Cues‐pause‐point language training: Structuring trainer statements to provide students with correct answers to questions

Abstract

This study assessed the applicability of Cues-Pause-Point language training procedures in teaching students to obtain information from the statements of others. Two mentally retarded subjects, one of whom was echolalic, received training on one set of stimuli but not on another. During training the subjects were encouraged to remain quiet before, during, and briefly after the presentation of statements and then verbalize (i.e., answer a question) using the verbal cue(s) that had been presented in the statement. Correct responding reached 100% to the trained stimuli and both subjects' responding improved to the untrained stimuli. Posttests revealed that subjects used the trainer's statements to answer novel questions. The results suggest that Cues-PausePoint procedures may be useful in teaching severely retarded individuals the functional use of observing and listening to others' verbal behavior. have recently developed a set of training procedures called Cues-Pause-Point that teach echolalics a new language strategy. The basic procedural rationale is to teach these individuals to use various types of physical cues in their environment to answer questions as a replacement for the maladaptive language strategy (i.e., echolalia) that they previously used. The procedures required the student to (1) remain quiet when the trainer held up his index finger before, during, and

Long term maintenance of language and social skills

“…The basic plan in devising a treatment for echolalia was to develop procedures that reduced the likelihood of echolalic responses and`replaced' them with stimulus appropriate ones. The results of this work have been encouraging (Foxx & Faw, 1990;Foxx et al, 1987Foxx et al, , 1988bFoxx, Faw, McMorrow, Davis, & Bittle, 1988;. For example, some students not only learned appropriate responses to as many as 70 dierent verbal stimuli (i.e., questions and statements) in a total of about 12 hours of training, but also to use the trained responses (i) when persons other than the primary trainer presented the stimuli, (ii) in dierent settings, (iii) when no prompts, feedback or reinforcement were given, and (iv) several years after training (Foxx & Faw, 1990).…”

“…This`failure' of the environment to maintain behavior deemed appropriate by persons (`normals') who interact in other environments may be as much a result of the program's failure to target valid skills as its failure to enhance generalization. Simply stated, it could be that the targeted skills are learned, but simply are not relevant and thus not performed by subjects in their natural environment (Foxx, McMorrow, Bittle, & Ness, 1986).…”

“…About 10 years ago, my colleagues and I (Foxx & Faw, 1990;Foxx, Kyle, Faw, & Bittle, 1988;Foxx, Faw, McMorrow, Kyle, & Bittle, 1988;Foxx, McMorrow, Faw, Kyle, & Bittle, 1987;Foxx, Faw, McMorrow, Davis, & Bittle, 1988; developed language training procedures, hereafter referred to as cues±pause±point procedures for individuals with developmental disabilities that relied almost exclusively on what we considered to be simple and natural teaching procedures that were based on behavioral principles and exhibited in less structured ways in many typical parent±child/ teacher±student verbal interactions. The procedures were presented ®rst in a discrete trial formal and later in an incidental teaching format.…”

Replacing Maladaptive Speech With Verbal Labeling Responses: An Analysis of Generalized Responding

“…Steve also sometimes displayed perseverative speech when presented with questions by saying "no" repeatedly. Two weeks prior to this study Steve had participated in cues-pause-point training designed to teach students to use the statements of others (i.e., verbal cues) to answer questions (Foxx, McMorrow, Faw, Kyle, & Bittle, 1987 (Rusch & Kazdin, 1981) was used across subjects to assess response maintenance.…”