Use of a Lag Differential Reinforcement Contingency to Increase Varied Selections of Classroom Activities

We evaluated the effects of an activity schedule embedded within an iPad on varied play across applications. After establishing a pattern of repetitive gameplay, we taught three children with autism to follow the activity schedule using physical guidance. All participants increased their varied play to four applications per session and demonstrated independent and accurate activity schedule usage. The activity schedule was removed, and responding decreased to baseline levels, demonstrating the activity schedule's control over varied responding. The activity schedule was reintroduced and participant responding maintained when engaging with novel applications.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using activity schedules to promote varied application use in children with autism

Brodhead

Courtney

Thaxton

2018

“…Our results provide support for those concerns. Presumably due to children's limited interaction with specific toys or in specific contexts (e.g., Cammilleri & Hanley, 2005), only some target relations may be taught during discovery-oriented and embedded teaching strategies. By analyzing the percentage of sessions in which all four target relations were occasioned at least once within each teaching strategy, we found that all four relations were occasioned an average of 47% (range, 10% to 81%), 26% (range, 0% to 47%), and 100% of Strategy 1, 2, and 3 sessions, respectively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Evaluation of the Relative Efficacy of and Children's Preferences for Teaching Strategies That Differ in Amount of Teacher Directedness

Heal

Hanley

Layer

2009

Self Cite

The manner in which teachers mediate children's learning varies across early childhood classrooms. In this study, we used a multielement design to evaluate the efficacy of three commonly implemented strategies that varied in teacher directedness for teaching color- and object-name relations. Strategy 1 consisted of brief exposure to the target relations followed by an exclusively child-led play period in which correct responses were praised. Strategy 2 was similar except that teachers prompted the children to vocalize relations and corrected errors via model prompts. Strategy 3 incorporated the same procedures as Strategy 2 except that a brief period of teacher-initiated trials was arranged; these trials involved the use of prompt delay between questions and prompts, and correct responses resulted in tokens and back-up activity reinforcers. Children's preferences for the different teaching strategies were also directly assessed. Strategy 3 was most effective in promoting the acquisition and generalization of the color- and object-name relations and was also most preferred by the majority of children, Strategy 1 was the least effective, and Strategy 2 was typically the least preferred. Implications for the design of early educational environments based on evidence-based values are discussed.

“…Similar studies have shown positive results of lag schedules on varied responding (Cammilleri & Hanley, 2005;Esch, Esch, & Love, 2009;Heldt & Schlinger, 2012;Koehler-Platten, Grow, Schulze, & Bertone, 2013;Lee et al, 2002;Lee & Sturmey, 2006;Napolitano, Smith, Zarcone, Goodkin, & McAdam, 2010;Susa & Schlinger, 2012). However, there are still some limitations of the current literature.…”

mentioning

confidence: 91%

Using lag schedules to strengthen the intraverbal repertoires of children with autism

Contreras¹,

Betz²

2015

Previous research has demonstrated the utility of using lag schedules of reinforcement to increase response variability of children with autism. However, little research has evaluated whether the lag schedule promotes variability from within an already-established repertoire or expands the current repertoire by promoting the use of new responses (i.e., those not previously demonstrated). Thus, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the extent to which lag schedules of reinforcement produced already-established intraverbal responses or novel responses for 3 children with autism. Results showed that lag schedules alone were sufficient to increase the number of different responses emitted for 2 participants, whereas brief variability training was needed for 1 participant. Further, some participants emitted novel responses throughout the experiment, suggesting that lag schedules may be an effective method for expanding a response class.