Guidelines for Making Simulation an Effective Adjunct to in Vivo Community Instruction

Abstract

A recent controversy has arisen over the relative merits of simulated versus in vivo community instruction. The view presented here is that in cases where in vivo instruction alone is unfeasible, practitioners should employ both training formats in a concurrent fashion. Accordingly, five guidelines for making simulated instruction a more effective adjunct to community instruction are presented and discussed. Future research needs in this area also are suggested.

A Comparison of Static Picture Prompting and Video Prompting Simulation Strategies Using Group Instructional Procedures

“…Brown et al (1983) first described this type of scheduling as "concurrent scheduling," which was defined as instruction at school and in the community occurring within a short time frame. Concurrent instructional scheduling provides the student additional structured practice and opportunities to experience a wider range of stimuli managed in a controlled setting within the classroom, while also providing the student experience with naturally occurring antecedents, consequences, and criteria when in the community (Ford & Mirenda, 1984;Nietupski, Hamre-Nietupski, Clancy, & Veerhusen, 1986). Scheduling simulated instruction and community-based instruction (CBI) on the same day is effective and efficient for students acquiring, maintaining, and generalizing community skills (Branham et al, 1999;Collins, Stinson, & Land, 1993); functional/vocational skills (Cihak et al, 2004;Nietupski, Clancy, et al, 1985); and leisure skills (Hill, Wehman, & Horst, 1982).…”

Teaching Safety Skills to High School Students With Moderate Disabilities

“…Several authors have commented on the use of simulations to teach functional and generalized skills (Browder et al, 1988;Homer et al, 1986;Nietupski et al, 1986;Page et al, 1976). One of the principal advantages of simulation training is that students can be protected from risks associated with potentially dangerous activities (e.g., Page et al, 1976).…”

“…However, the use of time delay to teach activities in which the risk of injury was present has not been documented. Similarly, simulation has many reported advantages (Browder, Snell, & Wildonger, 1988;Homer, McDonnell, & Bellamy, 1986;Neef, Lensbower, Hockersmith, DePalma, & Gray, 1990;Nietupski, Hamre-Nietupski, Clancy, & Veerhusen, 1986;Page, Iwata, & Neef, 1976), but its use as a deliberately programmed safety precaution has not been described previously. Thus, the current study (a) extended time delay research to domestic safety skills involving chained responses, (b) used simulation as a means of protecting students from danger during initial instruction, and (c) employed multiple examples ofstimuli to facilitate generalized responding.…”

Functional Academic Adaptive Skills

“…Skill acquisition, maintenance, and generalization often are most successful when the environments in which skills fi rst are acquired and later applied are similar (Slaton et al, 2001). Classroom environments that are designed and equipped similarly to the natural setting may be used successfully to acquire and maintain needed skills (Gast & Schuster, 1993;Nietupski et al, 1986;Wolery et al, 1986). Classrooms may provide relevant instructional settings.…”