Students with developmental disabilities often rely on prelinguistic behavior (e.g., reaching, leading) to communicate. When listeners fail to attend to prelinguistic behaviors, students may benefit from responding with an alternative form of communication to repair the breakdown. In the present study, we taught two students with developmental disabilities to repair communicative breakdowns by using a voice-output communication aid (VOCA). Intervention occurred at morning snack time when the students had the opportunity to access preferred items through prelinguistic behavior (e.g., reaching, guiding). Breakdowns occurred when the listener failed to attend to the student's initial request. Effects of the intervention were evaluated in a multiple-baseline design across subjects. Both students learned to use the VOCA to repair communicative breakdowns. As VOCA use was acquired as a repair strategy, the students also began to use the device to initiate requests when there had been no breakdown in communication. The intervention appeared to be an effective approach for supplementing prelinguistic behaviors with an additional option for communicating a request.
Olive (2005) Evaluation of video feedback and self-management to decrease schoolyard aggression and increase pro-social behaviour in two students with behavioural disorders,
We examined the effects of an individualized schedule on levels of engagement and self-injury for a student with severe autism. We first conducted a series of functional analyses to identify contexts in which self-injury occurred in his classroom. Results of the functional analyses suggested that self-injury was associated with academic demands. Self-injury rarely occurred during the play and no interaction conditions (i.e., when the teacher was present but did not attend to him) of the functional analysis. Furthermore, when the functional analysis conditions were organized according to a specific schedule (no interaction-play-demand) self-injury did not occur. This schedule of activities was then evaluated within the context of his regular curriculum and produced substantial reductions in self-injury and increases in engagement. Positive results maintained for up to five months following the assessment. These findings seem to indicate that functional analysis methodologies might provide helpful information when developing individualized schedules for students who may not have the skills to comprehend and follow a schedule.
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