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Analysis of Transfer-of-Stimulus Control Procedures: Effective Teaching Practices for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders |
Sunday, May 27, 2012 |
2:00 PM–3:20 PM |
301 (TCC) |
Area: AUT/VBC; Domain: Applied Research |
Chair: April N. Kisamore (Western New England University) |
Discussant: Vincent Joseph Carbone (Carbone Clinic) |
Abstract: A primary goal when working with children on the autism spectrum is that they achieve independent functional skills. Therefore, it is crucial that time spent teaching new skills is used effectively and efficiently. This symposium will share research on the use of transfer-of-stimulus control procedures. Specifically, the first paper will report data on a comparison between the quick transfer of stimulus control procedure and a more common prompt fading method. The second paper will address the quick transfer procedure as an error-correction procedure. The third paper will compare tact- and echoic-to-intraverbal transfer of stimulus control procedures as well as evaluate assessment procedures that might be used to predict efficient prompting strategies. Areas for future research also will be discussed. |
Keyword(s): Prompting, Stimulus Control, Teaching Procedures, Verbal Behavior |
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Comparative Analysis of the Quick Transfer of Stimulus Control Procedure With Students With Severe Disabilities |
REBECCA A. MARKOVITS (Simmons College), Shannon Koenig (Simmons College), Judah B. Axe (Simmons College) |
Abstract: Maximizing teaching efficiency is of utmost importance when increasing communication and academic skills with students with severe developmental disabilities. One prompt fading technique with limited data support is the quick transfer of stimulus control procedure. In this procedure, each trial is an instruction with a helpful prompt, light praise, a rapid representation of the instruction with a less helpful prompt or no prompt, and reinforcement contingent on a correct response. Three boys with autism and significant developmental delays (ages 6, 8, and 20) participated in this study comparing this quick transfer of stimulus control procedure with a "traditional"prompt fading technique in which prompts were faded across sessions. We taught listener responding to sight words or pictures with 4 targets randomly assigned to each condition. Interobserver agreement data averaged 98% across participants and conditions. In the context of a parallel treatments design, results showed that more receptive skills met the mastery criterion in the quick transfer condition than in the "traditional" condition. A limitation was not all the teaching targets were acquired in the study. Future research should further verify the quick transfer of the stimulus control procedure as being more efficient than more common, across-session prompt fading strategies. |
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Effects of the Quick Transfer Procedure With Children With Developmental Disabilities |
KERRY A. CONDE (Western New England University), Amanda Karsten (Western New England University), Allyssa Burby (Western New England University) |
Abstract: Treatment manuals, such as Sundberg and Partington's (1998) Teaching Language to Children With Autism or Other Developmental Disabilities, and other texts (Barbera & Rasmussen, 2007; Dipuglia & Miklos, 2002) suggest the use of the quick transfer procedure when teaching new skills to young children with autism or other developmental delays. The quick transfer procedure is defined as delivering a trial with at least a 2-s prompt delay no more than 5 s following a trial with an immediate 0-s prompt delay (Dipuglia & Miklos, 2002). The purpose of the investigation was to examine the effects of the quick transfer trial as an error-correction procedure on rate of acquisition (i.e., trials to mastery, total duration to mastery) with 3 young children on the autism spectrum. An adapted alternating treatments design with a baseline phase was used to examine the quick transfer procedure. Interobserver agreement was assessed for a minimum of 33% of sessions and averaged 100%. Results for 2 of the participants suggest that the quick transfer procedure is effective in producing a higher level of accurate responding and shorter session duration. Based on these findings, the quick transfer procedure may represent an effective strategy to teach new skills to children with autism. |
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A Comparison of Transfer-of-Stimulus-Control Procedures to Teach Intraverbal Behavior to Children With Autism |
Amber R. Paden (Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center), Tiffany Kodak (University of Oregon), VINCENT E. CAMPBELL (University of Oregon), Elizabeth Bullington (Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center), Karen A. Toussaint Rader (Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center), Joslyn Cynkus Mintz (Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center), Rashea Fuchtman (Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center), Andrea Clements Stearns (Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center) |
Abstract: Although several transfer-of-stimulus-control procedures may be used during intraverbal training, only a few studies have compared prompting procedures to identify the most efficient intraverbal training procedures for children diagnosed with autism (e.g., Ingvarrson & Hollobaugh, 2011). In addition, research is needed to evaluate assessment procedures that can be used to predict efficient prompting strategies. The current study compared tact- and echoic-to-intraverbal transfer of stimulus control procedures with five children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. We also completed portions of the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) (i.e., the milestones associated with echoic and tact repertoires) with each participant. The results of the treatment comparison showed that the most efficient transfer-of-stimulus-control procedure was idiosyncratic across participants. Two participants acquired intraverbals in the echoic condition only, and 2 participants acquired intraverbals in the tact condition only. The final participant acquired intraverbal in both conditions; however, the echoic condition was more efficient. The results of the VB-MAPP did not accurately predict the most effective prompting strategy, although the assessment outcomes for echoic and tact repertoires were relatively similar. We will describe future areas of research related to assessing participants' prerequisite tact and echoic repertoires prior to training intraverbal behavior. Inter-observer Agreement (IOA) for all dependent measures exceeded 75%. |
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