TERMS and STEPS
for TUTORS to learn.
Sd: Discriminative Stimulus (I explain this to my tutors who are new as "any command/question/etc" that you use on the learner and expect a response to occur from)
Discrete Trial contains the SD (antecedent, instruction, cue), a prompt if necessary, Response from the learner, Consequence (reward, feedback, etc), and the Inter-trial interval ( a pause or slight time lapse between each trial so that the child processes info, learns to wait, etc. this is not for the teaching of fluency).
Criteria for Mastery for every step: 90% or more, two tutors, three consecutive sessions, and at least two days.
Mass Trial: The very first step in DTT. Mass Trials are tricky. You should not just "skip" this because you think the child will know. On the other hand, you should be VERY careful not to stay in Mass Trials too long because you may find that you are boring the child to death and will develop compliance problems. Personally, I think that all items should be probed before deciding to do it. We rarely use Mass Trials with Lukas but I feel it is unethical to train you in ABA and not teach you all the components of DTT. Mass Trials is composed of three sub steps:
Mass Trial Prompt (MTP)
Mass Trial (MT)
Mass Trial w/ Distracter Item (MT w/ DI)
I. MTP This can often be combined with MT as you fade your prompt with a setting.. An example of MTP is easy to show with a matching program. Imagine you are trying to get the child to match the cup to the cup. Sitting at the table, you give the SD "put with same". There is one item on the table and the child is handed an item to match. The response from the child is to match the cup to the cup. If you are introducing this for the first time, a MTP might be necessary. Take the child's hand and prompt him or her to place the matching item to the target item (whether or not you are targetting on top of, nesting, touching, etc is up to you and the child's motor skill). Slowly fade your physical prompt from a full hand over hand prompt (HOH) to a partial physical prompt (perhaps you start his hand towards the target item or fade it to a simple tap on the elbow). This fading of the MTP goes to MT. The idea of MTP is to show the child that a response is expected. You want to spend as LITTLE time in this step as possible because you can create prompt dependency (ie, I don’t respond to put with same until she taps my elbow) You can never master a target item in MTP! If a child needs a constant prompt to learn it, it is not learned!
II MT In Mass Trials, you are never "Non targetting" an item.(Nontargets are things that you ask the child between/before/after the item you are targeting) In Mass trials, you are working on one target and one target only (like cup)
With the above example of a matching program, you would give the Sd "put with same". Again, there is only ONE item on the table for the child to match an item to. The response of the child should be to match the cup to the cup.
Tutor: Put with same (hands the cup to child)
Child: puts the cup to the cup
Tutor: Yes! (gives a raspberry kiss to the child)(end trial one)
Tutor: Takes matching cup and moves it to a different side of the table and gives Sd "Put with same."
Child: Takes cup and puts with same even though the cup was moved to the other side of the table.
Tutor : Wow. You are sooooooo smart. Good job. (end trial two)
In mass trials, there is no law that says you must bore the child to death with ten full trials. You can use 2-10 trials of independent responding before moving to MT w/DI. (hey, if the learner has given you three correct responses and is doing REALLY well, then stop. No need to keep going on and on… I would whack you over the head if you asked me the same question over and over again after I already answered it nicely 2-5 times) If you had to prompt the child with a physical prompt, a reissue of the sd with informational no, etc DO NOT MOVE ON. This is MTP. Also, the child should show this level of mastery across sessions and tutors. Also, do NOT spend a long time in MT if possible because the child isn't learning a lot when there is only one possible response. If you can get out of MT quickly, do it!
II MT w/ DI Some people don't do this. Some people do. You have to know what your program is expecting. This is something to keep in mind if the child you are working with has severe discrimination problems. A DI (distracter item) is an item you NEVER ask for. For example, you might put a small plate on the table and a cup. Then say "put with same" and hand the child a cup. The presence of a plate on the table after going through MTP and MT should not cause the child to put it with a plate. You should also be careful not to use the same DI. You may find that if you do, you are not teaching the child to match cup to cup but to pick the item that is not the plate! Why do this? Because if there is just one item on the table, it can be a no brainer for some children. They will match whatever you give them with whatever is on the table. BUT.. What if the tutor places their pen on the edge of the table? Will that confuse the child? There are different levels of DI items:
L1: large difference between items a 3d cup versus a 2d picture of dog.
L2: medium difference: 3D cup versus a 3D figurine of a dog
L3: same catagory/similar like a 3d cup and 3d bowl
L4: target item cup versus a previously mastered item.
