Daniela Mendonça Ribeiro

The effects of listener training on the emergence of tact and mand signs by individuals with intellectual disabilities.

The purpose of the current study was to assess whether individuals with intellectual disabilities would emit untrained speaker responses (i.e., signed tacts and mands) after being taught listener behaviors. Listener relations were trained via an automated matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure. Following mastery, the emergence of signed tacts, generalized tacts, and mands was tested. All participants met criterion in listener relations training and showed the emergence of almost all relations. Results suggest that teaching listener relations first, through MTS tasks, is a viable way to produce emergence of speaker relations.

The effects of listener training on discriminative control by elements of compound stimuli in children with disabilities.

The purpose of the current study was to assess whether the establishment of listener relations with compound stimuli as samples and comparisons would lead to the emergence of: (1) speaker behavior in the form of tacts of the compound stimuli; (2) listener and tact responses for untaught compounds; and (3) listener and tact responses for the isolated properties of compounds. Participants were four boys diagnosed with autism and one diagnosed with intellectual disability. We taught participants to select among three compound comparisons consisting of combinations of shapes and patterns in the presence of the corresponding dictated word. Subsequently, we tested for the emergence of tacts for the trained compounds, as well as tact and listener relations for six untaught compounds and their properties. In general, results showed that the acquisition of listener relations led to the emergence of the corresponding tacts, as well as the emergence of listener and tact responses for untaught combinations for three out of five participants. By contrast, the other two participants showed responding characteristic of restricted stimulus control. These results suggest that the establishment of bidirectional relations between listener and speaker behaviors may facilitate the emergence of control by properties of compound stimuli.

Avaliação de um procedimento de ensino de categorias estruturais de histórias

Understanding and telling stories are behaviors socially and academically relevant. However, in establishing these behaviors the verbal communities usually do not emphasize the teaching of their structure. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a story structure by teaching procedure on the discrimination of its defining elements in new stories. Eight children, six boys and two girls, ages ranging from six to eight years, participated in the project. A multiple baseline across categories was used and this required the assessment of all categories prior to the beginning of the teaching phase and after the teaching of each category. The teaching was divided in two phases: Category Definition and Category Identification. The procedure was effective in teaching the structural categories of the story and in promoting the discrimination of the defining elements of the categories in new stories.Understanding and telling stories are behaviors socially and academically relevant. However, in establishing these behaviors the verbal communities usually do not emphasize the teaching of their structure. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a story structure by teaching procedure on the discrimination of its defining elements in new stories. Eight children, six boys and two girls, ages ranging from six to eight years, participated in the project. A multiple baseline across categories was used and this required the assessment of all categories prior to the beginning of the teaching phase and after the teaching of each category. The teaching was divided in two phases: Category Definition and Category Identification. The procedure was effective in teaching the structural categories of the story and in promoting the discrimination of the defining elements of the categories in new stories.

A Inclusão de Estudantes com Autismo na Rede Municipal de Ensino de Maceió

The educational inclusion movement is resulting in an increased number of enrollments of special needs students in regular schools. Among these students are those with autism who exhibit communication and social interaction deficits, as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests and activities. There are evidences in the literature that educational interventions are the most effective to minimize the deficits of children with autism. Thus, it is necessary to evaluate the qualitative aspects of regular education access by these students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the inclusion of students with autism in public regular schools in Maceio, through their teachers’ perspective. Twenty-six teachers and two teaching assistants of 22 schools participated, characterizing 30 students with autism. A semi-structured questionnaire and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) were used. The results point to a deficit in the teachers’ specific training for teaching students with autism and to the consequences of this deficit as an absence of individualized plans, materials, and assessments. Therefore, the inclusion of students with autism in public regular schools in Maceio has not been successful in accomplishing one of its main assumptions which is to promote these students learning through the necessary individualized attention.

Assessing story production and retelling repertoires in children

Estudiantes brasilenos tienen un de los peores rendimientos en tareas de comprension de lectura en evaluaciones como el Programa Internacional de Evaluacion de los Alumnos (PISA), lo que sugiere que se deben desarrollar procedimientos especificos para la remediacion de esos deficits. El desarrollo de esos procedimientos, a su vez, requiere una evaluacion sistematica de repertorios relacionados con contar y volver a contar historias, con el fin de identificar objetivos educativos especificos e individualizados. Eso estudio evaluo la capacidad de contar y volver a contar historias de los ninos, asi como algunos de sus requisitos previos, a traves de una serie de testes estandarizados y tareas disenadas para evaluar esas habilidades. Los rendimientos fueron analizados de acuerdo a las caracteristicas macro y microestructurales de idioma. Los datos muestran que las tareas propuestas fueron eficaces en la caracterizacion de los repertorios de contar y volver a contar historias, proporcionando datos suficientes para formular programas de aprendizaje individualizados.

