No description available.

The iPad with the Proloquo2Go application has taken the world of autism by storm, and given individuals that do not have a voice, a voice. This study looks at the effectiveness of the iPad with the Proloquo2Go application to enhance the manding repertoire for children with autism. Participants included three children (2 girls and 1 boy) diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, or exhibiting characteristics of an autism spectrum disorder, between the ages of 3 and 5. A multiple probe design across participants was used to assess the effectiveness of the iPad. Methods included completing The Reinforcer Assessment for Individuals with Severe Disabilities (RAISD) with the parents and/or teachers of each participant and running a six stimuli preference assessment before implementing each Phase. Pretest probes were conducted before implementing Phases 1 through 4. These phases were comparable to Phases 1 through 4 of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) (Bondy & Frost, 1994). Results of this study support that children with autism can acquire the skills needed to mand using the iPad with the Proloquo2Go application with training comparable to that of the Picture Exchange Communication System (Bondy & Frost, 1994). In addition, vocal requesting increased for the participants during the training phases in comparison to pretest probes.

The use of a concurrently running differential reinforcement of alternative behavior intervention was used to manipulate manding behavior in a small sample of young adults with autism. Three young adults with autism aged 17-21, two males and one female, who had severely limited verbal language and communication devices participated in this study. Differential reinforcement was used to alter the mand topography chosen by each participant during manding sessions. Results indicate that by altering the quantity of highly preferred items individuals with autism can demonstrate flexibility in the topography of their language and respond with the mode of communication that is programmed for more reinforcement without the use of punishment or extinction. This research expands on the functional communication training (FCT) literature and the use of differential reinforcement in the use of mand training and also replicates previous research suggesting that punishment and extinction may not be necessary to reduce less preferred behavior.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:17:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mariana Chernicharo Guimaraes.pdf: 958742 bytes, checksum: a76380f7c23f492d42bd175d29cbf614 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-12-03 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The present study investigated if it was possible to a) teach manding topographies of asking through the procedure of fading out the verbal model; b) verify if generalization of the mands installed occurs to objects which were not directly taught; and c) verify if a progressive reinforcement schedule LAG (Lag 1, Lag 2 and Lag 3), in which the participant must emit n different responses from previous ones to produce reinforcement, produces varied responses. In a multiple baseline design, five manding topographies of asking were taught to one participant and four topographies to another. The teaching procedure of these mands consisted in the presentation of the objects, the objects were previously selected by a preference assessment, to the participant and first install ecoic asking responses, such as can I get I want give it to me can I borrow and can I play . Next, the experimenter faded out the verbal model until the response was emitted under control of the object presentation in the absence of the verbal model. During the teaching sessions some generalizations tests were conducted, in which new objects were presented and the participants should emit mands with these new objects. After the teaching sessions the procedure to produce varied manding responses started, with the Lag 1, Lag 2 and Lag 3 reinforcement schedule. The results indicate that it was possible to teach the asking topographies to both participants, the number of responses emitted in the absence of a verbal model increased during procedure, the ecoic responses decreased and other fading levels were used throughout the teaching procedure. Beside that, variability was produced by the reinforcement schedule Lag 1, Lag 2 and Lag 3, one participant when the Lag increases the number of topographies emitted increases also and the other participant there is a bigger diversity of topographies which biggest distribution of responses in the biggest LAG S value. Some new (not taught responses) and recombined (partially taught responses) responses occurred and those increased with the amplified Lag. The generalization of taught topographies occurred to new objects presented to participants / No presente estudo investigou-se se é possível, a) ensinar topografias de mando de solicitação por meio de um procedimento de fading do modelo verbal; b) verificar se ocorre generalização dos mandos instalados para objetos que não foram utilizados no ensino direto das topografias de mando, e c) verificar se um esquema de reforçamento progressivo LAG (Lag 1, Lag 2 e Lag 3), em que exige-se que o participante emita respostas diferentes das n anteriores para produzir o reforçamento, produz respostas variadas. Utilizando um delineamento de linha de base múltipla, foram ensinadas cinco topografias de mando de solicitação para um participante e quatro topografias para outro. O procedimento de ensino desses mandos consistiu em apresentar objetos, selecionados em testes de preferência, para o participante e inicialmente instalar respostas ecóicas de solicitação tais como Posso pegar... , Quero... , Dá pra mim... , Me empresta... e Posso brincar... . A seguir, o fading out do modelo ecóico apresentado pelo experimentador foi conduzido até que a resposta de solicitação fosse emitida sob controle do objeto apresentado na ausência do modelo verbal. Durante as sessões de ensino foram feitos alguns teses de generalização, em que novos objetos eram apresentados e os participantes deveriam emitir mandos com esses novos objetos. Após as sessões de ensino, começou o procedimento para gerar respostas variadas de mando que haviam sido instaladas nas sessões de ensino, utilizando do esquema de reforçamento Lag 1, Lag 2 e Lag 3. O resultado indica que foi possível o ensino das topografias de mando de solicitação para ambos os participantes, as respostas sem modelo ocorreram cada vez mais durante o procedimento, a utilização do nível ecóico foi diminuindo e outros níveis de fading foram usados ao longo do ensino, além disso, houve produção de variabilidade pelo esquema de reforçamento Lag 1, Lag 2 e Lag 3, para um dos participantes quando aumenta o Lag, aumenta o número de topografias emitidas e para o outro há uma maior diversidade de topografias com uma maior distribuição de respostas no maior valor de LAG. Ocorrem respostas novas (respostas que não foram ensinadas) e recombinadas (respostas que tinham partes de topografias que haviam sido ensinadas), que aumentam com o aumento do Lag. E que ocorreu a generalização das topografias ensinadas, para os novos objetos que foram apresentados

