ABA and Autism Level II Training PPCD, AVLS, FLS Carin Renee Thompson M.Ed., BCBA 3/23/10

4 Functions of Behavior Socially Mediated Positive Reinforcement (+) – Trying to get it –People Around Socially Mediated Negative Reinforcement(-) – Trying to get away – People Around Automatic Positive Reinforcement(+) – Trying to get it – Alone Automatic Negative Reinforcement(-) – Trying to get away-Alone

What Function? Movements or activities of your body when alone that produce a feeling that makes the behavior that produced it more likely to occur. Self-stimulatory sensations produced by behavior

What Function? The withdrawal of something (such as an unpreferred demand) after a behavior that makes the behavior more likely to occur. What is the reinforcer? Escape or removal of unpreferred demands Avoidance or at least postponement of unpreferred demands

What Function? Something that is delivered by another person after behavior that makes the behavior more likely to occur. What is the reinforcer? Gaining: Attention Access to Preferred Activities Access to Preferred Tangible Items

Function? Video Examples

What Procedure?

Verbal Behavior All of the actions of a person that are mediated (reinforced) by a response from a listener who is specially trained to respond to that person’s behavior (Skinner 1957) Can be vocal, sign, giving a picture, gestures.

Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning Reinforcement Punishment Extinction Response Language/ Behavior Stimulus Control Motivating Operation MO/EO

Operant Condition Example – Verbal Behavior Motivating Response/ Consequence Operation/MO Behavior Thirsty Person asks Given drink, for drink thirst quenched

Operant Condition Example – Verbal Behavior Stimulus Control Response/ Consequence Behavior Red Light & asked Person says stop Social What do you do reinforcement at a Red Light?

Elementary Verbal Operants Mand – asking for what you want; Saying cookie because you want cookie (request) Tact – Naming or identifying objects, actions or events; Saying cookie because you see a cookie (Label)

Elementary Verbal Operants Intraverbal –Answering questions in which words are controlled by other words; Saying cookie because someone says “What is your favorite dessert?” (conversation) Echoic– Repeating what is heard; Saying cookie because someone else says cookie (vocal imitation) Listener Response – Following the directions by another person; Touching a picture of a cat when told to do so (Receptive Language)

Controlling Variables Antecedent Verbal Behavior Controlling Reinforcement Motivating Operation/Mo Mand MO met/abated Stimulus Condition must have nonverbal stimulus Tact Social Reinforcement/Joint Attention Stimulus Condition – Verbal stimulus only Intraverbal Social Reinforcement/Joint Attention Stimulus Condition – Verbal Stimulus Only Echoic Social Reinforcement Stimulus Condition – must have verbal may have nonverbal as well (not a primary operant) Listener Response

Teach All Meanings Tact Echoic Listener Response/ Receptive Intraverbal Mand Cookie

Mand/Request Form of the response is controlled by motivation (needs and wants). Is a response that is typically followed by a specific type of consequence. Responses commonly called demands, commands, and reprimands, usually fits the definition of a mand and the classification is derived form those terms

Mand Example Antecedent Behavior Consequence Students sees water bottle or is thirsty Student asks for Water (using sign, vocal, picture etc.) Teacher delivers water to student

The Mand Manding is the first repertoire learned by all children. Crying functions for babies to gain access to desired items (i.e. food, clean diaper). As children develop, their environment teaches them that vocalizations are more efficient. Manding is the only verbal behavior that immediately benefits the “speaker.” “I get exactly what I want.” Other repertoires receive secondary reinforcement (i.e. social).

The Mand It is unlikely that you will be able to develop a verbal behavior repertoire in an early learner by just requiring the child to label items or talk about things. By teaching a mand repertoire you may replace many problem behaviors.

The Mand It is imperative that you begin teaching the child to ask for his or her strongest reinforcers. In addition, teach mands at times when the motivation is the greatest for the item or activity.

The Mand Manding is verbal behavior that is initiated by the child. Other repertoires are responses to another’s verbal behavior. Manding teaches a child that verbal behavior is valuable. “My life is better when I communicate; I get things that I want.” Other repertoires teach what to say once the learner “wants to talk.” Development of a strong manding repertoire may be essential for the development of all other types of verbal behavior.

Rules For Teaching Manding Teaching must occur in the natural, everyday environment where motivation is strong (NET). Make sure the child has a motivation for an item before prompting a mand.

Rules For Teaching Manding Prompt mands initially to teach the child that it’s easy to get things with verbal behavior, so as to not turn the child off to communicating. Get the best quality response with the least amount of prompting.

Rules For Teaching Manding Practice teaching mands so that you are skilled in how and when to reinforce, what approximations to accept, what level of prompt to provide and how to fade (back off) prompts quickly. Consistency in methods across trainers is essential, as well as contriving lots of opportunities for generalization.

