Sharon A. Reeve

Teaching Children with Autism to Play a Video Game Using Activity Schedules and Game-Embedded Simultaneous Video Modeling

Children with autism have severe and pervasive impairments in social interactions and communication that impact most areas of daily living and often limit independent engagement in leisure activities. We taught four children with autism to engage in an age-appropriate leisure skill, playing the video game Guitar Hero II™, through the use of (a) an activity schedule to set up, turn on, and turn off the game and system, (b) simultaneous video modeling embedded in the game to teach manipulation of the Guitar Hero II™ controller to play the game, and (c) the training of multiple exemplars of songs to develop a generalized repertoire of playing Guitar Hero II™. A multiple-probe design across participants was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training package. All of the participants successfully learned to play Guitar Hero II™ and playing skills generalized to a song and a setting not used during training.

Two Variations of Video Modeling Interventions for Teaching Play Skills to Children with Autism

The current study employed an adapted alternating treatments design with reversal and multiple probe across participants components to compare the effects of traditional video priming and simultaneous video modeling on the acquisition of play skills in two children diagnosed with autism. Generalization was programmed across play sets, instructors, and settings. Overall, both video modeling procedures proved to be effective in teaching and producing maintenance of play skills. For one participant, these procedures appeared to be equally effective in terms of acquisition of the main dependent variable, scripted play actions. For another participant, scripted play actions were acquired more quickly in the simultaneous condition.

Incorporating Video Feedback into Self-Management Training to Promote Generalization of Social Initiations by Children with Autism

Self-monitoring is a well-studied and widely used self-management skill in which a person observes and records his or her own behavior. Video feedback (VFB) occurs when an instructor videotapes a childs performances and reviews the footage with the child and potentially allows the child to score or evaluate their own behavior. A multiple-probe design across participants was used in the present study to evaluate the effects of self-monitoring during VFB on the frequency of social initiating for three students with autism who failed to exhibit the previously mastered skills upon entering a general education classroom. The frequency of initiating increased in general education settings when VFB was introduced. Data also indicated that initiating generalized across settings and people not previously associated with VFB and were maintained in the absence of VFB for two of three participants.

Using Activity Schedules on the iPod touch to Teach Leisure Skills to Children with Autism

Although activity schedules are often presented to learners in book form, this format may be cumbersome and socially stigmatizing to a child with autism. Conversely, presenting an activity schedule on an iPod touch may provide a more socially acceptable format, in that it would be more discreet and allow for easy portability, especially if supports, such as prompts and an adult’s presence, are eventually removed. The present study investigated whether an iPod touch could be used to effectively teach activity schedule following involving independent leisure activities to four children with autism. Manual prompts, progressive time-delay procedures, and reinforcement were also used. Prompts were faded using a progressive time-delay procedure, and experimenter proximity to the participants was faded until she was no longer present. A multiple-probe-across-participants design was used. Prior to intervention, none of the participants followed the schedule and they rarely engaged in on-task behavior. Following intervention, all participants learned to independently follow leisure activity schedules presented on the iPod touch and increased their on-task behavior. In addition, these skills generalized to novel settings and novel schedules, and maintained over time. Social validity measures suggested that the participants preferred to follow activity schedules using the iPod touch. Community members also rated the use of the device as more typical of age-related peers and more socially acceptable in the community. The implications of incorporating technology to increase independence in children with autism are discussed.

Using Multiple-Exemplar Training to Teach a Generalized Repertoire of Sharing to Children with Autism.

The current study examined the utility of multiple-exemplar training to teach children with autism to share. Stimuli from 3 of 4 categories were trained using a treatment package of video modeling, prompting, and reinforcement. Offers to share increased for all 3 children following the introduction of treatment, with evidence of skill maintenance. In addition, within-stimulus-category generalization of sharing was evident for all participants, although only 1 participant demonstrated across-category generalization of sharing. Offers to share occurred in a novel setting, with familiar and novel stimuli, and in the presence of novel adults and peers for all participants during posttreatment probes.

