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| An Analysis of Teaching and Prompting Strategies in Teaching Children with Autism |
| Sunday, May 27, 2007 |
| 9:00 AM–10:20 AM |
| Elizabeth F |
| Area: AUT/EDC; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Myrna E. Libby (New England Center for Children) |
| Abstract: Four presentations analyzing the effectiveness and efficiency of various teaching and prompting strategies on the acquisition of behavior chains will be presented.
One presentation compared acquisition of an arbitrary Lego toy using a forward chaining procedure with most-to-least prompting. The effectiveness of 3 teaching strategies was evaluated with an alternating treatments design: on each training trial the chain was completed by the teacher, completed by the participant with full manual guidance or not completed after the training step. All participants acquired the skill in the three conditions with acquisition taking fewer sessions with manual guidance but less training time in the no complete condition.
One presentation compared acquisition of arbitrary Lego constructs using video modeling and graduated guidance in an alternating treatments design with 3 participants. All participants acquired the skill with graduated guidance and video modeling with little difference.
The third presentation investigated if independently established related repertoires would emerge as a single chain of behavior when an opportunity was provided for them to occur simultaneously. For the 5 participants, the independent repertoires did occur as a single chain when the opportunity was provided.
The last presentation extend the use of script and script fading procedures to teach initiations in a free play setting and assess whether manual guidance with systematic fading of prompts in the absence of an activity schedule will promote independent play. |
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| Acquisition of Chains Using Manual Guidance, Teacher Completion or No Completion of Untrained Steps. |
| STACIE BANCROFT (New England Center for Children), Julie S. Weiss (New England Center for Children), Myrna E. Libby (New England Center for Children), Pamela M. Olsen (New England Center for Children) |
| Abstract: An alternating treatments design was used to compare a forward chaining sequence with most-to-least prompting under 3 conditions: the teacher completed the steps beyond the training step; the teacher manually guided the participant to complete the steps beyond the training step; and the teacher did not complete the chain after the training step. Three participants diagnosed with autism participated and the dependent variable was acquisition of 3 8-step arbitrary Lego figures; each session consisted of 1 probe trial and 10 training trials. Generalization probes across novel teacher and one new setting were conducted after acquisition. The 3 procedures were effective in teaching the chains to all participants. For all participants, acquisition took fewer training sessions with manual guidance but less training time in the no complete condition. All participants generalized responding across two teachers and in a new environment. IOA was collected in at least 80% of sessions and averaged 95%. Procedural integrity data were taken in at least 80% of sessions and averaged 97%. |
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| Teaching a Play Construction Task Comparing Graduated Guidance and Video Modeling. |
| ERIN KING (New England Center for Children), Myrna E. Libby (New England Center for Children), Julie S. Weiss (New England Center for Children), Heather Reynolds (New England Center for Children), Rebecca P. F. MacDonald (New England Center for Children) |
| Abstract: Three participants diagnosed with autism were taught to put together 2 8-step arbitrary Lego figures using an alternating treatments design comparing video modeling to graduated guidance. Generalization probes across a novel teacher and a new setting were conducted after acquisition. All participants acquired both chains indicating that both procedures were effective. For one participant, video modeling was slightly more efficient; for one participant graduated guidance was slightly more efficient; for one participant there was no difference between graduated guidance and video modeling. The participants generalized across a novel teacher and a different training environment. IOA and procedural integrity were taken in 33% of session and averaged 90% or better. |
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| Generating Novel Responses by Teaching Components: Adduction with Legos. |
| JACQUELINE CONDON (New England Center for Children), William H. Ahearn (New England Center for Children), Myrna E. Libby (New England Center for Children), Julie S. Weiss (New England Center for Children) |
| Abstract: Five individuals diagnosed with autism were taught 4 separate but related 2-step chains. Participants were then given the opportunity to combine the 4 units into a longer, previously untrained chain of behaviors. All 5 participants did independently generate a novel chain of behaviors after acquiring four components. Furthermore, this skill generalized across novel materials for four participants. All sessions were videotaped and IOA exceeded 95%. |
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| Using Script Fading Procedures to Teach Preschoolers with Autism to Initiate Play in a Free Operant Setting. |
| KARA A. REAGON (Utah State University) |
| Abstract: Young children with autism often exhibit deficits in play and social initiations. The use of scripts and script fading procedures has been an effective strategy to help promote initiations with individuals with autism (Krantz & McClannahan, 1993; Krantz & McClannahan, 1998; and Sarokoff, Taylor & Poulson, 2001). Manual guidance and systematic fading of prompts have been used to teach individuals with autism to successfully complete lengthy response chains with activity schedules (MacDuff, Krantz, & McClannahan, 1993). The purpose of the present study is to extend the use of script and script fading procedures to teach initiations in a free play setting and assess whether manual guidance with systematic fading of prompts in the absence of an activity schedule will promote independent play. Three preschool children diagnosed with autism who do not initiate play will participate in this study. The use of scripts and script fading procedures with manual guidance will be examined using a concurrent multiple-baseline design across participants. Generalization across stimuli and people will be assessed. A maintenance probe will be conducted two weeks after completion of intervention. Data to be collected. |
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