Rules For Teaching Manding Capture and contrive as many opportunities as possible per day to teach mands. Be a “giver” and not a “taker.” Avoid “killing” MOs - to prevent this give some items for “free” or require less response effort at times.

Rules For Teaching Manding Capture and contrive as many opportunities as possible per day to teach mands. Be a “giver” and not a “taker.” Avoid “killing” MOs - to prevent this give some items for “free” or require less response effort at times.

Vocal Manding Learner signals motivation for item Instructor teaches the vocal mand: Model the name of the item 3-5 times as you deliver it. (Automatic Reinforcement) Teach the learner “I talk, I get”. If the learner imitates the word at any time during the trials –differentially reinforce

Vocal Manding cont. When the learner can echo the initial trial with acceptable articulation fade the echoic prompt. Fade the item to its typical location in the natural environment when feasible

Vocal Example

Practice Session Practice Vocal Manding with Partner

Scrolling Refers to the error process in which a learner cycles through all responses which have led to reinforcement under similar conditions. The learner will produce a series of vocal words.

Scrolling Error Correction Procedure -Vocal Turn away, wait 2-3 seconds Represent the item Prompt Immediately Fade prompts on subsequent trials if possible

Video Oscar/Carlos Up Down

Manding with Sign Learner Signals Motivation Model Sign – Prompt Sign – Deliver Say the item name 3-5xs during procedure/before delivery. For some learners (low attending or poor motor imitation) may need to skip model and go directly to prompt.

Video Example

Practice Manding with Sign with Partner

Scrolling Error Correction Procedure -Sign Bring hands to a neutral position Represent the item Prompt Immediately Fade prompts on subsequent trials if possible

Video Scrolling

Practice Manding with Sign/scrolling with Partner

Video Scrolling, Time Delay, Fade Item

Increase number of mand per day List Opportunities Chain Mands together Transitive EO/MO Plan Go to manual to see examples of transitive eo/mo

Video Hannah Swing

Mean Length Utterance The Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) has been used as a measure of the sophistication of language development of young children since the 1920’s.(Brown, 1973) It has been thought to be an important index of grammatical development up to the ages of five or six. At first Mean Length of Utterance (MLUw) was calculated by computing an average of the number of words per utterance within a sample of about 100 utterances. (Parker & Brorson, 2005) The index was later changed to measure the production of morphemes not merely words (MLUm).

She wanted the red grapes MLUm Brown (1973) in his seminal work A First Language: The Early Stages, suggested that instead of using average number words, syllables or age for that matter, to index language development it would be more useful to measure the Mean Length of Utterance in terms of morphemes (MLUm). Morphemes are the smallest unit of language that conveys meaning. They can be both bound and unbound. For example in the sentence: She wanted the red grapes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 There are 7 morphemes in this sentence. There are 5unbound morphemes corresponding to each word and 2 bound morphemes that are shown in blue and underlined. Note that the bound morphemes can not be said alone and still convey meaning to a listener.

MLUm cont. She wanted the red grapes This sentence contains complex language and meaning, including conveying past tense and more then one grape to the listener Brown concluded that MLUm is “an excellent simple index of grammatical development because every new kind of knowledge increases length…” (1973, p.53)

MLUm cont. Brown used this index for measuring language development for children up to age 5 or 6. Past this, MLUm loses its value in measuring knowledge and complexity. Context and type of interaction used then to determine the complexity.

Brown’s Research Brown’s (1973) research culminated in the development of a five (5) stage framework to understand typical language development according to the rules of grammar related to syntax and morphology. Each stage is referenced to MLUm as the index of the progression of language complexity through morpheme combining. Brown identified 14 different obligatory grammatical morphemes that he used as markers of the progression of language complexity across his stages 2-5. Some examples are “in” as a preposition, plurals, past tense, possessives, contractions, articles, etc.

Brown’s Stages of Language Development Stage 1: 15-30 Months MLU 1.75 (Two Word Stage after 50-60 single word utterances) Examples: birdie go; daddy car; give ball; water hot Stage 2: 28-36 Months MLU 2.25 Examples: Bound and unbound Morphemes- falling (“ing” endings on words); in box; birdie on head; cars (regular plurals) Stage 3: 36-42 Months MLU 2.75 Examples: mommy’s hat (s possessive); Is she coming? (verb to be); not a ball (negation) Stage 4: 40-46 Months MLU 3.50 Examples: the book (articles); she jumped (regular past tense) Stage 5: 42-53 Months MLU 4.00 Examples: he does (third person irregular); They’re here (contractions)

Brown’s Stage 1 15-30 months Brown’s Stage 1 – shows that children’s words are mostly objects, actions, and people in the environment. They are content words usually in the order : Agent -Action: Mommy Go Agent -Object: Blue Ball

Brown’s Stages cont. So it is not until stage 2( 2 ½ - 3 years) before a child begins to add function/grammatical meanings to their speech. Children do not start to use articles, conjunctions, past tense, and pluralities until at least age 3.

