Increasing opportunities for requesting in classrooms serving children with developmental disabilities

Abstract

Evaluated an intervention package for increasing requesting opportunities in special education classrooms. Five teachers, serving 26 children with moderate to severe disabilities, received in-service training, consultation, and feedback on the use of three strategies designed to create opportunities for requesting (i.e., missing item, interrupted chain, delayed assistance). Observations were conducted in a multiple-baseline across classrooms design to record the number and types of opportunities provided by each teacher. During baseline, few opportunities for requesting were observed. The number of opportunities for requesting and the number of correct student responses increased during intervention. Opportunities continued to be provided during generalization and follow-up sessions. The study demonstrated an effective strategy for helping teachers incorporate opportunities for functional communication into the natural environment.

Comparison of Prompting Hierarchies on the Acquisition of Leisure and Vocational Skills

“…The asterisk denotes an occasion wherein mastery criteria were met by accurate performance on a probe trial presented here, participants learned to complete various assembly and construction tasks. Task analyses are used to teach a wide range of performances, from domestic (Cuvo et al 1992;Walls et al 1981) and personal hygiene skills (Horner and Keiltiz 1975;Stokes et al 2004) to communication (Sigafoos et al 1994) and leisure and athletic skills (Cuvo The gray symbols show the number of independent steps during generalization probes following MTLD (circle) and MGD (square) training. The asterisk denotes an occasion wherein mastery criteria were met by accurate performance on a probe trial Jerome et al 2007).…”

Evaluating the effectiveness of a comprehensive staff training package for behavioral interventions for children with autism

“…Although the treatment package was effective in teaching the targeted skills Past research has typically focused on training a single component skill, such as discrete trial teaching (Downs, Downs, and Rau, 2008), increasing opportunities to learn (Sigafoos, Kerr, Roberts, & Couzens, 1994), or reducing stereotypy (Dib & Sturmey, 22 2007 Conditions neutral stimuli as reinforcers Table 4 Skills Requiring More Extensive Definitions…”

“…Combinations used in previous research have included instructions, feedback, modeling, and rehearsal (Dib & Sturmey, 2007); written lists of skills, instruction, rehearsal, modeling, and feedback (Sarokoff & Sturmey, 2008); in-serving training, consultation, and feedback (Sigafoos, Kerr, Roberts, & Couzens, 1994); verbal and written instructions, role playing, in vivo monitoring, and feedback (Schepis, Ownbey, Parsons, & Reid, 2000); instruction, role playing, in vivo training, and feedback (Schepis, Reid, Ownbey, Parsons, 2001); written manual, individual training session, and verbal feedback (Wolery, Anthony, Snyder, & Werts, 1997); lecture, handout, roleplay, and feedback (Lerman, Vorndran, Addison, & Kuhn, 2004); and instruction, modeling, and practice with feedback (Downs, Downs, & Rau, 2008). Table 2 provides an overview of the methods and outcomes of this research.…”

“…Techniques combining antecedent and consequent strategies appear to be the most effective and recommended training strategy when training behavior analysts to work with children with autism (Shook, Ala'i-Rosales, & Glenn, 2002) and has been used to teach a range of skills, such as conducting preference assessments (Lavie & Sturmey, 2002), teaching functional communication training (Sigafoos, Kerr, Roberts, & Couzens, 1994), and embedding instructional trials in everyday classroom routines (Wolery, Anthony, Snyder, & Werts, 1997). However, past research has typically focused on training single component skills (Dib & Sturmey, 2007;Downs, Downs, & Rau, 2008;Sigafoos, Kerr, Roberts, & Couzens, 1994).…”

“…However, past research has typically focused on training single component skills (Dib & Sturmey, 2007;Downs, Downs, & Rau, 2008;Sigafoos, Kerr, Roberts, & Couzens, 1994).…”