Procedural Adaptations for Use of Constant Time Delay to Teach Highly Motivating Words to Beginning Braille Readers

Abstract

Introduction Constant time delay is an evidence-based practice to teach sight word recognition to students with a variety of disabilities. To date, two studies have documented its effectiveness for teaching braille. Methods Using a multiple-baseline design, we evaluated the effectiveness of constant time delay to teach highly motivating words to three beginning braille readers with developmental disabilities. Procedural variations included a pre-teaching and assessment tool, a higher criterion for mastery, an increased number of trials per session, and remediated instructional feedback. Results A functional relation was established for all three participants. Students reached mastery in four to 12 sessions in less than one hour of instruction. Although the number of correct responses decreased over time, long-term maintenance was demonstrated. Discussion Results suggest that constant time delay is a promising strategy for teaching highly motivating words to early braille readers. Replication is required to establish constant time delay as an evidence-based practice for braille literacy. Implications for practitioners Practitioners are encouraged to incorporate constant time delay into a comprehensive literacy program with opportunities to generalize word reading to other contexts.

Using e-mail as performance feedback to teach paraprofessionals to implement constant time delay with braille words

“…The main purpose of this study was to expand on the findings of Ivy et al (2017), which focused on using CTD as a braille literacy tool, and the e-mail feedback studies of Artman-Meeker et al, 2014;Barton et al (2016); and Oborn and Johnson (2015). Previous studies have proven that CTD is a successful intervention with a wide-range of population types for students with visual impairments (Hooper et al, 2014;Ivy & Hooper, 2015;Ivy et al, 2017;Wilcox, 2014), which the current study expands upon by using CTD with students with a variety of additional disabilities. The current study also expands upon the word of Artman-Meeker et al, 2014;Barton et al (2016); and Oborn and Johnson, 2015 by using e-mail feedback as a tool for performance feedback, but with a previously unresearched population of paraprofessionals.…”

“…Currently most published studies using CTD (i.e., Browder, Ahlgrim-Delzell, Spooner, Mims, & Baker, 2009;Hooper, Ivy, & Hatton, 2014;Ivy, Guerra, & Hatton, 2017;Ivy & Hooper, 2015;Wilcox, 2014) involve the researchers, rather than educators, implementing the CTD intervention. Although CTD is effective when implemented by researchers, it is unclear how best to teach paraprofessionals to implement CTD with their students.…”

“…For both students, a functional relation between CTD and braille contraction identification was established. Ivy and Hooper (2015) extended the findings of Hooper et al (2014) Ivy, Guerra, and Hatton (2017) conducted another systematic replication of the research from Hooper et al (2014). The authors evaluated the effects of using CTD to teach highly motivating braille words to three students, ages 6 to 10 years, with visual impairments and developmental disabilities.…”

“…The current study expands on the CTD research (e.g. Ivy et al, 2017), and the e-mail feedback research (e.g. Artman-Meeker et al, 2014;Barton et al, 2016;Oborn & Johnson, 2015) to investigate the effects of an e-mail feedback intervention on paraprofessionals who have been trained to use CTD when teaching braille words to students with VI.…”

“…A small body of research supports using CTD to teach both braille words and contractions to a wide range of population types of students with visual impairments (Hooper et al, 2014;Ivy & Hooper, 2015;Ivy et al, 2017;Wilcox, 2014). In the present study, the students seemed to excel with identifying the braille words with each student experiencing only one small dip during a 5-s session that he/she was then able to recover and prove mastery with three 100% sessions during consecutive 5-s sessions.…”