Using a Blocked‐trials Procedure to Teach Identity Matching to a Child With Autism

Abstract

Children with autism may struggle in developing conditional discrimination repertoires. Saunders and Spradlin (1989, 1990, 1993 arranged ''blocked'' teaching trials in which they presented the same sample stimulus repeatedly across trials (in lieu of randomly alternating targets across trials) and then faded the number of trials in each block. We replicated the effects of this blocked-trials procedure in teaching identity matching to a child with autism and evaluated the necessity of fading. Arranging blocked trials facilitated the acquisition of identity matching, but fading the block size was not necessary to maintain discriminated performance.

Teaching multiply controlled intraverbals to children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders

“…An additional strategy that has been effective for establishing conditional discriminations in a matching‐to‐sample (MTS) format is the blocked‐trials procedure (Pérez‐González & Williams, ; Saunders & Spradlin, , , ; Slocum, Miller, & Tiger, ; Williams, Pérez‐González, & Queiroz, ). It involves presenting consecutive trials of the same visual or verbal (auditory) sample stimulus until responding to the positive comparison reaches a certain mastery criterion.…”

“…The block size is then reduced across sessions so that alternations among sample stimuli gradually increase until they are successively presented randomly across trials. Blocked‐trials procedures have proven to be an effective method for teaching object discriminations (Pérez‐González & Williams, ), color discriminations (Williams et al, ), and identity matching (Slocum et al, ) to individuals with ASD. The addition of a DOR requirement has also been effective when a blocked‐trials procedure alone was not sufficient to establish conditional discriminations in individuals with intellectual disabilities (e.g., Saunders & Spradlin, , ).…”

FroggyBobby: An exergame to support children with motor problems practicing motor coordination exercises during therapeutic interventions

“…Then, we grouped the next three levels of the exergame for the second group of motor coordination exercises (cross-lateral exercises), and we close grouping the last three levels with the third group of motor coordination exercises (coordination and visual spatiality exercises). Each level follows the blocked-trial procedure (Slocum et al, 2012) demanding children to perform a pre-determined number of repetitions of each motor coordination exercise. Thus, the level duration will be the time it takes each Children maintain each arm in a steady position and perform a fine-motor exercise (e.g., perform a grip movement to simulate reaching an object).…”

“…Each level varies according to the arm with which the child needs to practice, and the motor coordination exercise the child needs to perform (Table 8). Each level of FroggyBobby3.0 also follows the blocking-trials procedure (Slocum et al, 2012) involving 10 repetitions for each motor coordination exercise.…”

“…1 Some of them present a complex gameplay dynamic, difficult to understand by children, and excessive cognitive load -as available exergames have multiple stimuli and features. Also, they do not follow the blocked trials procedure 2 , which is important to teach children different skills by repetition while keeping them focused during motor therapeutic interventions (Slocum, Miller, & Tiger, 2012 addition, current solutions use exercises that are appropriate for physical activation but inappropriate for motor development.…”