It is your choice whether or not to stay in MT DI or to just move out of it. It is entirely dependent on the level of the child. It is important to have all the items readily available at the table. A tutor should NOT be fumbling around trying to find things to place on the table.
II.
EXPANDED TRIALS (ET) CAN HAVE THREE
STEPS (ET1), (ET2), (ET3)
Why? To build the child's memory of the item. Again, we never use this with Lukas but you may find a need for it in other programs.
With Expanded Trials, you build in distracter TASKS in between working on the target item. AGAIN, not all programs go to expanded trials. It would be rare to do ET with a matching program and not all children need this. Some children go through this very quickly but you may come across a learner who REALLY REALLY needs this.
A DT can be any thing that the child has already mastered or even a LONG reinforcer that causes a time delay. PLEASE NOTE: the DT should not be challenging. It must be something that is VERY EASILY performed. CHOOSE WISELY. For a child who is in ABA a while, tutors often pick things like Nonverbal Imitation programs (do this) or 1 step instructions (clap!). I tend to like long reinforcers over "yet another demand" but as long as you are reinforcing, I guess it shouldn't matter.
ET1:
Tutor: gives sd "put with same"
Child: child matches
Tutor: YES! (gives high five)
Tutor: clap (a 1 step matered instruction)
Child: claps
Tutor: yeah.nice job (while smiling.) (lower level of reinforcement given because we aren't working on already mastered items. If the child didn't respond, just say no but don't go into working on clapping because that is taking you away from the task at hand)
Tutor: gives original Sd "put with same".
Child: child matches.
Tutor: YEAH BABY! (gives child belly fart.)
if you look at this, the pattern went like this:
Sd
response
DT (quick task taking on a few seconds)
Sd
reponse
Now ET2:
Tutor: gives sd "put with same"
Child: child matches
Tutor: YES! (gives high five)
Tutor: clap.
Child: claps
Tutor: yeah.nice job (lower level of reinforcement given because we aren't working on already mastered items. If the child didn't respond, just say no but don't go into working on clapping because that is taking you away from the task at hand)
Tutor: do this (tutor touches nose)
Child: touches nose
Tutor: Yeah. Good. (while smiling)
Tutor: gives original Sd "put with same".
Child: child matches.
Tutor: YEAH BABY! (gives child belly fart.)
if you look at this, the pattern went like this:
Sd
response
DT1 (quick task taking on a few seconds)
DT2 (another quick task. but now more time has passed between Sds)
Sd
reponse
ET3
Tutor: gives sd "put with same"
Child: child matches
Tutor: YES! (gives high five)
Tutor: clap.
Child: claps
Tutor: yeah.nice job (lower level of reinforcement given because we aren't working on already mastered items. If the child didn't respond, just say no but don't go into working on clapping because that is taking you away from the task at hand)
Tutor: do this (tutor touches nose)
Child: touches nose
Tutor: Yeah. Good. (while smiling)
Tutor: hey, look at this Tutor blows bubbles for five seconds.
Tutor: gives original Sd "put with same".
Child: child matches.
Tutor: YEAH BABY! (gives child belly fart.)
Sd
response
DT1 (quick task taking on a few seconds)
DT2 (another quick task. but now more time has passed between Sds)
DT3 (blowing bubbles)
Sd
reponse
It is important not to use the same distracter task over and over again. Don't use DT that are aversive or hard.
NOW YOU HAVE LEARNED MASS TRIALS AND EXPANDED TRIALS.
This is done with receptive programs but not with expressive (you can’t do positional prompts with an expressive program!). Again, this step is not used with Lukas and not used with all children. I am just teaching this if you run into a more challenging learner.
Tutor: sd: Put with same and give the child a cup. (plate and cup are both on the table with a full positional prompt of the cup being closer to the child than the plate).
Child: puts cup with cup.
Tutor: nice job. (moves cup a little further away from the child towards the centre of the table )
Tutor: Put with same
Child: puts cup with cup.
Tutor: yeah and squeezes child’s hand because the child likes that. (moves cup and plate to centre of the table)
Tutor: put with same
Child: places cup with cup.
Tutor: YEAH! Kisses child’s hand.
Tutor: put with same (remember the plate and cup are both in the centre of the table with no positional prompt)
Child: places cup with cup.
Tutor: tickles child and says That’s right.
