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Increasing the Quantity and Quality of Caregivers' Use of Social Reinforcement in a Large Residential Facility

Behavior-specific praise has been shown to increase rate of desired behaviors for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, though it is rarely used by caregivers in residential facilities for adults with disabilities. Prompting in the form of tactile stimulation has been demonstrated to increase rate of behavior-specific praise delivered by teachers and caregivers. The purpose of the current study was to increase the quantity and quality of behavior-specific praise statements that were delivered by caregivers to individuals at a large residential facility for adults with disabilities. A tactile prompting device (Gymboss Interval Timer and Stopwatch) was provided to the caregivers and set to vibrate for one second at intervals of five minutes, for a total of six intervals. Instructions were provided to the caregivers to deliver behavior-specific praise statements, for appropriate behaviors, to their assigned clients every time a vibration occurred. Examples of behavior-specific praise statements were provided to the caregivers before each session, but no feedback was delivered during the prompting phase. Results indicated that a tactile prompting device was effective at increasing rate of behavior-specific praise statements delivered by caregivers in as little as one session.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1404625
Date12 1900
CreatorsBrown, Madison McMurray
ContributorsSmith, Richard G., Toussaint, Karen A., Dracobly, Joseph D.
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatv, 30 pages, Text
RightsPublic, Brown, Madison McMurray, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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