Association for Behavior Analysis International

Enhancing education has been a target of interest since the beginning of the behavioral tradition, especially influenced by scientists such as Skinner, Dewey, Keller, Lindsley, and Engelman. While no one should be surprised by the fact that behavior analysis has influenced the education of folks with autism and other developmental disabilities, many are surprised to learn that education qua education is in fact part of the purview of behavior science. This panel will consist of a brief summary of several specific approaches to education from the behavioral tradition, their origins, where they stand today, and what directions they can go in the future. In the discussion of these approaches, the use of technology (established and emerging) in the service of these educational approaches will be highlighted. This is the perfect panel for an audience member who wishes to see what behavior analysis has and can contribute to the state of our educational systems, now and in the future.

Anyone who wishes to see what behavior analysis has and can contribute to the state of our educational systems, now and in the future.

Frequently one hears that behaviorist approaches to teaching and learning focus on the more mundane "basic" skills and often neglect the important aspects of advanced learning. That is, there is an emphasis on the simple, rather than the complex, and on direct teaching rather than on enquiry and problem solving. This presentation looks at complexity and argues that the meaning of complexity, especially as it applies to education, is not well understood and requires an examination of a range of teaching and learning issues. Further, complexity of task is different than complexity of teaching the task, and often repertoires of increasing complexity may become increasingly simpler to teach. Enquiry may itself be one of those instances. As one builds the component repertoires for enquiry, one may find increasingly more complex patterns may emerge with little direct instruction. A model for teaching and applying enquiry repertoires to increasingly more demanding criteria will be suggested that topographically looks unstructured, but in fact builds upon careful contingency shaping.

Anyone who is interested in direct teaching and contingency shaping.

--Describe the relationship between entry repertoire and complexity.

--State how the use of a contingency-defined learning hierarchy can help teach complex topics through enquiry.

--Distinguish between complexity of repertoire and complexity of program.

--Describe how enquiry can be sequenced so as to potentiate academic success as a reinforcer.

The ability to read is essential if children are to access the rest of their academic curriculum and failure to read effectively can have significant detrimental effects on their future life choices and future prospects. Computer-assisted reading programs have often been found to be beneficial alongside beginning reading instruction, and it has been suggested that such technologies could potentially provide expert instruction in remedial reading, especially when the time and resources available to train teaching staff are limited. Mimio reading programs are online, computer-delivered programs developed through extensive formative evaluation. Over recent years, we have been evaluating the programs with typically developing children in schools in Wales, UK. This poster presentation will outline some of the findings of this pilot work and discuss challenges for implementing and evaluating the programs at-scale.

Science teaching is rapidly becoming a priority both nationally and internationally. The authors have been developing a science curriculum that uses concept analysis and formative evaluation to effectively teach science concepts. Concept learning is a well-developed field (e.g., J. Bruner; C. Clark; D. R. Tennyson & D. Merrill; S. Markle & P. Tiemann; and others) that can and has cross-pollinated with behavior analysis in order to guide the design of effective instructional programs. Analyzing a concept involves finding the shared properties of stimulus classes, and the properties that may vary within a stimulus class. Once this analysis is complete, a set of examples and non-examples is created and used to build an instructional sequence in which learners respond to (a) stimuli that differ in their variable attributes (intra-class generalization); and (b) stimuli that have some similarities to the example, but do not have at least one of the critical properties of that stimulus class (inter-class discrimination). This poster will present examples of concept analysis as applied to science concepts, as well as data on learner performance from the formative evaluation of the program.

Most interteaching studies have been conducted in traditional didactic classroom settings. To date, no published interteaching studies have utilized an online course format. Furthermore, no component analysis of the pair discussion component of interteaching has been published. Therefore, the present study was intended to examine the pair discussion component of interteaching in an online graduate rehabilitation course using Adobe Connect. The first condition included all key components of interteaching, including pair discussion, in which student dyads were placed in online breakout rooms to discuss the preparation guide component of interteaching. The second condition involved all components of interteaching with the exception of pair discussion. During the condition with no pair discussion, individual students were placed in online breakout rooms to complete the preparation guide on their own. Both conditions with or without pair discussion were randomly assigned across successive classes and compared to student quiz scores. Findings indicated that the pair discussion condition resulted in higher student quiz scores. In addition, social validity findings indicated the majority of students reported higher preference for interteaching with the inclusion of the pair discussion component than without. In conclusion, a discussion of future directions for interteaching technology in online education will be discussed.

Behavior Analysts arrange antecedent and consequent variables to establish and maintain desired behavioral targets. Readily available technology can dramatically expand the possibilities for implementing antecedents and consequences to more subtly and efficiently change behavior. Additionally, the use of technology can shift the perspective of the community during community based programming in helping to reduce the stigma associated with more traditional methods of prompting. This presentation will discuss the role of technology in evolving the application of behavior analysis and facilitating natural environment training. Examples will be presented of a variety of applications of hardware and software, as well as a variety of skill and behavior targets in a variety of instructional contexts, and how they were integrated to establish and maintain newly learned behaviors.