Tutor: (moves plate closer to child for positional prompt) Hands child the plate and says put with same (this is called the switch trial)
Child: puts plate with plate
Tutor: YEAH BABY and gives ten.
Tutor: moves plate closer to centre of the table where the cup is and hands plate to child and says “put with same”
Child: Puts plate with plate
Tutor: ALRIGHT! Tickles child’s nose with feather.
Tutor: moves plate and cup even and gives child the plate and says “put with same”.
Child: places plate with plate
If you look at this, the “sitting” went like this:
Sd cup (full positional prompt)
Sd cup (1/2 positional prompt)
Sd cup (no prompt)
Sd cup (no prompt)
Sd plate (SWITCH TRIAL- full positional prompt)
Sd plate (1/2 positional prompt)
Sd plate (no prompt)
Sd plate (no prompt)
The switch occurs within a sitting.
Continue with this until positional prompts are totally faded:
Tutor: put with same and gives child plate (cups in the middle with no prompts)
Child: puts with same
Tutor: gives reinforcer and then issues sd put with same and hands plate
Child: puts with same
Tutor: gives reinforcer and then issues sd and put with same and hands cup.
Child: puts with same
Tutor: YEAH! Big reinforcer for making the switch. Hands child cup and says “put with same”
Child: puts with same.
You can fade the prompts by eliminating the full positional prompt step and just going to a half positional prompt.
Once you have faded all positional prompts, you can go into random rotation.
BR is good for children who are having trouble with going from ET to RR.
RR is where items get mastered. A target must be here in RR before you apply the mastery of criteria for it. You should not be doing a lot of prompting in Random Rotation. This step takes the item out of isolation. We mostly work with Lukas in this step. This develops discrimination and mastered items should be rotated with each other. We also intermix mastered items from other programs as well.
Tutor: (has cup and plate on table and hands child cup) “put with same”
Child: places cup to cup
Tutor: Whoa baby! High five.
Tutor: Put with same (hands plate to child)
Child: places plate to plate
Tutor: atta boy gives tickle
Tutor; Put with same (hands plate to child)
Child: places plate to plate
Tutor: makes funny sound that makes child smile
Tutor: put with same (hands cup to child)
Child: places cup to cup.
You see here, there was the following : cup, plate, plate, cup. You want to avoid in a longer sitting any patterns such as:
Plate cup plate cup plate cup. Or cup cup plate plate cup cup plate plate. Always make sure that you target items out of a pattern. Also make sure that there is no leftside of the table- right side of the table- left side of the table, right side of the table
Pattern. Move the items to be matched around on the table.
You can then add a third item into Random rotation. All newly learned items can then be added and done against other mastered items.
Example, you have learned cup and plate. The child then learns spoon. Once the child knows spoon in ET and perhaps BR, then bring it into random rotation:
Spoon is the target item. Cup and plate are previously mastered items. (all correct responses are reinforced!)
Sd: (place spoon and cup on table) “Put with same” and hand child spoon.
Response from Child: spoon with spoon.
Sd: (move spoon and cup around on table) put with same and hand child a cup.
R: cup to cup.
Sd: (move spoon and take cup off table and place plate on) put with same and hand child spoon.
R: spoon to spoon
Sd: (move spoon and and plate) put with same while handing child spoon
R: spoon to spoon.
Sd (move plate and spoon around) put with same and hand child plate
R: plate to plate
Sd: place spoon and cup on table and hand child cup and say put with same
R: cup to cup.
Sd: move cup and spoon and around and say “put with same” and hand spoon.
R: spoon to spoon.
Here is a sample of how to record this data:
Target Items:
|
Initials /date |
Target Item |
#c/#T |
Prompt |
Nontarget items |
#c/#T |
Comment |
|
AC 12/12/99 |
3 |
2/3 |
Pointed to spoon |
1 2. |
3/3 4/4 |
RR: missed 1st trial. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This shows me that this was done in RR. It also shows that there was a prompt used in this BUT the child missed the very first child. Two things could have occurred. The child could have just not been listening at the start of the sitting or the child dind’t know it very well and relearned it through practice. Definitely hit this more later.
The child should hit this at 90% over three consecutive sessions, two tutors, and at least a full night between sitting..
If you prompt, it isn’t correct. Note the type of prompt you use. HOH (hand over hand) FVP (full verbal prompt) are BIG TIME prompts. By noting the prompt, the next tutor can come in and try a reduced prompt if possible :
PPP (partial physical prompt) PP (point prompt) PVP (partial verbal prompt)