Evidence-based practice in ABA is a complex decision-making process involving frequent adjustments in goals and procedures as informed by science, client need, and clinical wisdom. Consistent with the science's foundations, incredible gains are possible for children with autism when practitioners are systematically trained to understand, produce, and be responsive to shifting conditions for change. However, minimal standards for training promote inflexibility and rule following, at the expense of frequent and responsive adjustments. Although research has demonstrated that well-trained staff can effectively implement flexible procedures using in-the-moment assessment and clinical judgment, minimal research has targeted and evaluated the development of these repertoires. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a staff training package, including an in-service training and in vivo training sessions, on staffs' ability to make responsive, goal-directed, and rationale-based decisions directed towards accelerating progress with vocal manding for children with autism. The evaluation was the second part of the larger Change AGENT Project. Results suggested the training was effective at producing socially validated progress across staff and child measures. In essence, the trainer, staff, and child acted as change agents for one another's behavior within the flexible paradigm. Implications, limitations, and future directions are further discussed.

When autism interventionists within behavioral intervention programs continually assess the child's behavior and context and adjust their teaching behaviors accordingly, the child can quickly progress towards their goals. While evaluations of flexible behavior-change techniques implemented by experienced clinicians are present in the literature, systematic evaluations of staff training procedures to train interventionists in responsive decision making are lacking. In the current study, flexible training procedures were utilized to not only teach direct-line staff to make decisions based on the learner's behavior, but also to understand and articulate the variables they were responding to. During in vivo training sessions, trainers tailored their use of instructions, modeling, practice, feedback, narration modeling and shaping, and decision-making guidance to the dynamic needs of the staff and child. The effects of the treatment package, which consisted of an in-service training and in vivo training sessions, were measured by observing staff teach vocal manding, which was chosen based on the importance of the skill for the child and because it afforded many opportunities for the staff to learn to make decisions about how to occasion and shape responses. The three children with autism who participated in the study made progress in terms of increasing their frequency of independent mands and producing more topographically complex responses. The three staff also improved in their narration of the child's behavioral goals, the decisions they made to reach those goals, and their rationales, which may have served as a mediator in their ability to respond to the child's behavior across varied conditions.

The rising rate of the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has resulted in challenges for teachers in public schools, concerning the delivery of evidence-based practices for superior outcomes. Thus, school districts are in need of professional learning options that can be efficiently and effectively delivered to improve the procedural fidelity of interventions. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of using telepractice to teach autism teachers how to contrive motivating operations to teach manding to students with ASD. By utilizing multiple baselines across participants design, four autism teachers in public schools received intervention support through an online module along with video models as well as direct performance feedback from autism specialists via video-conferencing. The primary dependent variable was the percentage of correct responses from the instructional procedures of task analysis, and the secondary measure was the subsequent rate of student mands. Data were analyzed both visually (i.e., through the study of behavioral patterns) and statistically (i.e., analysis of effect size). Results indicate that telepractice increased accuracy of both teacher and student target responses.