At the Judge Rotenberg Center, we have developed self instructional software that teaches basic math facts, to include addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The software follows the guiding principles of Precision Teaching and Programmed Instruction. Consequences are built directly into the software and can be individualized for each client. All data that is created is charted in real time on Standard Celeration Charts. Data can be viewed by the client, teacher and treatment team, from their individual workstations. In this study, we examined data from 12 clients. Data was taken before they started using the Math Facts program and then in June 2013. We will be discussing individual correct and incorrect rates at both points in time and average correct and incorrect rates. We will also discuss time spent using the software and its effect on celeration.

On one hand, games are a creative medium full of incredibly nebulous, fluffy concepts like "fun," "storytelling," and "adventure." At the same time, modern games produce terabytes of exquisitely detailed behavioral data, letting us analyze everything from how our players respond to contingencies to the substance of their in-game conversations. The games industry is driven by a unique mix of talented designers who work by instinct and experience and analysts who use rigorous behavioral testing methodologies, battling and collaborating with each other to produce fun experiences for our players. This talk will cover some of the ways research has been incorporated into the game design process, from small-scale lab studies to beta tests with millions of active participants. The talk will cover why behavioral approaches have been so unexpectedly successful in games and cover the secret methods used to persuade stubborn designers to listen to data. Finally, Dr. Hopson also will discuss some of the ways that behavioral analysts are still way ahead of game designers and what the games industry needs to do in order to catch up.

Anyone interested in how behavior analysis research is incorporated into the game design process.

Increasingly, students' educational experiences occur in the context of online learning environments, creating opportunities to study student behavior in a fashion that is both longitudinal and very fine-grained. In this talk, Dr. Baker will discuss the use of Educational Data Mining methods on this type of data to automatically infer student problem behaviors during online learning, and to make basic discoveries about the factors that lead students to engage in these behaviors. He will illustrate this process through discussing his research group's work to leverage a combination of field observation and data mining to develop automated detectors that infer when a student engages in a range of problem behaviors, including gaming the system, off-task behavior, and carelessness. Dr. Baker will then discuss his group's work studying the ways that these behaviors and emotions are influenced by student interaction with online learning environments, and how that work influences developing next-generation online learning environments that students are more likely to choose to use appropriately and effectively.

Anyone who is interested in educational data mining and online learning.

Community-based instruction is a complex process made more complicated by the stigma associated with overt and conspicuous levels of prompting. Further, one-to-one teacher assistance can impede independent function as well as a student's sense of confidence and control over his or her own environment. The current study investigated a method by which the stigma associated with such overt levels of prompting was reduced, while at the same time, the degree of independent functioning increased through the use of a remote cell phone and blue tooth technology. The use of this technology easily allowed implementation across multiple environments and resulted in decreased levels of prompting errors, increased levels of independence, and greater social inclusion.

Lack of access to enriching resources may hinder language acquisition and opportunities for social engagement, as well as mediate problem behavior. Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) that have severely impaired communication skills and no access to stimulating learning materials may face even more adversity than their typically developing peers. With funding support from Autism Speaks, Project iCAN provided iPads and a communication app, called Proloquo2Go, to underprivileged families who have children with ASD and limited communication skills. Four families attended three 6-hour workshops in which they were trained how to navigate and customize the iPad and Proloquo2Go. The Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment & Placement Program (VB-MAPP) was used to assess each child's language skills. Target goals were derived based on the pre-study results. To provide further support, in-home consultations were conducted bi-weekly for three months. This presentation will review the rationale for this project, as well as procedures used to train and consult with multicultural and multilingual families. Pre- and post-parent surveys regarding the training and its impact on their technological competence will be discussed. Results of parent procedural fidelity and the VB-MAPP documenting each child's language development will also be shared.

Research has shown that teaching children with autism spectrum disorders to use the Picture Exchange Communication System encourages speech. In Phase IV of PECS, children are taught to give a sentence strip in the form of "I want (item)" to a communicative partner in exchange for a desired item. In this study, the participant was taught a version of PECS using the Proloquo2Go application on iPad up to Phase IV in an effort to examine the system's effect on full sentence vocal requesting. A parametric design was used to assess the frequency of full sentence vocal requesting as the participant progressed through the phases. The results show substantial increases in the frequency of general vocal requests of any length as the participant achieved each phase, as well as increases in the frequency of full sentence requests during Phase IV.

