3/22/03
Ray Cepeda
Current UCLA Model
What a day Saturday!! Ray Cepeda was an amazing presenter, what was great was how he'd involve us by asking "what would you do, or how would you handle" and we problem solved together, he made you think. I was VERY
surprised that the agencies who supposedly base their programs off of the Lovaas Model did take advantage and make sure they had at the very least EVERY supervisor was at this workshop.
Ray actually said "If you learned about NO NO
Prompting, forget it, we stopped that a long time ago"
That falls along the same line as the "Look at Me" drills and the "blocks of 10" that they also no longer do (as of YEARS ago!!!!). He spoke about the importance of baseline and probe data., a nd how helpful it is to know your
child’s rate of acquisition to determine what and how many programs to work on. He emphasized the importance of pairing oneself with positive reinforcement, starting every teaching session with a reinforcer assessment.
They run trials in "expanded trials" so the target response is mixed with previously mastered skills. His reasoning for the disadvantages of teaching a child in a cubical, probably one of the most restrictive environments to teach in (especially for the teacher!) An absolutely crucial point Ray made
is that generalization MUST BE PROGRAMMED FOR:
a) across settings b) across environments c) across Sd's d) across stimuli
Some "general techniques" Ray discussed for promoting generalizations are as follows (from hand out):
a. Have multiple teachers and styles
b. Vary stimuli
c. vary wording of instructions and questions
d. vary the teaching environment
e. make antecedents natural
f. making reinforcers natural
g. make trials less discrete and more similar to typical interactions
h. do "incidental" teaching (also can be referred to as natural environment
teaching NET)
i. build retention of information into your teaching procedures
And I cannot resist, I've got to include Ray's list of "Common Treatment
Mistakes Made with Early Learners" (from handout, here we go..)
1. not making learning reinforcing in general
2. over using the child's name, which may result in the child "tuning out" their name or their name becoming a substitute for "get ready"
3. Not requiring eye contact when it is appropriate (e.g. conversation or while making a request)
4. forgetting to reward the child for frequently occurring behaviors such as sitting well or coming over to the teaching table.
5. not following a prompted trial with an unprompted trial
6. not providing a prompt after two incorrect trials, thus allowing repeated failures.
7. not prompting frequently enough for newly introduced responses
8. providing a primary reinforcer for a prompted trial (I.e. not using differential reinforcement)
9. not ensuring all trial are discrete
10. not using graduated prompts.
11. not being creative with the delivery of reinforcement
12. not programming for generalization. The child should eventually learn
to respond to Sd's in the natural environment.
13. not actively gaining the child's attention through redirection and effective reinforcment techniques. or spending too much time at the
beginning of a sitting gaining the child's attention, making the child reliant upon this.
14. waiting passively for the child to attend prior to presenting sd
15. Relying on an attentional cue (e.g. "ready") before presenting and Sd.
16. Allowing the child to self correct or engage in multiple responses.
17. waiting longer than 3-5 seconds following a non-response to provide a consequence
18. prompting after a delay when the child has failed to respond, rather than ending the trial and prompting on the following trial.
19. The number of failures is disproportionate to the number of successes.
20. Allowing the child to respond with a "win-stay: lose-shift" pattern.
21. Not having clear concise criteria
22. prompting after the consequence rather than simultaneous with or immediately after the sd.
23. Prompting inadvertently (ex. by inst. looking at target)
24. not introducing new items or formats when the child has mastered all current items or formats.
25. having too many items or programs on acquisition at one time
26. not structuring the child's free play time
27. continuing a sitting too long and losing the child's attention or reducing motivation for quick accurate responding.
WHEW!!! Thank you so much for the opportunity to learn from the source! In my opinion, the only way someone can say they are based off the Lovaas model is if they have a consultant from Lovaas, something else is just that,
something else.
Thank you, now I know the truth about Lovaas (for now anyway!!)
Jennica 3/23/03
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