Nassim Chamel Elias

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.

Teaching Manual Signs to Adults With Mental Retardation Using Matching-to-Sample Procedures and Stimulus Equivalence

The objective of this study was to teach manual signs through an automated matching-to-sample procedure and to test for the emergence of new conditional relations and imitative behaviors. Seven adults with mild to severe mental retardation participated. Four were also hearing impaired. Relations between manual signs (set A) and pictures (set B) were initially taught, followed by the training of corresponding printed words (set C) and pictures (set B). Further presentations of conditional discriminations tested for the emergence of AC, followed by tests for the emergence of imitative signing behavior (D) in the presence of either pictures (B) or printed words (C). Each stimulus set was comprised of 9 elements. The stimuli were still pictures, printed words, and dynamic presentations of manual signs. A pretest was conducted to determine which signs the participants could make pre-experimentally. Teaching was arranged in a multiple baseline design across 3 groups of 3 words each.The purpose of the present study was to determine whether participants would emit manual signs in expressive signs tests as a result of observation (video modeling) during match-to-sample training in the absence of explicit training. Five of the 7 subjects passed tests of emergence and emitted at least 50% of the signs. Two were hearing impaired with signing experience, and 3 were not hearing impaired and had no signing experience. Thus, observation of video recorded manual signs in a matching-to-sample training procedure was effective at establishing some signs by adults with mental retardation.

Avaliação de habilidades matemáticas em crianças com síndrome de Down e com desenvolvimento típico

EnglishAbstract: Mathematical knowledge is considered essential for anyone to have an independent life and is considered a discipline it is difficult to learn for both people with normal development, as well as those with intellectual disabilities. This study assessed the math skills of 11 children with Downs Syndrome (DS) and 10 typically developing young people, aged six and ten years both in discrete and continuous aspects. A survey procedure for basic math skills was developed and applied. There was the creation of the instrument in the form of a protocol, and a test. The results indicate the lowest performance of participants with Downs syndrome compared to those with typical development. Such lower performance can be linked to difficulties in skills requiring attention, memory, reasoning, and abstraction and are fundamental to academic learning in general. portuguesResumo: O conhecimento matematico e considerado fundamental para qualquer pessoa ter uma vida independente, sendo considerada uma disciplina de grande dificuldade de aprendizado, tanto por pessoas com desenvolvimento tipico quanto por aquelas com deficiencia intelectual. O presente estudo avaliou as habilidades matematicas em 11 criancas com sindrome de Down (SD) e dez com desenvolvimento tipico, com idade entre seis e dez anos, nos aspectos discretos e continuos. Foi desenvolvido, em forma de protocolo, um procedimento de levantamento de habilidades matematicas basicas, o qual foi aplicado, apos sua criacao, em forma de teste. Os resultados indicam o desempenho mais baixo dos participantes com SD em comparacao com aqueles com desenvolvimento tipico. Tal desempenho mais baixo pode estar ligado as dificuldades nas habilidades que requeiram atencao, memoria, raciocinio e abstracao, fundamentais para o aprendizado academico em geral.

Habilidades Matemáticas em Pessoas com Deficiência Intelectual: um Olhar Sobre os Estudos Experimentais1

o conhecimento das habilidades matematicas e considerado fundamental para pessoas terem uma vida independente, mas de dificil aprendizado para qualquer um, inclusive para pessoas com deficiencia intelectual, caracterizadas por terem deficits em determinadas habilidades gerais. Estas pessoas apresentam dificuldades nas habilidades que requeiram atencao, memoria, raciocinio, generalizacao e abstracao, que sao fundamentais para o aprendizado academico. Estudos sobre habilidades matematicas, tanto para pessoas com deficiencia intelectual como aquelas com desenvolvimento tipico, apontam a inexistencia de avaliacao dessas habilidades, sob o ponto de vista continuo (como medidas e geometria), mas por outro lado, e bastante forte em relacao aos aspectos discretos da matematica (como contagem, aritmetica e numeracao). Dessa forma, esta pesquisa buscou identificar estrategias, conteudos ensinados e o repertorio de entrada para ensino de matematica a pessoas com deficiencia intelectual, priorizando as pesquisas empiricas, presentes na literatura. A revisao sistema em base dados identificou 15 artigos que atendiam aos criterios almejados. O tratamento de dados indicou tres temas de analise: conteudo matematico, repertorio de entrada e estrategias de ensino. Como resultado, conclui-se que ha um numero reduzido de trabalhos sobre do ensino de matematica a pessoas com deficiencia intelectual. Tambem, percebe-se que ha ainda um longo caminho a ser percorrido, em busca de uma escola inclusiva, na qual estas pessoas tenham acesso a matematica elementar.

Comparação entre avaliações de preferência com itens tangíveis e com itens digitais

Computer-based digital picture preference assessment tests may have boundaries over table-top formats, such as time and effort economy and reduction of manual error. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of a computer-based digital picture preference assessment with 14 children with typical development and nine with intellectual disabilities. Two preference assessment formats were conducted to compare preference hierarchies generated with digital pictures and tangible items. These formats included presenting digital pictures in a computer screen and tangible items on a table. Results of the preference assessments indicated that the two methods yielded same top-ranked items for most participants. Many variables still need to be scrutinized in further experimental studies. The implications of these results for digital stimulus preference assessments are discussed.