La evaluación de los repertorios de contar y de volver a contar historias en niños

Estudiantes brasilenos tienen un de los peores rendimientos en tareas de comprension de lectura en evaluaciones como el Programa Internacional de Evaluacion de los Alumnos (PISA), lo que sugiere que se deben desarrollar procedimientos especificos para la remediacion de esos deficits. El desarrollo de esos procedimientos, a su vez, requiere una evaluacion sistematica de repertorios relacionados con contar y volver a contar historias, con el fin de identificar objetivos educativos especificos e individualizados. Eso estudio evaluo la capacidad de contar y volver a contar historias de los ninos, asi como algunos de sus requisitos previos, a traves de una serie de testes estandarizados y tareas disenadas para evaluar esas habilidades. Los rendimientos fueron analizados de acuerdo a las caracteristicas macro y microestructurales de idioma. Los datos muestran que las tareas propuestas fueron eficaces en la caracterizacion de los repertorios de contar y volver a contar historias, proporcionando datos suficientes para formular programas de aprendizaje individualizados.

Avaliação de repertórios de contar e recontar histórias em crianças

Estudiantes brasilenos tienen un de los peores rendimientos en tareas de comprension de lectura en evaluaciones como el Programa Internacional de Evaluacion de los Alumnos (PISA), lo que sugiere que se deben desarrollar procedimientos especificos para la remediacion de esos deficits. El desarrollo de esos procedimientos, a su vez, requiere una evaluacion sistematica de repertorios relacionados con contar y volver a contar historias, con el fin de identificar objetivos educativos especificos e individualizados. Eso estudio evaluo la capacidad de contar y volver a contar historias de los ninos, asi como algunos de sus requisitos previos, a traves de una serie de testes estandarizados y tareas disenadas para evaluar esas habilidades. Los rendimientos fueron analizados de acuerdo a las caracteristicas macro y microestructurales de idioma. Los datos muestran que las tareas propuestas fueron eficaces en la caracterizacion de los repertorios de contar y volver a contar historias, proporcionando datos suficientes para formular programas de aprendizaje individualizados.

Effects of picture prompts on story retelling performance in typically developing children

Contar e recontar historias e fatos sao repertorios comportamentais constantemente necessarios em situacoes sociais, sejam estas escolares, familiares, ou de lazer. Este estudo buscou avaliar sistematicamente se 11 alunos de primeira serie (idades entre seis e sete anos) teriam melhor desempenho em tarefas de recontagem de historias quando dicas visuais eram apresentadas. As variaveis dependentes foram (a) numero de categorias de historia inseridas nas tarefas de recontagem e (b) numero de palavras recontadas por historia. A variavel independente foi a apresentacao de dicas visuais (figuras) nas tarefas de recontagem. Os resultados indicaram que dicas visuais nao resultaram em melhora de desempenho quando o numero de categorias de historia foi analisado. Tambem foi verificado que nao houve aumento consistente no numero de palavras recontadas quando as figuras foram apresentadas. Estudos futuros devem investigar se a reexposicao a historias resultaria em uma mudanca significativa no desempenho.

Evaluation of a procedure for structural categories of stories

Understanding and telling stories are behaviors socially and academically relevant. However, in establishing these behaviors the verbal communities usually do not emphasize the teaching of their structure. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a story structure by teaching procedure on the discrimination of its defining elements in new stories. Eight children, six boys and two girls, ages ranging from six to eight years, participated in the project. A multiple baseline across categories was used and this required the assessment of all categories prior to the beginning of the teaching phase and after the teaching of each category. The teaching was divided in two phases: Category Definition and Category Identification. The procedure was effective in teaching the structural categories of the story and in promoting the discrimination of the defining elements of the categories in new stories.Understanding and telling stories are behaviors socially and academically relevant. However, in establishing these behaviors the verbal communities usually do not emphasize the teaching of their structure. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a story structure by teaching procedure on the discrimination of its defining elements in new stories. Eight children, six boys and two girls, ages ranging from six to eight years, participated in the project. A multiple baseline across categories was used and this required the assessment of all categories prior to the beginning of the teaching phase and after the teaching of each category. The teaching was divided in two phases: Category Definition and Category Identification. The procedure was effective in teaching the structural categories of the story and in promoting the discrimination of the defining elements of the categories in new stories.

Evaluación de un procedimiento de enseñanza de categorías estructurales de historias

Understanding and telling stories are behaviors socially and academically relevant. However, in establishing these behaviors the verbal communities usually do not emphasize the teaching of their structure. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a story structure by teaching procedure on the discrimination of its defining elements in new stories. Eight children, six boys and two girls, ages ranging from six to eight years, participated in the project. A multiple baseline across categories was used and this required the assessment of all categories prior to the beginning of the teaching phase and after the teaching of each category. The teaching was divided in two phases: Category Definition and Category Identification. The procedure was effective in teaching the structural categories of the story and in promoting the discrimination of the defining elements of the categories in new stories.Understanding and telling stories are behaviors socially and academically relevant. However, in establishing these behaviors the verbal communities usually do not emphasize the teaching of their structure. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a story structure by teaching procedure on the discrimination of its defining elements in new stories. Eight children, six boys and two girls, ages ranging from six to eight years, participated in the project. A multiple baseline across categories was used and this required the assessment of all categories prior to the beginning of the teaching phase and after the teaching of each category. The teaching was divided in two phases: Category Definition and Category Identification. The procedure was effective in teaching the structural categories of the story and in promoting the discrimination of the defining elements of the categories in new stories.