ABA
Teaching Ideas
ABA Teaching and Training
Please note that there are links to other websites on this page
Manding facts
DOs:
1- Use the lowest prompt level possible.
e.g. (Sd: Child wants a car- usually trying to get it himself without success)
(Therapist waits)
S: silence
T: 'c'
S: 'car'
T: Gives car immediately to the child, reinforcing his mand
(Therapist then finds opportunities to practice 'car' whilst he's playing with the car but be a giver, not a taker)
2- When teaching a target mand, repeat the word intensively if full prompt needed so that the child has the opportunity to hear it over and over and mand independently sooner. Fade your prompts!
3- Plan ahead and create opportunities for the child to mand during your session.
4- Use different clickers for independent and prompted mands. This will allow you to graph the data and check progress over time.
Independent Mands are: MOs (child asks totally independently- item out of sight) and IPs (you have an item that the child wants).
Prompted: any type of prompt
5- Only use ‘what do you want’ if you are really unsure of what the child is asking you. Treat 'what do you want', as you would with a typical child. Using it too often can lead to prompt dependency.
6- Take every opportunity to get the child to mand and click for all independent and prompted mands (if you use clickers). Data must only be taken for the mands on the data probe (if you're taking data).
7- Teach Mands that have functional meaning to your child. Start by the ones which he uses most so he starts to acquire more independency. Think about why you're teaching each mand. E.g. Does your child need to learn to ask for a 'bucket' just yet? Unless it's part of a set of toys that he really likes or you are playing on the sand often.
DON'Ts:
1- Don't forget to take data for target mands, describing the prompt level. Click independent and prompted mands throughout the session.
2- Don’t confuse Manding (child requesting to you) with demands (you asking the child to do something).
3- Don't use 'what is it?' during manding. Remember that the objective is for the child to request, not to label an item.
e.g. (Child trying to open the door)
Therapists says: what is it?
Child replies: 'door' (child still trying to open the door)
However, it is ok to use ‘What is it' if you want him to tact during NET (e.g. he sees a bus on the way to the park you can say: look! what is that? S: ‘bus’)
The correct procedure is: (Child trying to open the door)
Therapist waits
S: (silence whilst forcing door)
T: 'o' (echoic prompt)
S: 'open'
T: 'open' 'good speaking! (practice throughout session)
4- Don't force your child to mand. Instead, create opportunities which are led by the child's motivation to request.
Taught and probed targets
What's the difference between taught and probed targets?
Probed targets are targets which have been presented to the child for the first time (tested) and whose criteria for success was met straight away (the child knew/could do it without any prompt).
What do we probe?
1- we probe whole programs to select what we need to teach a child.
2- we also probe data taught in the previous day as part of daily recording of data and management of mastery criteria for individual targets on acquisition.
If the child gets targets right straight away then it means you do not need to teach them. They have mastered it at probe.
E.g. If you show the picture of a cat and a child is able to readily identify it following the Sd eg. give me cat (receptive) then he has mastered it at probe. If he has also been able to label it (tact) then he has mastered both receptive and tact at probe.
Taught targets are the ones that the child does not get right at probe. If they got the receptive part right but not the tact then the therapist will use receptive to teach via transfer trial or any other appropriate teaching procedure. A lot of children start on receptive only.
Eg. Therapist Probes (what is it?)
Child: (...)
Therapist: what is it? 'Cat' give me cat
Child gives cat
Therapist: what is it?
Child: 'cat'
Probing whole programs:
When we are probing whole programs, we will select the targets that the child got right at probe and master them off straight away.
No need to teach what your child knows!
Prepare programs in advance so you can probe all targets and move your child on quicker. Remember that a MAY BE should be considered a NO. It's best not to take any chances so your child can build a solid foundation.
It also happens that a child won't get the concept at the initial probe but they will master the whole program when it is probed again after the first few targets have been taught.
We probe targets in all skill areas (visual performance, receptive, imitation, tact, intraverbal, etc).
Do we need to produce duplicates of mastered pictures /index card targets for mixed trials?
Depending on how hard it was to teach a skill, you will need to make sure the child won't lose this skill and that maintenance will be thorough.
If a target is very hard to teach, I usually duplicate it 4-6 times. More depending on how important it is and how hard it was to teach.
