Research Based Teaching

​

 

Applied Behavior Analysis

 

 Applied Behavioral Analysis is a useful method for teaching children with autism, PDD, and MR that is based directly on learning theories developed by behavioral psychologists. The approach focuses on rewarding positive behavior and discouraging negative behavior by exerting control over rewarding and aversive consequences of children's choices. Essentially, if children behave in ways that are desirable, they are rewarded. If they behave in ways that are not desirable, they are not rewarded.   ABA leans heavily on several behavioral principles: shaping, chaining and successive approximation. It is difficult to learn new complex behaviors. However, if complex behaviors are broken down into simpler behaviors, each a more accurate successive approximation of the goal behavior, the task of learning becomes easier to manage. ABA requires that complex desirable behaviors that therapists hope to teach to children with autism be broken down or analyzed into a series or chain of small doable steps. Instead of trying to teach the entire complex behavior desired all at once, ABA therapists teach only one simple step at a time. As children master each step, the next sequential step is introduced. This chained step approach is effective for teaching individuals who have difficulty staying focused.  In order for ABA methods to work well, both therapeutic and home environments must be consistent and organized. Rewards and consequences for various behaviors must be made clear to students at all times and delivered as advertised. Rewards that are not delivered as promised are not rewarding, and will quickly cease to have a motivating effect. Similarly, aversive consequences (such as not getting a desired reward) also lose their motivational effectiveness if they are not enforced.

 

Source- http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=8787&cn=20 

 

 

_____________________________________________________________

 

Discrete Trial Training

 

Discrete trial and ABA methods are often confused, but they are not identical. Discrete trial is a teaching strategy used within the umbrella that is ABA. It is a method of instruction that works to shape behavior through the use of repetition and cause and effect learning. Discrete trial is a "scaffolding" or "chaining" method that builds one skill on top of another. Complex tasks are broken down into small steps and each step is mastered in turn across a series of trials. Tasks differ in their complexity. Basic tasks such as being able to sit quietly for an extended period are prerequisites for other, more complex tasks such as working with a computer program. Being able to speak the phrase, "hello, how are you" is a prerequisite for more complex social communication tasks such as greeting someone (which may also involve making eye contact, and paying attention to what the other person has to say). Discrete trial learning methods recognize this hierarchy of tasks, and attempts to teach more basic prerequisite type tasks first.  Discrete trial methods are designed to increase the likelihood that student children will act in desirable ways. It is not designed to decrease their tendency to act in undesired ways. Children are motivated to act in desired ways through the application of reinforcement techniques. Positive reinforcement occurs when behavior is rewarded, such as by providing a desired treat. In order to be effective, rewards must be presented immediately, and be concrete in nature. Rewards that are intangible, or which are delivered after a delay may not be associated with desired behaviors and may appear to children to have simply been granted for no reason. Discrete trial methods never use punishment methods (which involve adding something negative and aversive to the children's environment). However, negative reinforcement methods, which involve rewarding children when they stop doing something undesirable, are fair game.  Apart from shaping student children's behavior towards the acquisition of social and communicative skills, discrete trial methods also teach children about cause and effect. Students learn that they are expected to respond to trials, and that every response they make will have a consequence (e.g., they will either be rewarded for their response or they will not). Teachers and therapists are ultimately interested in getting children to pay attention to task learning and in developing their ability to respond appropriately to communication. Letters, numbers and object labeling skills are thus acquired as a byproduct of discrete trials training. Because communicative skills are basic and fundamental and must be present before more complex social skills can be taught, they are taught early on in the process.

 

Source- http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=8788&cn=20 

 

_____________________________________________________________

 

Pivotal Response Training

 

Pivotal Response Training (PRT) is a behavioral treatment intervention based on the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA). Pivotal Response Training (PRT) is a naturalistic behavioral intervention developed to facilitate stimulus and response generalization, increase spontaneity, reduce prompt dependency, and increase motivation while still relying on the principles of applied behavior analysis. Research has shown that naturalistic interventions are associated with more expressed positive affect on the part of the child as well as the parent implementing the treatment. PRT is child directed (as opposed to teacher, therapist or parent directed), giving children the opportunity to initiate learning events. Thus PRT is able to increase the generalization of new skills while increasing the motivation of children to perform these behaviors being taught to them. PRT works to increase motivation by including components such as child choice, turn-taking, reinforcing attempts and interspersing maintenance tasks. PRT has been used to target language skills, play skills and social behaviors in children with autism. These strategies are also used by some other naturalistic behavioral strategies such as milieu teaching and incidental teaching. 

 

Source- http://www.autismlab.ucsd.edu/about/pivotal-response-training.shtml