1. On different recordings, record teachers and a parent reading children's stories and nursery rhymes using an audio recorder. Each recording should be 5 or more min- utes in length. The taped voices are to be conditioned as reinforcers for listening. The students' selection or depression responses are direct measures of listening. 2. There are two conditions in which the taped voices will be used. One of the condi- tions will be the training setting, and the other will be a free-choice listening oppor- tunity. The free-choice listening condition involves having the child sit at a desk or
table with the tape recorder in front of them
and no toys or other distracting stimuli on the table. Typically the child wears head- phones. While wearing the earphones the child can touch a piece of colored paper (about the size of a half-dollar) that is taped to the table to indicate that the tape should be played. As long as the child is touching the paper, the teacher ensures that the tape continues. When the child stops touching the paper, the teacher stops the tape, and it's restarted when the child touches the paper. Preferably use a device that allows the child to control the voices. These are available from companies that provide products to speech therapists and educators.
3. Data consist of the number of whole inter- val 5-second intervals in a 5-minute ses- sion the child touches the paper or selects the voices. Whole interval means that the child has to touch the paper or depress the button that controls the voices for the entire 5 seconds for the response to be correct. Use continuous measurement recording to collect data. That is, each new interval directly follows the previous interval. When the child meets the crite- rion just specified, this indicates that the voices have acquired conditioned rein- forcement for listening. This condition is
done before training sessions begin and after the criterion is met. Obviously if the child meets the criterion for listening in the pretest, the child has conditioned rein- forcement for listening to voices.
4. The tapes are used in the training setting and different voices are used from session to session or within sessions. During the training sessions, there are training trials and testing trials. During the training trial, two or three adult approvals and two or three edible reinforcers are paired in one interval. Alternate training trials with two pairings or three pairings. That is,
rotate the trials such that one involves two
pairings and one involves three pairings. Have the child touch the paper and start the tape. Reinforcement pairing occurs when the student is touching the paper. If the child removes their finger, start the pairing trial again. After a single training trial in which the child has listened to the entire interval with the pairing in effect, if the child is listening, continue a testing trial for the same interval as the pairing trial. If the child stops after the pairing trial and has met the pairing trial criterion, have them touch the paper again and start the tape. If they continue to listen for the 5-second interval this constitutes a plus (+) interval. If they stop it is a minus (—). Pro- ceed to the next train/test trial. A single session consists of 20 train/test trials until the criterion is achieved as specified under the procedure just described.
5. When the child meets the training crite- rion, do the free-listening probe. If the criterion for the free-listening probe is not met go back to the train/test trials and increase the interval by an additional 5 seconds but maintaining the two and three reinforcer pairing. See the description for the interval progression.
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R E S E A R C H B O X 3.4
Conditioning Books and Toys
to Replace Stereotypy
In two experiments, researchers tested the effects of conditioning stimuli (toys and books) as reinforcers on stereotypy and passivity. Participants were one preschooler and three elementary school children with autism who showed passivity or stereotypy when in the free play area. Results showed that passivity and stereotypy decreased, and play interactions increased as a function of the book-conditioning procedure. Results suggested that stereotypy may have a play function, which can be replaced with appropriate play behavior. Also see Tsai and Greer (2006); Greer, Becker, et al. (1985); Greer, Dorow, Wachhaus, & White (1973); Sundberg, Michael, Partington, & Sundberg (1996).
From Nuzzolo-Gomez, R., Leonard, M. A., Ortiz, E., Rivera-Valdes, C. L., & Greer, R. D. (2002). Teaching children with autism to prefer books or toys over stereotypy or passivity. Journal
of Positive Behavior Interventions, 4, 80-87.
child has difficulty with this auditory-matching protocol, consider doing the voice-conditioning procedure and then returning to the auditory-matching protocol that we describe in this section. The capacity to be governed by spoken consonant- vowel combinations (words, phonemes, and morphemes) emitted by a speaker is a crit- ical verbal capability, and it is a major achievement when a child first responds to speech. The auditory-matching protocol is useful in inducing that capability for chil- dren when it is missing.
Before teaching students the auditory matching of words, you can also probe for the listener component of naming and for echoic-to-mand responses or echoics (the procedures for doing so are in subsequent sections of the current chapter as well as in Chapters 2 and 4). This is useful because in some cases mastering the auditory- matching protocol has resulted in the emergence of some components of naming.
The listener component of naming is present when, without instruction, a child can point to a stimulus after receiving instruction on matching it. For example, a teacher says the name of stimuli during matching instruction (i.e., "Match red with red"), and a child can later point to the stimulus upon hearing the teacher say, "Point to (name of stimulus) " If the child has the listener component of naming, they will point to the correct stimulus simply because they heard the word during the matching instruction and not because they received direct instruction for the pointing response. If the child does not have the listener component of naming, is having difficulty with the listener emersion protocol, or has poor or nonexistent echoic responses, then they will need instruction in the auditory-matching protocol.
To begin, obtain sound reproduction devices such as BigMack® Buttons that can be quickly recorded and manipulated (a computer program for doing this protocol is in the process of being developed). Identify sets of words and sounds to be recorded on the device. Since it is important that the procedure move along quickly, it is advantageous if
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C H A P T E R 3FIGURE 3.5 Conditioning Toys as Reinforcers
you have several pre-recorded buttons so that target words and sounds can be quickly alternated between learn unit presentations. In our applications, we have found that 12 buttons are sufficient. Select words that are preferred items for potential use as mands; as potential tacts, select pictures of common objects that are not preferred items. One device (e.g., one BigMack® Button) is in front of the teacher, and the child has two of the devices (e.g., two BigMack Buttons) in front of them. Sounds may include a baby crying, cats meowing, cars starting, or dogs barking paired with the non-exemplars of no sound, white sound, or water running/trumpets playing, brushing teeth, and clap- ping. Words may include juice, bus, pen, or book paired with non-exemplars of water running/trumpets playing/brushing teeth, or clapping; nonsensical phonemes such as "baba, ehe, tete, or aca," or words such as house, clock, door, chair, swimming, three, jack, and bed. It is important that the sounds be clear sounds that are readily distinguishable. See Table 3.3 for auditory matching materials.
In auditory matching, the stimuli change for each short-term objective, but the teaching procedure remains the same. Three buttons are on the table; the teacher has one and the student has two. The teacher's button is always the positive exemplar or the exemplar or sample that the child is to match, and the student's buttons are always one positive and one negative exemplar (see Figure 3.6). First, the teacher presses her own button and then presses each of the student's buttons. Next, the teacher presses her button again and says, "Now you do it." The student presses the positive exemplar button from the two buttons in front of them. If their response is correct, reinforce it;
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FIGURE 3.6 Picture of the BigMack® Buttons used for Auditory Matching
if it is incorrect, model or physically prompt the correct "button-pressing" response as a correction. Rotate the location of the buttons for each learn unit. After a few ses- sions, the student will independently press all three (the teacher's and their own) before selecting the positive exemplar. If they do not, use a zero-second time delay procedure. This process of pressing the teacher's buttons, their own buttons, and then pressing the button that matches the teacher's continues for each short-term objective oudined in the next section. As is the case for most of the verbal development proto- cols there are several sub-objectives that are met in order to induce a new capability. Mastery criterion is 90% for two consecutive 20-learn unit sessions or a single session at 100% accuracy.