ABA Student Research in Auckland, New Zealand

1. ABA Student Research in Auckland, New Zealand Examples from a Scientist Practioner Framework May, 2008 Angela Arnold-Saritepe

2. Overview • Increasing a child’s access to the swimming pool – Katrina Phillips and Angela Arnold-Saritepe • Memory books to aid conversation for people with dementia – Janine Locke and Oliver Mudford • Increasing social interactions using a tactile prompt – Sarah Taylor and Angela Arnold- Saritepe • Teaching children with autism tacts using discrete trial and incidental teaching – Jing Zhu and Angela Arnold-Saritepe

3. Increasing a child’s access to the swimming pool. Katrina Phillips and Angela Arnold-Saritepe

4. Background • Student: • 12 year old boy • Diagnosis of autism • History of self stimulatory behaviours, including hand flapping, flicking items, and splashing in water • Problem: • Showed avoidance behaviour during swimming time (approximately 1hour once a week). • If staff tried to force him in the water he would yell, engage in self injury (biting), or attempt to elope • Intervention: • Shaping successive approximations towards the pool • Reinforcer- access to shoelace for approximately 10 seconds

5. Intervention cont. • Shaping major steps - over sessions • Approach pool edge of pool • First step • Second step • Third step • Fourth step • In pool • Over to water fall / out to first line • Shaping of movement from one step to the next-within session • Move toward edge • Kick foot out • Foot partially down • Foot on next step • Both feet on next step

6. Finishing point POSITION IN POOL Starting point Figure 1. Starting and finishing position that was reinforced across sessions. ∆ are sessions that no reinforcement was provided. are sessions in which reinforcement was available but the student did not achieve starting point.

7. Discussion • Student generalised pool behavior across staff. • Natural reinforcers took effect and student refused to get out of pool.

8. Memory books to aid conversation for people with dementia. Janine Locke and Oliver Mudford

9. Background • Participants: • Three adults (78 – 89 years-of-age) • Diagnosis of dementia • Incoherent unstructured sentences, no memory of past life, could read simple sentences • Problem • Responded “I can’t remember”, or “I am not telling you” when staff asked questions • Said “I’m boring”, “I have nothing to talk about” • Limited interactions with families • Intervention • Memory books

10. Intervention cont. The books have 3 sections. Each page has a picture and one or two large print sentences. The first section is about the person (and their life), the second about their work and the third is about their family. My name is Dorothy Smith I worked in the Plaza Building in the city. I have 2 Grandchildren Susan and John

11. Results

13. Discussion • Memory books increased total statements and decreased staff questioning during conversations. • The books did not increase novel statements.

14. Increasing social interactions using a tactile prompt. Sarah Taylor and Angela Arnold-Saritepe

15. Background • Student: • 8-year old boy attending primary (elementary) school • Problem: • Low rate of initiations or responses to peers within the classroom (below that of other peers) • Low rate of ‘shutdowns’ • Intervention: • Tactile prompt

16. Intervention cont. • A tactile prompt - A device set to vibrate at specific intervals– (‘Invisible clock’). • Initial training conducted to teach student to initiate an interaction when the device vibrated. • Alternating treatments design – active prompt (vibrating), inactive prompt (still placed in pocket), and baseline. Alternated in 10-min sessions within typical classroom sessions.

17. Results

18. Summary • Social interactions increased – no difference in the effectiveness of the inactive and active prompts. • Inappropriate interactions stayed at a low level.

19. Teaching children with autism tacts using discrete trial and incidental teaching. Jing Zhu and Angela Arnold-Saritepe

20. Background • Aim: To compare the effectiveness of discrete trial training (DTT) and incidental teaching (IT) in teaching tacts in terms of acquisition, generalization, spontaneous speech and procedural efficiency • Participants: Three children with autism (5 – 6 years-of-age). Verbal with limited vocabularies (< 50 words). • Experimental design: multiple baseline across naming stimuli nested within a multiple baseline across participants

21. Total number of training sessions of discrete trial training and incidental teaching for each word. The solid bar indicates the mean number of training sessions across six target words for DTT and IT respectively.

22. Total training time in minutes of discrete trial training and incidental teaching for each word. The solid bar indicates the mean training time across six target words for DTT and IT respectively.

23. Mean percentage of correct response of discrete trial training and incidental teaching in generalization probes and assessments. GP1 was conducted by ABA students with practical experience, and GP2 was conducted by ABA students with no practical experience.

24. Mean percentage of spontaneous responses of discrete trial training and incidental teaching in generalization and follow-up assessments for three participants

25. Discussion • Both DTT and IT are effective in teaching children with autism to tact. • DTT produces quicker acquisition IT produces better generalization and spontaneous speech. • DTT is easier to implement and each training session of DTT is shorter than that of IT. • Individual differences (e.g., learning abilities, language skills, training histories and preference to training styles) greatly affect the effectiveness of training.

26. Discussion • The establishment of mand operant facilitated the establishment of tact operant. • Discrete trial training is essential to establish some prerequisite skills for further language training, such as imitation.