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| Education and Autism |
| Thursday, November 29, 2001 |
| 4:00 PM–4:50 PM |
| Cloister of the Cypress Hall |
| Area: EDC |
| Chair: Claudia E. McDade (Learning Services) |
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| Going Global: Contextual Challenges to E-ABA Training in Autism Education |
| Domain: Applied Behavior Analysis |
| BETH SULZER-AZAROFF (University of Massachusetts), Charles Hamad (E.K. Shriver Center), Richard K. Fleming (Browns Group of Naples), Robert W. Bass (University of Massachusetts Medical School), Michelle Weissman (California State University, Sacramento) |
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| Abstract: Distance education promises potential learners global access to instruction. Teachers and parents of students with autism no longer need be hampered by geographical constraints as they seek access to programs designed to reach them applied behavior analytic (ABA) skills. As strongly supported by a number of research findings, parents and teachers stand to make a major difference in the lives of children with developmental challenges when equipped with these behavioral opers need to attend to broader variables associated with the distance learning context. Included might be constraints in programming high-quality practice and feedback interactions, the technical complexities of the instructional system, competing student reinforcement schedules, social variables and others. This address will illustrate those points by describing the design, implementation and interim results of a US federally sponsored "Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnership" (LAAP) program in autism. |
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| Using a BEST Sequential Method to Determine Functional Relationships: A Methodological |
| Domain: Applied Behavior Analysis |
| CA LOUNSBERY (Utah State University), Thomas L. Sharpe, Jr. (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Hosung So (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) |
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| Abstract: Sequential methods of observing and analyzing behavior hold broad appeal for establishing functional relationships among behavioral events in education and therapeutic settings. The primary measure within sequential methods lies in behavioral segments as the analytic unit in efforts to provide transactional information among the discrete characteristics of behaviors and events and thereby enhancing the functional relationships among those behaviors and events (Bakeman & Gottman, 1997). Behavioral segments are defined as multiple behaviors and events occurring in close time proximity to one another, with analysis of temporal connection increasing understanding of potentially functional relationships (Morris, 1992). One challenge to a thoroughgoing sequential analysis of complex interactive settings, however, has been a technology for collecting such information in a time and cost efficient, and accurate, manner in the direct observation of widely accepted sequential behavior analysis procedures. In this context, one computer-based discrete- and sequential-behavior analysis procedure (BEST, Sharpe & Koperwas, 2000) is next illustrated, demonstrating the relative ease of information collection and relative immediacy of analysis results. Select data are next presented from physical education teacher education settings (Lounsbery & Sharpe, 1999; Lounsbery, in progress) to demonstrate the enhanced understanding that sequential methods may provide for uncovering the functional relationships among participant behaviors and ecological events. Implications for education research, and for teacher and student behavioral assessment, are last provided in encouraging increased use of computer facilitated behavior observation and analysis in complex and highly interactive settings such as that which applied. |
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