Auditory match-to-sample is fundamental to listener literacy (responding to vowel-consonant sounds of a speaker by performing relevant listener responses), enhancement of echoic responding (reproducing the words heard with point-to-point correspondence), and may play a possible role in inducing the capability to learn the names of things incidentally. CABAS and the Fred S Keller School are publishing the Auditory Matching app for ipad. This app teaches students to discriminate between positive and negative exemplars of different sounds and words by matching the sample sound to the matching exemplar. The Auditory Matching app consists of two sections: basic and advanced. The 8-phase Basic Auditory Matching teaches students to match target sounds/words versus no sound, white noise, and other sounds/words. The 13-phase Advanced Auditory Matching teaches students to match longer phonemic speech-sound combinations, short phrases, and sentences. The differences between the target sounds and the non-exemplars decrease incrementally and the complexity of the exemplars increases gradually from basic to advanced phases.

Mimio (formerly Headsprout) reading programmes were developed through extensive formative evaluation with typically developing children. Over the last 4 years, we have been exploring the accessibility of the program for children with various special educational needs, including children with autism, children with intellectual disability and physical disabilities. This poster presentation will discuss some of the challenges and potential solutions related to using the program with different populations, and highlight some of the outcome data emerging from our pilot work.

Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impairments associated with the use of verbal communication. As a result, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) modes are frequently utilised. Research investigating the acquisition and use of AAC is emerging. However, few studies have identified whether these newly acquired skills are then generalized, and whether this is associated with rate of acquisition and/or student preference. The purpose of this study was to compare the acquisition of three different AAC modes, to examine children�s preference for using these modes, and to assess generalised use across settings, and people. Using a combined multiple-baseline and alternating-treatments design, four children with ASD were taught to mand preferred items using a Speech-Generating Device (SGD), picture exchange (PE), and manual signing (MS). Preference assessments were conducted in order to determine whether the participants demonstrated a preference for one AAC mode above the others. Generalisation to a novel setting and person, was also assessed for each device. The effect of intervention on eye contact, non-verbal communication, and spontaneous language use was also measured through video-analysis. This paper will present the findings of this study.

Currently, reports indicate that approximately 75% of adults with developmental disabilities are unemployed. Because of this, practitioners, family members, and educators often attempt to create opportunities for individuals with disabilities to become more independent in vocational settings, utilizing available technology. For this study, a within-subject adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the independent performance of students with intellectual disabilities in two tasks, using a universally-designed interface (with various media options available on the screen) and video modeling. Both conditions were effective in increasing independence of the participants with the universally designed system being more effective for one participant and video modeling being slightly more effective for the other participant. In addition, both participants self-selected and self-faded their reliance on media supports when using the universally designed interface. While both conditions led to increased independence, each participant had a more effective condition, which may imply that user preference was an uncontrolled variable. It has been determined that, with implementer training, iPad technology can be used inexpensively to increase student independence and allow students to self-fade their own levels of support in vocational settings.

Whereas video-based instruction has demonstrated potential for increasing skills and promoting independence, research involving isolation of video variables, in order to determine which components are most effective, with which users, is a relatively new focus of evaluation. One task component, which is integral to many daily living and vocational tasks, is the passage of time. The purpose of this study was to evaluate completion of daily living tasks that required the task step of waiting as time passes. Passage of time was represented through video prompts while the camera continuously recorded: a) visual disappearance (counting down) of time on a color coded timer (Time Timer); or b) a close-up view of the target step (e.g., substance boiling) while time passed. An adapted alternating treatments design, combined with a multiple probe across behaviors design with baseline, comparison, and final treatment conditions was used in this study to compare two procedures for demonstrating passage of time when using computer-based video prompting by four young adults with moderate intellectual disability. Results indicate that gains were made by each participant when using both video procedures and that both procedures were equally effective in promoting completion of task steps requiring the passage of time.

CABAS® and the Fred S Keller School have developed a series of video tapes along with the training manuals to improve the accuracy of implementation of tested verbal behavior developmental protocols. Those that are now available include: 1) Intensive Tact Instruction, 2) Establishing Observational Learning, 3) Conditioning Reinforcement for Adult Faces, 4) The Auditory Match-to-Sample Protocol, and 5) The Mirror Protocol to Induce Generalized Imitation. The training packages contain manuals with an introduction and directions on how to do the protocols, along with DVDs demonstrating teachers’ performing all the protocol procedures including accurate data collection. Each video also shows the outcomes of the use of the protocol with the student.

In community-based programming for adults with ASD, efficient training of staff is essential due to the decentralization of the training environment. That is, staff are more isolated than in the traditional school-based training environment, where most educators and students are in a single location. Videotaped staff training is a concept that has been researched extensively and found to be effective in improving staff performance. However, videotaping can be uniquely problematic in community-based settings and within natural environment training. Additionally, the resources necessary to dedicate staff to filming can be prohibitive for programs with limited budgets. The capability of distance supervision would greatly enhance staff support and student safety without straining programmatic resources. The Looxcie Bluetooth video camera is a new device that offers the capability of audio and high-definition video recording with real-time streaming to multiple devices. This presentation will describe this new technology, provide examples of its use, and discuss potential clinical and research questions pertaining to this device.