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Before Conditions and Discriminative Stimuli

Before Conditions and Discriminative Stimuli. Week 4. Before the Trial. In many cases, what happens before the behavior is just as important as what happens after

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Before Conditions and Discriminative Stimuli

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  1. Before Conditions and Discriminative Stimuli Week 4

  2. Before the Trial • In many cases, what happens before the behavior is just as important as what happens after • Finding strong reinforcers, obtaining the child’s attention, and delivering the SD all are crucial aspects of the learning opportunity • We will review why these things are important, discuss how you can lose points, look at good and bad performances, and give you a few tips to improve your skills

  3. Monitoring Criteria • Preference Assessment • Attending • SD as written • Intonation • These are the areas listed on the monitoring form, however, supervisors may give warnings or deduct points for other actions or inactions during the before condition

  4. Preference Assessments • If you do not have an effective reinforcer, you will probably not see good performance • Just because a reinforcer has been working for a few minutes doesn’t mean it will continue working • Therefore, it is crucial to frequently identify and consistently use strong reinforcers

  5. Preference Assessments • Reinforcer assessment versus Preference assessment • A preference assessment can be as simple as “which one” before a trial begins • Mix up the choices frequently • Even if your child is performing well, you should still do a preference assessment every 4-5 trials • Using PECS to perform preference assessments can help you to identify strong reinforcers

  6. Preference Assessments • For token economies • Typically, one preference assessment per set of trials will be sufficient • However, your child’s preferences may change, and it is ok to switch icons during a procedure • What to watch out for • Too many preference assessments in a row • Too frequent • Escape/attention/tangible maintained behavior

  7. Preference Assessments • Videos • Example of reinforcer assessment – table and booth • Example of correct behavior (35, Departure w/TE) • Example of incorrect behavior (33) • One “real life” example, pick out positives and negatives (good attending and pref assess) • Reminder of what you will lose points for • Using ineffective reinforcers and not adjusting • Too many preference assessments

  8. Attending • If the child does not attend to the SD, then the SD may as well not exist • An SD signals the availability of reinforcement or punishment, but it can’t be a signal if the organism doesn’t notice it • Several things that the child may have to attend to • Materials • Auditory stimuli • Comparison/sample stimuli • Models

  9. Attending • How to gain the child’s attention • Use of reinforcers • Reinforcing eye contact and other appropriate behaviors when they occur • ELOs • Reducing extraneous distractions • What NOT to do • Blinders • Excessive attention/showing reinforcers

  10. Attending • Videos • Good tutor performance (Good attending…, IM phrases)) • Poor tutor performance (33-1:35) • “Real life” example (35) • Reminder of criteria/point loss • Delivering SD without attention • Losing attention through patterns of behavior/pacing

  11. SD as Written • Consistency is important when running discrete trials • With up to three different tutors on any given day, it is important that the child is exposed to consistent instructions • It is important to be familiar with each phase of each procedure when running them • The SD may change from phase to phase

  12. SD as Written • Videos • Good performance • Poor performance • “real life” example (IM phrases) • How to lose points • Incorrect topography of SD • Wrong words • Wrong prompts • Delivering SD at wrong times • Delivering SD too many or too few times

  13. Intonation • We try to deliver the SD in a neutral tone • This should make it easier for the children to discriminate between an SD and social reinforcement • The SD should not be too fast or too slow, too high pitched or too low pitched

  14. Intonation • Videos (or just live examples) • Good performance • Poor performance • “Real life” example (IM phrases) • How to lose points • SD is not clear • SD is too “happy” or “sad”

  15. Supervisor’s Discretion • The four areas listed on the monitoring form have been covered • But there are many other behaviors that happen before the child’s response that may fall into this category • Your supervisor will warn you on the first occurrence, and take points off for any additional occurrences

  16. Questions or Comments?

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