Date: February 27th 2004
Dr. Bridget Taylor BCBA
Topic: Improving the social behavior of children with autism: A focus on
Acquisition and Motivation
Hey everyone! Wow! Great,
great conference. My notes and notes directly from the handout aren't going to
do justice. You really had to be there.
Dr.
Taylor kept us engaged and wanting more (motivating enough for Deb to sustain
electric shock when pushing the shutter button for video examplers~ how did
you do that and not even flinch?? I heard it EVERY time :0)
Dr.
Taylor is the kind of presenter that makes you really want to know your stuff
and you really get into it! It's so complicated, yet simple, it makes so much
sense! But understanding and implementing are such different skills!...anyway,
Ok, where to begin?? Teaching social skills is so
challenging for our kids, what is social
behavior? .... a set of internal rules.
Dr. Taylor went over procedures to increase motivation ( to address
motivation as a concept) Our children will more often then not "take the
elevator instead of the stairs" even after being taught relevant social
skills. And for that % of children who totally lack motivation, there are
variables to consider and strategies to help. Dr. Taylor also pointed out that
we need to "expand our notion of independence and motivation". Some
of our kids will never have internal motivation so we must use extrinsic
rewards to do it.
Acquisition:
There are many topographies of initiation (remeber, the child is
initiating!) to teach:
*Requests/Mands (like for primary needs and to get
information~programming tip~make sure the response is occuring without a
prompt)
*Declaratives ("I went to the movies last
night")
*Directives ("pick up the ball"~
programming tip~teach them to direct us!)
*offers/shares ("here this is for
you"; teach "can I help you")
*Greetings ("Good Morning"
programming tip~ use two people, one prompt from behind to make child initiate
greeting first, prompt and get out :o)
*Compliments ("I like your hat")
*Suggestions ("let's play ball")
*Shows
off ("look at
me!")
*Comments ("look at the big tiger")
To teach
these topographies and enhance social skills, Dr. Taylor showed us video
examples utilizing these research based procedures:
*Time
Delay Procedure~Tip-Be
careful NOT to chain in errors when doing time delay
a.
Present prompt immediately upon presentation of the stimulus
b.
Systematically delay presentation of the prompt by several seconds across
trials
c. Assess
if student performs the repsonse before the presentation of the prompt
*Incidental
Teaching~Tip- always keep two steps ahead; child initiates; sabatoge
contrives situations of incidental teaching!
a.
Enticing items in view but out of reach/inaccessible
b.
Student initiates onset of the learning trial
c. Prompt
for an elaboration
d.
Provide access to desired item contingent upon elaboration
*Video
Modeling~Tip- in
order to benefit, they need imitation skills
a.
Student observes social interactions on videotape
b.
Student is provided with the same material or verbal stimuli viewed on the tape
c. Probes
are conducted without the tape to assess acquisition
*Audio-taped
Prompts
a.
Prompts recorded on Language Master Cards or audio taped
b.
Student listens to prompt and imitates the prompt
c.
Audio-taped prompts faded
d.
Conduct probes without prompts
*Textual
Scripts and Script fading procedures~Tip- use scripts about things that motivate the child
a.
Content of verbal info is written or typed
b.
Student read textual prompt
c.
Written prompt is faded back to front
*Self-monitoring
(utilizing token economies, scheduled initiations and activity schedules)~Tip-
Incorporate choice, let the child choose what to play with, who to play with,
what to talk about, whom to talk to; around what motivates the child. Use self monitoring "checklist" to
help child check their appearance. Social competence is important.
a. Prompt
for social interaction is placed in students daily schedule
b.
Student reads the textual prompt
c.Student
is prompted to approach the person and engage the initiation
*Use
Errorless Teaching~
Errors
impede acquisition, that's why errorless teaching is succesful; prompt and fade
prompts quickly
The
variability in our childrens ability accross the spectrum requires we
individualize the ways we teach. It should not be the same for every child and
some strategies may work for some and not others. Think outside of the box.
Identify ways for the kids to communicate even if they don't have well
developed speech (include options like a dinovox for social interaction-you
should have seen how happy this one nonverbal child she showed a video example
of was during a social interaction with a peer!)
Motivation:
Most
responses are more likely when they are followed by reinforcers.How do you
influence responding? The quality of the reinforcer is key.
Always keep
the balance of Rate (Frequency can effect the response allocation), Quality
(what it is), magnitude (how big?), Effort (reinforcer can loose
its value depending on how difficult or easy it is to obtain) and Immediacy
(how soon) in check. Our children (and
all of us!) are always faced with concurrent operants (choices that are
concurrently available~ do I play with friends (effortful) vs. Play by myself
(least effortful). With errorless teaching and better quality reinforcers, we
can bias responding toward adults and peers (ex. Play with friends with more
preferred toys vs. Play alone with less preferred toys). Don't let the child have accessibility to
everything all the time. Capture and contrive EO's (establishing operations=
states of deprivation and satiation). Make responding less effortful by
teaching skills to fluency and make responses relevant to the learners
environment. This will help increase fluent responding and generalization. All the strategies Dr. Taylor showed us
take a
lot of skill to implement. You really
have to know what you are doing and be particularly skilled in fading prompts
asap, but don't thin the schedule of reinforcement too soon!
Can you
believe all of this was discussed just in the morning?? We really got two
conferences in one! The second half was on the prevention and treatment of problem behavior. Bottom
line~ Most behaviors serve a function (for more detail on functions of
behavior, refer to my past notes on Dr. Brian Iwata)
Here are some strategies of what parents and
teachers can do...
1.
arrange a "life stye" that reduces the likelihood that problem
behaivor will emerge. 2. Gain understanding of behavior analytic principles.
3.Identify and alter conditions that may occasion problem behavior 4. deliver
consequences that prevent the development fo a response reinforcer
relationship.
Things to
take into consideration when developing interventions include: prioritize,
match treatment to function, research supporting treatment, parent/teacher
acceptance, pick interventions that are likely to be implemented, consider the
likelihood of generalization. Dr. Taylor also showed video of successful
interventions utilizing token economies= time based interventions, contracts,
self monitoring, and activity schedules to help reduce problem behavior.
The notes
provided here from the handout are intended to help give some insight and
ideas, but definately go to the source on this information. Dr. Taylor
continuously sited studies and resources on all of this information and the
video examples (most from Alpine) showed some excellent skilled teaching. It
gave me a whole new perspective on using scripting and token economies. Thank
you to the families for sharing your children and what they have achieved with
us! If you ever get the opportunity to see Dr. Taylor, it is well worth it! She
also gave us information in our hand out about the Association for Science in
Autism Treatment (ASAT). Visit www.asatonline.org.
take
care,
Jennica
