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| The Use of Priming in Supported Inclusion of Children With Autism in General Education Classrooms |
| Monday, May 25, 2009 |
| 1:30 PM–2:50 PM |
| North 125 |
| Area: AUT/CBM; Domain: Service Delivery |
| Chair: Joel P. Hundert (Behaviour Institute) |
| CE Instructor: Helena Maguire, Master's |
| Abstract: There is little reason to expect that placement of children with autism in general education classrooms will automatically result in their improved academic performance or social behaviors. Without specific interventions, children with autism in general education classrooms have difficulty learning the class curriculum, attending to teacher instruction, following classroom routines independently, or interacting positively with peers. Unfortunately, there is much more known about how to design and deliver interventions for children with autism in special than general education settings. Interventions to support children with autism in general education classrooms need to be both effective in bringing about improvement of children with autism, but also practical to conduct in a general education setting. One intervention that holds promise is priming, which consists of pre-exposing a child with autism to a problem situation (e.g., following classroom routines, completing seat work assignments) in one setting (e.g., resource room at school, home) that improves the child’s performance in a target setting (e.g., general education classroom). This symposium will explore the use of priming as an intervention to support children with autism in general education classrooms. |
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| The Effect of Priming Conducted At Home on Classroom Routine-Following of Children With Autism |
| JOEL P. HUNDERT (Behaviour Institute), Miranda Sim (Behaviour Institute) |
| Abstract: Priming consists of exposing an individual to a problem situation before the situation occurs that improves how the individual performs in a target setting without addition interventions being introduced in that setting. Priming holds promises as an effective intervention to support children with autism in general education classrooms because the intervention is implemented in a setting other than the general education classroom. This paper will present the results of a study in which priming was introduced at home to improve the routine-following behavior of two five-year old boys with autism attending a general education classroom. Two types of priming sessions were conducted. One priming session consisted of each boy being taught to raise his hand and answering questions to a video of the classroom teacher teaching a “calendar time” lesson. The second priming session consisted of each boy practicing giving a social greeting (e.g., “hi”) to a video of a peer initiating a greeting. Effects on participants’ behaviors in the classroom was assessed by a multiple-baseline design across participants. Priming produced a increase in the target behaviors of participants in the classroom without addition interventions being introduced at school. |
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| Limitations In The Use of Embedded Instruction for Supported Inclusion of Children With Autism |
| DONNA C. CHANEY (Behaviour Institute), Joel P. Hundert (Behaviour Institute) |
| Abstract: Embedded instruction consists of embedding teaching trials into the regular routine of a general education classroom and has been shown to be effective in teaching IEP objectives to children with autism in general education classrooms. However, in the studies that have been conducted, children with autism typically have received only between 15 and 30 embedded instruction trials in a school day. It has not been demonstrated that it is possible to embed a sufficiently high number of trials into the routines of a general education classroom to address the significant deficits of a child with autism, nor that increasing the number of embedded instruction trials delivered in a school day will increase the performance of children with autism. This paper will present the results of a study comparing the number of embedded instruction trials delivered to a 12-year old boy with autism by: a) a paraprofessional in a resource room; b) a special education teacher in a resource room; and, c) a general education teacher in a general education classroom. |
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| The Use of Video Priming With Social Script Training To Increase the Peer Interaction of Children With Autism |
| JANE LEE (Behaviour Institute), Joel P. Hundert (Behaviour Institute), Erin Harrison (McMaster University) |
| Abstract: Social script training has been used to increase the peer interaction of children with autism with their peers in general education settings. Social skills training consists of introducing a structured play interaction sequence that is of interest and within the abilities of a child with autism and his or her peers. Typically, two adults are needed to teach script-following, one for the child with autism and the other for the play partner. Video priming (a video of a social script taken from the perspective of the child with autism) may be a more efficient strategy than adult prompting and praising to teach script-following and increase the interactive play of children with autism. This paper will present the results of a study in which video priming was used to introduce social script training for two children with autism attending general education classrooms. Using a multiple-baseline design effects were evaluated on the interactive play of children with autism both during target play sessions in which the video priming and social skill training were introduced, and during generalization play sessions in which these interventions were not introduced. |
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| The Effect Of Selected Parameters On The Effect Of Priming For Children With Autism In a Classroom Setting |
| NICOLE WALTON-ALLEN (Behaviour Institute), Joel P. Hundert (Behaviour Institute), Brooke MacKinnon (McMaster University), Faria Sana (McMaster University), Naomi Wheeler (Behaviour Institute) |
| Abstract: Priming is typically conducted in one settings such as a child’s home or in a resource room at school and its effects are measured at a later time when the child uses the primed performance to handle a problem situation (e.g., following classroom routines) in another setting (e.g., in a general education classroom). It is unclear whether the length of the interval between the delivery of priming and its application by a child will influence the effect of priming. Similarly, it is unknown if the effects of priming would be enhanced by conducting priming in a setting similar to that in which the priming would be used. This paper will present the results of two studies in which a parameter of priming was varied and the resultant effects on the performance of a child with autism in a general education classroom evaluated. One study compared the effects of a 30-minute to a 3-hour delay between priming and its implementation in a classroom for two children with autism. A second study compared the effects of priming conducted in a 1:1 setting to priming conducted in the same classroom setting on the routine-following performance of two children with autism. |
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