The ones mastered at probe go into mixed trials on their own (no need to produce duplicates for targets that have not been taught). This ensures that there will be more maintenance on taught targets than on the ones which are already part of the child's permanently acquired learning repertoire.
On the back of each card, I write the program where they are from, the sd and mastered date. This is helpful to therapists.
Errorless teaching and transfer trials
Errorless Teaching and example of Transfer Trial
One of the most common complaints about errorless learning (EL) is that it "makes children prompt dependent." This can be true if the teacher doesn't properly fade the prompts. Transfer trials, in which prompts are immediately faded to allow for independent responses, are critical to success with EL. Rather than following a set prompt level to criterion, it is preferable to use most-to-least prompting and adjust your prompting moment-to-moment according to the child's responses. A good rule of thumb to follow is that for every prompted trial you run, immediately run an unprompted, or transfer, trial. (Christina Burk)
Transfer trial
Gross motor imitation (GMI) to receptive
Procedure:
- place Sd for receptive instruction, if child makes mistake:
- ask the child to imitate the action
- pair imitation with receptive instruction
- place Sd for receptive instruction again
Tutor: clap hands (Receptive instruction- no action, instruction only)
Learner: (signs ball)
Tutor: (puts child’s hands back) says ‘do this’ whilst clapping hands (action only)
Learner: claps hands
Tutor: says ‘clap hands’ whilst clapping hands (action and instruction)
Learner: claps hands
Tutor: (puts child’s hands back) says ‘clap hands’ (instruction only)
Learner: (claps hands)
Transfer trials can be done from one operant to another (e.g. receptive to tact, or tact to intraverbal). More on this will be posted soon!!!
Error correction procedure- 5 step teaching
5 step teaching:
Step 1- Place SD (e.g. Clap hands)
Step 2- if learner makes mistake (repeat SD fully prompting _Clap hands whilst prompting his hands to clap)
Step 3- distracter trial- do this
Step 4- distracter trial- touch… mix and vary them
Step 5- repeat SD and see if the learner does skill independently
(clap hands)
Practice on family/friends!!
Additional training resources on-line
Teaching through the operants
It is very common for parents to become very excited about their child's progress with ABA and want to rush things a little. Remember that the more thorough mastery criteria, teaching and maintenance are, the more likely it is that your child will retain all the taught skills and permanently acquire them without the need for re-teaching.
There is nothing I like least than re-teaching skills, however, we do it when it is necessary.
The natural flow of teaching skills is going through the operants systematically, from most basic skills to more complex ones, so you can ease your child into it gently. If skills are taught thoroughly, the likelihood is that your child will be able to master these skills more easily once they are ready to answer intraverbal questions.
I used a 'cat' as an example of a target which you can teach across operants. Please note that not all Sds have been highlighted. I just want to give you an idea of how it works.
When a child is struggling with tact, you can go back to receptive or matching and prompt these. For example, you can say 'give me something with a tail', then prompt them to give you the cat and once they are confident with this, you can probe, 'what has a tail?' in tact.
When teaching intraverbals, we usually refer to earlier operants as a prompt, however, mastery must always happen without any stimuli present. This is what effective teaching must look like. If your child is struggling in any areas, look at an earlier operant and teach from there. This does not apply to all targets but will help with quite a lot of them.
With practice you learn to travel through the operants and it is amazing how much it helps you child learn.
As a parent, learning this process has opened my eyes and my understanding as to how I could help my child more and how I could teach him targets he was struggling with. I hope this is helpful to you too. I have taken the time today to show you how this works visually. I'm quite a visual person and I hope my visual representation helps you.
Medical symptoms affecting behaviour
If your child is displaying atypical behaviour, try and establish the function of the behaviour first. You might find that the usual ABC rules might not be applicable to what you're dealing with.
An child with autism who's unwell and uncomfortable due to medical reasons needs a cuddle and hugs like any other child. Their inappropriate behaviour might sometimes be due to headache, constipation, wind or tummy ache. They need their Carers at these times and patience and reassurance like all children do.
Judging ABA effectiveness by failed attempts to use techniques in times like these is unfair to both your kids and yourself.
Once you open your eyes to this, you start seeing that ABA is not failing you or your child and that they're just unwell. It is as simple as that.
In our personal journey with Autism, we have been fortunate to find some answers from incredible people who have been there to guide us when we have needed. Advice from our ABA consultant and our nutritionist have helped us stay on track and consequently help our boy more effectively.