ABA and Autism Level II Training

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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Function? • Video Examples

7. What Procedure?

8. 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.

9. Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning B C A Reinforcement Punishment Extinction Response Language/ Behavior Stimulus Control Motivating Operation MO/EO

10. Operant Condition Example – Verbal Behavior C A B Motivating Response/ Consequence Operation/MOBehavior Thirsty Person asks Given drink, for drink thirst quenched

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

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. Controlling Variables

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

16. 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

17. Mand Example

18. 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).

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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

28. 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

29. Vocal Example

30. Practice Session • Practice Vocal Manding with Partner

31. 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.

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

33. Video • Oscar/Carlos Up Down

34. 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.

35. Video Example

36. Practice Manding with Sign with Partner

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

38. Video Scrolling

39. Practice Manding with Sign/scrolling with Partner

40. Video Scrolling, Time Delay, Fade Item

41. Increase number of mand per day • List Opportunities • Chain Mands together • Transitive EO/MO Plan

42. Video • Hannah Swing

43. 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).

44. 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 morphemesthat are shown in blue and underlined. Note that the bound morphemes can not be said alone and still convey meaning to a listener.

45. 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)

46. 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.

47. 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.

48. 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)

49. Brown’s Stage 115-30 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

50. 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.