SPED Faculty Publications

Getting More From Social Skills

Christian Sabey et al. — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:41:35 PST

Every teacher has had the experience of teaching a student who exhibits difficult behaviors; the kind of behaviors that make it hard for the teacher to teach and hard for the student to learn. One popular intervention has been to give the student social skills training. Teaching students the social skills they lack is a natural choice for teachers because it is similar to how they teach academic skills. And yet, despite the natural fit, social skills training has not always been an effective intervention. Researchers have studied social skills training at every level of intervention. They have studied it as a Tier 1 class-wide or school-wide intervention, as a Tier 2 small group intervention, and as a Tier 3 individualized intensive intervention. At every level, the research has produced mixed and often unimpressive results (Gresham, 1998; Gresham, Sugai, & Horner, 2001). These results bring up an important question, “Should teachers and related service providers continue to use social skills training to address the problem behavior of students?” The remainder of this article will address this question. First, social skills will be defined along with the variety of problems that typical social skills programs suffer from. Second, a review of some of the research literature on Tier 2 social skills training will be provided. Finally, recommendations for improving social skills training interventions will be discussed.

Using Transfer of Stimulus Control Technology to Promote Generalization and Spontaneity of Language

Trina D. Spencer et al. — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:41:30 PST

Children with autism often use newly acquired language in restricted contexts and with limited variability. Instructional tactics that embed generalization technology have shown promise for increasing spontaneity, response variation, and the generalized use of language across settings, people, and materials. This case example explores the integration of textual scripts and explicit engineering of transfer of stimulus control procedures to facilitate functional conversation skills of a young girl with autism. The generalized use of prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, and subordinating conjunctions was assessed within the context of natural conversation with teachers, parents, and peers. The intentional programming of training contexts has the potential to impact language spontaneity, generalization, and variability without relying on script fading conventions.

Spanish Phonological Awareness: Dimensionality and Sequence of Development During the Preschool and Kindergarten Years

Jason L. Anthony et al. — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:03:42 PST

Verbal Behavior and Communication Training

Thomas S. Higbee et al. — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:34:58 PDT

Communication deficits are a defining characteristic of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Thus, it is not surprising that improving communication skills is the primary focus of virtually all early intervention programs for children with ASD. Many of the most effective teaching strategies for building language come from the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) (see Matson, Benavidez, Compton, Paclawskyj, & Baglio, 1996 for a review). ABA-based intervention programs typically use well-established behavior-analytic teaching/intervention techniques such as positive reinforcement, shaping, prompting/prompt fading, chaining, extinction, imitation, modeling, and other behavioral procedures to teach communicative behavior to children with ASD.

Classroom Application of a Trial-Based Functional Analysis

Sarah E. Bloom et al. — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:03:15 PDT

Virtual Tutor Training: Learning to Teach in a Multi-User Virtual Environment

L. L. Mason et al. — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:03:07 PDT

Correspondence Between Video-Based Preference Assessment and Subsequent Community Job Performance

Robert L. Morgan et al. — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:02:57 PDT

Job Matching Assessment: Inter-Rater Reliability of an Instrument Assessing Employment Characteristics of Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Robert L. Morgan — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:16:23 PST

Response competition and stimulus preference in the treatment of automatically reinforced behavior: A comparison

Thomas S. Higbee et al. — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:10:36 PST

Clinicians are particularly challenged by the development of interventions for behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement because reinforcers that maintain the responses often cannot be directly observed or manipulated. Researchers have conducted either preference assessments or competing items assessments when developing effective treatments for behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement. However, interventions based on these assessments have not been directly compared. The current study evaluated procedures to make such a comparison. High-competition items resulted in greater reductions in vocal stereotypy than did high preference items for a preschool boy with autism.

A component analysis of a parent-conducted multi-component treatment for food selectivity.

Thomas S. Higbee et al. — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:53:31 PST

Treatment packages including differential reinforcement of alternative (DRA) behavior and escape prevention in the form of a non-removal of the spoon procedure have been shown to successfully increase food consumption. However, when these treatment components are introduced simultaneously, the treatment component(s) responsible for behavior change cannot be determined. The purpose of this study was to conduct a sequential component analysis of the following treatment components: Bite fading, manipulation of reinforcer magnitude, and escape prevention. For two participants, food consumption did not increase until after escape prevention was introduced. For one participant, increased food consumption was observed after the magnitude of reinforcement was increased; therefore, escape prevention was not necessary. Results were maintained at a 12-week follow-up for all participants.

Increasing Response Variability of Mand Frames with Script Training and Extinction Procedures

Thomas S. Higbee et al. — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:48:18 PST

We examined the effects of script training and extinction on response variability of mand frames used by children with autism. Results demonstrated that extinction following script training was effective for increasing variability for 2 of the 3 participants.

Teacher-Conducted Trial-Based Functional Analysis of Problem Behavior in a Pre-School Setting

Sarah E. Bloom et al. — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:33:31 PST

Evaluating Choice as a Reinforcer

T. P. Sellers et al. — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:33:14 PST

Evaluation of a Teacher-Conducted Trial-Based Functional Analysis

Sarah E. Bloom et al. — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:32:57 PST

Cross-Function Transfer of Mand Forms

Sarah E. Bloom et al. — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:32:39 PST

Evaluation of Demand Functions for Attention and Food in Children with Autism

A. L. Samaha et al. — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:32:22 PST

A Trial-Based Approach to Functional Analysis of Problem Behavior

Sarah E. Bloom — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:32:03 PST

Evaluating Choice as a Reinforcer

T. P. Sellers et al. — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:31:46 PST

Evaluation of a Teacher-Conducted Trial-Based Functional Analysis

T. P. Sellers et al. — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:31:28 PST

Antecedent Interventions for Escape-Maintained Problem Behavior

J. L. Hammond et al. — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:31:11 PST