6 months or longer, participated. After skills were taught via doll-centered simulations, in vivo skills were evaluated. All of the training and probe sessions were conducted in the participants' classrooms or homes. Results of a multiple baseline design across subjects and skill components indicated that the performance of all children improved as a function of training. Skill maintenance was demonstrated by all participants during follow-up assessments conducted 2 to 6 weeks posttraining. Results of a questionnaire completed by caregivers and interviews with the children revealed high levels of satisfaction with the training procedures and outcomes.     

Increasing participation and improving the quality of discussions in seventh-grade social studies classes

An experiment was conducted to evaluate procedures to improve classroom discussions in seventh-grade social studies classes. An increased number of students participated in discussions when rules were stated for discussions, students were praised for their contributions, the teacher restated or paraphrased students' contributions aloud or on the blackboard, the teacher planned an outline of discussion questions, student contributions to discussions were recorded and were used to determine part of the students' grades for the class, and discussion grades were publicly posted.The second part of the study focused on procedures designed to improve quality of classroom discussions. Students were taught to participate in discussions by providing reasons for their statements, comparisons between different points, or examples supporting their statements. As each type of contribution was taught, recorded, and counted toward part of the students' classroom grades, each type of contribution increased. Ratings of discussions by outside judges consisting of junior high school teachers, junior high school students, and persons experienced in conducting discussions, indicated that the training increased the overall quality of the discussions. Use of the quality training procedures, however, resulted in decreased levels of overall participation in discussion, a decrease that was reversed by the use of a group contingency for participation. Finally, the discussions after training seemed to be preferred by both the teacher and the students.