EFFECTS OF THREE TYPES OF NONCONTINGENT AUDITORY STIMULATION ON VOCAL STEREOTYPY IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

We evaluated the effects of 3 types of noncontingent auditory stimulation (music, white noise, recordings of vocal stereotypy) on 2 children with autism who engaged in high rates of vocal stereotypy. For both participants, the music condition was the most effective in decreasing vocal stereotypy to near-zero levels, resulted in the highest parent social validity ratings, and was selected as most preferred in treatment preference evaluations.

Teaching statistical variability with equivalence-based instruction

In the present study, equivalence-based instruction was used to teach 2 4-member classes representing high and low statistical variability to 10 college students. Computerized equivalence-based instruction with multiple-exemplar training was used to teach the classes. A pretest-training-posttest design evaluated performances on both computer-based tests and written multiple-choice tests. Scores improved from pretest to posttest on both the computerized and the multiple-choice tests for all students following equivalence-based instruction. Class-consistent selections also generalized from training to novel stimuli and to a novel context (i.e., written test). Finally, class-consistent performances maintained 1 week after equivalence-based instruction was completed. The study demonstrated that equivalence-based instruction can be used to teach labeling of statistical variability and that a selection-based teaching protocol administered on a computer can promote the emergence of responses to a written selection-based testing protocol.

Using audio script fading and multiple‐exemplar training to increase vocal interactions in children with autism

Script-fading procedures have been shown to be effective for teaching children with autism to initiate and participate in social interactions without vocal prompts from adults. In previous script and script-fading research, however, there has been no demonstration of a generalized repertoire of vocal interactions under the control of naturally occurring relevant stimuli. In this study, 4 boys with autism were taught to initiate a conversation in the presence of toys through the use of a script and script-fading procedure. Training with multiple categories and exemplars of toys was used to increase the likelihood of generalization of vocal interactions across novel toys. A multiple-probe design across participants was used to assess the effects of these procedures. The intervention successfully brought interactions by children with autism under the control of relevant stimuli in the environment. Future research pertaining to the specific implementation of these procedures (e.g., fading, script placement, participant characteristics) is discussed.

Using Video Modeling with Voiceover Instruction Plus Feedback to Train Staff to Implement Direct Teaching Procedures

Direct teaching procedures are often an important part of early intensive behavioral intervention for consumers with autism spectrum disorder. In the present study, a video model with voiceover (VMVO) instruction plus feedback was evaluated to train three staff trainees to implement a most-to-least direct (MTL) teaching procedure. Probes for generalization were conducted with untrained direct teaching procedures (i.e., least-to-most, prompt delay) and with an actual consumer. The results indicated that VMVO plus feedback was effective in training the staff trainees to implement the MTL procedure. Although additional feedback was required for the staff trainees to show mastery of the untrained direct teaching procedures (i.e., least-to-most and prompt delay) and with an actual consumer, moderate to high levels of generalization were observed.

Evaluating the Emergence of Reverse Intraverbals in Children with Autism.

Verbal behavior plays a fundamental role in the development of complex social and communication skills. Many children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder exhibit profound deficiencies in intraverbal repertoires and the development of social relationships. Recent studies that investigated the effects of intraverbal training on the emergence of reverse intraverbals produced mixed results (e.g., Perez-Gonzalez et al., Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 40:697–701, 2007)). In the current study, a multiple-probe design across four participants with autism was used to evaluate the effects of intraverbal training on the emergence of reverse intraverbals. Intraverbal training consisted of multiple exemplars taught concurrently, bidirectional stimulus-response teaching formats, general case analysis, reinforcement, and a constant prompt delay (CPD) procedure. Participants were trained on intraverbal targets and probes were conducted to assess emergence of untaught reverse intraverbals. Three participants demonstrated the emergence of reverse intraverbals as a result of the intraverbal training procedures. Social validity and maintenance of target responses and emergent reverse intraverbals were assessed.