Programming for Our Kids Using Brown’s research on Language development in conjunction with Verbal Behavior Analysis research, they provide a guide for our instructional decisions to teach student’s language that is appropriate to their current level of functioning, not current age.

Remember Verbal Behavior is behavior that is reinforced through the actions of another person (Skinner, 1957) Some behaviors act on the physical world; verbal behavior acts on the social world. Stopping at a stop light versus naming the stop light or Getting a drink versus asking for the drink

Skinner Analysis of VB Skinner’s analysis provides an explanatory guide for the development of language through Brown’s 5 stages using the primary operants Vocal behavior is movements of the vocal musculature that produce acoustic stimuli that affect a listener in a special way so as to produce reinforcement for the speaker. Just the same as signing is movements of skeletal musculature that produces visual stimuli that affect a listener in a special way to produce reinforcement for the speaker Remember Vocal does not equal Verbal

Effective Teaching Procedures Pair with Reinforcement Errorless Teaching Variable Ratio Mix and Vary Intersperse Easy and Hard Short ITI Fluency Most to Least Prompts

Teaching Procedures 1. Pair Teaching Environments With Reinforcement and Use Competing Reinforcers

Teaching Procedures: Pairing Initially, correlate the teaching environment with highly valuable and high-density reinforcement relative to the conditions that have typically been interrupted at the start of teaching sessions

Teaching Procedures With some learners it will not be possible to reduce the problem behavior and teach quick and correct responding without removing the reinforcement for the problem behavior that sometimes occurs.

Teaching Procedures 3. Reduce Learner Errors

Teaching Procedures: Reduce Errors Reduce student errors through teaching methods that insure high levels of correct responding. These procedures will lower the value of escape-established reinforcement and will insure that instructional demands are correlated with an improving of conditions relative to a worsening of conditions that results from frequent errors.

Practical Applications of Reduced Errors Use time delay prompt procedures where prompts are antecedent to responding and therefore are not consequences for incorrect responses. The time-delay extends from “0” second delays to short duration of 2-3 seconds to avoid errors and “a disparity in reinforcement density inherent in delayed prompting (longer intervals).” This procedure establishes a higher density of reinforcement for quick and correct responding that avoids the prompt and a shorter delay in reinforcement relative to other procedures.

4. Intersperse Easy And Difficult Demands Teaching Procedures 4. Intersperse Easy And Difficult Demands

Teaching Procedures Interspersing “easy” tasks which result in correct responding and therefore are correlated with a higher density of reinforcement with relatively more “difficult” tasks will reduce problem behavior by reducing the value of escape as a reinforcer.

5. Pace Instruction Properly Teaching Procedures 5. Pace Instruction Properly

Practical Applications of Pacing Instruction Properly Inter-trial intervals of about two seconds or less seem to produce maximal benefit with children with autism. Begin teaching with low frequency demands so as to not evoke the problem behavior, present easy demands so that errors are reduced and correct responding frequently contacts reinforcement on a dense VR schedule. Gradually increase the response-reinforcer ratio similar to a backward chain type of method.

6. Mix and Vary Instructional Demands Teaching Procedures 6. Mix and Vary Instructional Demands

Teaching Procedures: Mix and Vary Presenting instructional demands in which the stimuli and response requirements vary from trial to trial appear to reduce the value of escape as a reinforcer compared to massed trialing and constant task presentation.

Teaching Procedures 7. Teach To Fluency

Teaching Procedures Teaching skills to fluency as opposed to just correct decreases the value of escape as a reinforcer relative to other reinforcers available for non-fluent responding. It appears that students who learn to respond quickly and accurately and not just accurately tend to exhibit greater endurance for longer duration sessions without problem behavior.

8. Fade In Number of Demands Teaching Procedures 8. Fade In Number of Demands

Teaching Procedures Present low frequency demands at first and fade in greater and greater response ration requirements. Deliver extinction for problem behavior that occurs when the EO was not manipulated precisely so as to “abolish” problem behavior.

Practical Applications of Fading in Number of Demands Initially present instructional demands at a frequency which does not raise the value of escape and therefore correct responses to the teacher delivered instruction contacts positive reinforcement frequently.

9. Fade In Effort/Difficulty Of Tasks Teaching Procedures 9. Fade In Effort/Difficulty Of Tasks

Teaching Procedures Insuring that the response being taught is the most efficient will reduce the shift in the value of reinforcement toward escape and evoke problem behavior.

