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| An Analysis of Teaching and Prompting Strategies in Teaching Children with Autism Play and Vocational Skills |
| Sunday, May 25, 2008 |
| 4:00 PM–5:20 PM |
| Marquette |
| Area: AUT/EDC; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Myrna E. Libby (The New England Center for Children) |
| CE Instructor: Julie S. Weiss, M.S. |
| 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 the use of backward and forward chaining on the acquisition of a play construction model using most-to-least prompting with a fixed delay. The effectiveness of the two chaining strategies was evaluated with an alternating treatments design. The efficiency and effectiveness of the chaining procedures varied across learners. One presentation evaluated the effects of procedural integrity on the acquisition of play skills by varying prompting errors. The rate and type of errors was functionally related to delays in skill acquisition. The third presentation investigated if independently established related repertoires would emerge as a sequential chain of vocational behaviors when an opportunity was provided for them to occur simultaneously. For the participants, the independent repertoires did occur in sequence as a complete chain when the opportunity was provided. The last presentation evaluated the effects of three levels of treatment integrity (100%, 50%, and 10%) of a physical guidance prompting procedure for appropriate play with a preschool age child diagnosed with autism. Results indicate that prompting at 100% integrity was necessary to improve responding beyond baseline levels. |
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| A Comparison of Backward and Forward Chaining in the Acquisition of Solitary Play Skills. |
| JULIE S. WEISS (The New England Center for Children), Myrna E. Libby (The New England Center for Children), William H. Ahearn (The New England Center for Children), Emily P. Bennett (The New England Center for Children), Pamela M. Olsen (The New England Center for Children) |
| Abstract: An alternating treatments design was used to compare a forward chaining sequence and a backward chaining sequence using most-to-least with a constant delay prompting procedure. Three participants diagnosed with autism participated and the dependent variable was number of trials to acquisition of two 8-step play construction figures; each session consisted of one probe trial and 10 training trials. Generalization probes across a novel teacher and one new setting were conducted after acquisition. For all participants, both training procedures were effective. Efficiency varied across participants but was consistent across replications with similar play constructs. All participants generalized responding across a new teacher and in a new environment. IOA data were collected in at least 40% of sessions and averaged 95%. Procedural integrity data were taken in at least 40% of sessions and averaged 95%. |
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| Generating Novel Vocational Skill Sequences of Responding by Teaching Components: Adduction. |
| SARA ELLIOT (The New England Center for Children), Myrna E. Libby (The New England Center for Children), Julie S. Weiss (The New England Center for Children), William H. Ahearn (The New England Center for Children) |
| Abstract: Five individuals diagnosed with autism were taught two separate but related vocational behavior chains. Participants were then given the opportunity to combine the two units into a longer, previously untrained sequential chain of behaviors. All five participants did independently generate a novel chain of behaviors after acquiring four components. Furthermore, this skill generalized across novel materials. All sessions were videotaped and IOA and procedural integrity exceeded 95%. |
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| Analysis of Prompting Errors that Result in Delayed Acquisition of Play Skill Chains in Children with Autism. |
| GREGORY PAQUETTE (The New England Center for Children), Julie S. Weiss (The New England Center for Children), Myrna E. Libby (The New England Center for Children), William H. Ahearn (The New England Center for Children) |
| Abstract: This study compared the effects of different types and rate of prompting errors on the acquisition of individual play skills in children with autism. Three participants learned to put together three 12-step play figures in a forward chaining sequence with most-to-least prompting. An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of three prompting error conditions: no programmed errors, prompting the wrong response on 50% of the training steps and prompting a correct response out of sequence on 50% of training steps. After acquisition, generalization probes were implemented with a novel teacher and in a different environment. All sessions were videotaped. IOA and procedural integrity data were collected during 40% of sessions and averaged over 90%. All participants achieved independence in building the figures in the no programmed errors condition. The degree of interference with acquisition resulting from the error conditions varied across participants but errors did seriously impact acquisition. All participants generalized performance across teachers and environments for all play skills. |
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| Effects of Varying Levels of Treatment Integrity on Appropriate Toy Manipulation in Children with Autism. |
| NICOLE C. GROSKREUTZ (Utah State University), Mark P. Groskreutz (Utah State University), Thomas S. Higbee (Utah State University) |
| Abstract: The effects of three levels of treatment integrity (100%, 50%, and 10%) of a physical guidance prompting procedure for appropriate play were evaluated. Participants were preschool-aged children with autism. A competing items assessment was used to identify toys with high levels of inappropriate play. Baseline data were collected across the three toys with the highest levels of inappropriate play; no prompting was provided for appropriate toy manipulation. The prompting procedure was then implemented at 10, 50, or 100 percent integrity for a given toy, followed by implementation at 100% integrity across all toys. Results indicate that prompting at 100% integrity was necessary to improve responding beyond baseline levels. Implications for designing interventions in applied settings are discussed. |
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