10. Immediately Deliver Reinforcement Teaching Procedures 10. Immediately Deliver Reinforcement

Teaching Procedures Several studies have demonstrated the need to deliver reinforcement immediately for behaviors that replace problem behaviors. Delays in the receipt of reinforcement has been demonstrated to be related to higher rates of problem behavior when teaching new behaviors.

Video of Teaching Procedures

Teaching Procedure Present Sd with 0 sec. time delay Present Sd with no prompt/ (2-3 second time delay) Distracter skill (Easy response) Distracter skill (Easy response) Represent Sd with 2-3 second time delay

Practice Teach Transfer Test (No Error)

Error Correction Once an error has been made: Represent Sd with 0 sec. time delay Represent Sd with no prompt (2-3 second time delay) Distracter (Easy Skill) Represent Sd

Practice Teach, Transfer, Test Error Correction

Teaching Procedure in Group Instruction

Joint Control

What is Joint Control? Joint control is a behavior analytic description of comprehension and memory. Dr. Barry Lowenkron (the founder of the theory of joint control) defines joint control as occurring when a verbal response evoked by a sample stimulus is preserved by a self-duplic and then comes under the control of an additional comparison stimulus which simultaneously evokes a tact, textual, or intraverbal response (Lowenkron, 1997). Put in layman’s terms, joint control explains how people follow instructions by repeating part or all of the instruction to themselves and then searching out items or activities which match what they are repeating and allow them to complete the instruction.

A joint control event can be experienced by the following activity A joint control event can be experienced by the following activity. Look at the following pattern and remember it:

Find the same shape sequence among the options below:

How did you do? What behaviors did you engage in to do it?

Joint Control To find the sequence on the table, the sequence “octagon, square, diamond, octagon, diamond” is repeated over and over again (a “self-echoic”) then the sequences in the table are scanned by naming (“tacting”) the shapes in each sequence until one sequence matches the sequence being repeated. The joint control event is the moment when the sequence you are repeating matches the sequence you found in the table above. That joint control event likely evoked responses in you such as “There it is!”, “I found it!” or a nodding of the head, or pointing to the sequence (“autoclitics”). Joint control also explains why it is difficult for people who have limited “tacts,” “duplic,” and “intraverbals” to develop more advanced receptive repertoires.

Joint Control Procedure- have student rehearse as an echoic (or using sign) the items or steps he will need to perform the task Ex: Receptive ID, give 2 items in a field of 5 T- “Say, APPLE, BALL” (While pointing to self) S- “APPLE, BALL” (Teacher is pointing to student) T- “APPLE, BALL” S- “APPLE, BALL” T- Points to student S- “APPLE, BALL T- presents 5 picture cards in a messy array on the table and says, “Give me the apple and the ball”. S- Gives pictures of apple and ball.

Joint Control Error Correction- If student gives 1 or gives the items out of order. Remove all cards from the table Start rehearsal procedure over Represent cards Can role play here and/or give other examples

Video Example

Echolalia Many children with Autism have immediate echolalia- repeating back words/phrases immediately after hearing them or Delayed Echolalia- repeating back words/ phrases after a time delay Before a treatment is prescribed, a functional behavioral assessment and verbal behavior assessment should be conducted Function could be for automatic positive Maladaptive manding Function as a result weak stimulus control (strong echoic, weak or no intraverbal)

Echolalia Treatment for immediate echolalia that is due to disordered verbal behavior skills Focus on teaching manding and intraverbals Rehearsal Technique Have student repeat back the word they will use as mands or intraverbals several times with a point prompt to cue when to speak. When they repeat back the word just with your point prompt (self- echoic), transfer stimulus control to the mand or intraverbal.

Echolalia Ex: Teaching Intraverbal, “What is your name?” T- Bill (while pointing to herself to represent her turn to speak) L- Bill (points to learner to represent his turn to speak) Repeat steps several times until teacher can just point at the learner and he is saying “Bill” T- “What’s your name?” Points to learner L- “Bill” T- Reinforces

Echolalia If child the child has good textual verbal behavior (reading), you may also try a textual prompt to teach intraverbals T- Shows flash card with the word “Bill” on it and points to it. L- “Bill” T- “What’s your name?” Holds card up and points to word “Bill” T- “What’s your name?” (Hides card)

Echolalia Sign language may also serve as an effective prompt to transfer stimulus control from the echoic to the intraverbal T- Signs and says “Bill” L- Signs and says “Bill” T- Signs “Bill” T- “What’s your name?” Signs Bill but does not say it. L- Answers, “Bill” (with or with out sign) T- “What’s your name?” No sign L- “Bill”

Ideas and Resources www.jacobslessons.com Games for Language: Cariboo Ned’s Head