Trainee: Lindsay Arnal

PhD Candidate 

StartDate: November 7, 2007

EndDate: present

University of Manitoba

Department: ABA Pyschology

Supervisor: Dr. C.T. Dickie Yu

Supervisor: Dr. Helene Ouellette-Kuntz 

Research Project: A Comparison of Consequences for Errors during Discrete-Trials Teaching with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

In a one-to-one teaching situation, a discrete-trial involves presenting an antecedent (e.g., task materials and prompts provided by the trainer) for a target response (e.g., a child matching a printed word to the corresponding picture among several pictures) and presenting a consequence following the child’s response. A correct response is usually followed by a reinforcing consequence such as praise and or a preferred edible and an incorrect response, by a correction procedure. These trials are typically presented in rapid succession. I propose to compare two multiple-practice procedures following errors, static vs. varied antecedent, during discrete-trials teaching of 3-choice matching-to-sample discriminations with children with autism spectrum disorders. In both procedures, a child will receive praise and a preferred edible after each correct response and will be required to repeat the correct response five times after an error. In the static antecedent procedure, the task stimuli for all five repetitions will be identical to the training trial when the error occurred. The varied antecedent procedure, on the other hand, will involve altering some irrelevant features of the task stimuli across repetitions. Both procedures will be compared to a no-practice, differential reinforcement, baseline training procedure in a within-subject alternating-treatments design, replicated across three children. I expect that some learning will occur with each procedure, but children will perform best with the varied antecedent procedure, followed by the static antecedent procedure, and lastly, differential reinforcement. Findings of this study should help to improve the effectiveness of discrete-trials teaching.

Publications

1. Arnal, L., Fazzio, D., Martin, G.L., Yu, C.T., Keilback, L., & Starke, M. (2007). Instructing Students to Conduct Discrete-Trials Teaching with Confederates Simulating Children with Autism. Developmental Disabilities Bulletin, 35, 131-147.

2. Babel, D. A., Martin, G. L., Fazzio, D., Arnal, L., & Thomson, K. (in press). Assessment of the reliability and validity of the discrete-trials teaching evaluation form. Developmental Disabilities Bulletin, paper accepted August 2008.

3. Fazzio, D., Martin, G. L., Arnal, L. & Yu, D. C. T. (in press). Instructing university students to conduct discrete-trials teaching with children with autism. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

4. Thiessen, C., Fazzio, D., Arnal, L., Martin, G., Keilback, L. (in press) Evaluating a self-instructional strategy plus monetary contingency to train instructors to conduct discrete-trials teaching with children with autism. Behaviour Modification, paper accepted 2008.

5. Thomson, K., Martin, G., Arnal, L., Fazzio, D., & Yu, C. T. (in press). Instructing individuals to deliver discrete-trails teaching to children with autism spectrum disorders: A review. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. 

 

6. Salem, S., Fazzio, D., Arnal, L., Fregeau, P., Thomson, K, Martin, G. L., & Yu, C.T. (in press). A self-instructional package for teaching university students to conduct discrete-trials teaching with children with autism. Developmental Disabilities Bulletin, paper accepted 2008.

Presentations

1. Arnal, L., Fazzio, D., Martin, G.L., Yu, C.T., Keilback, L., & Starke, M. (2007) Using a Self-Instructional Manual and Video Modeling to Teach Students to Conduct Discrete-Trials Teaching. Presented at the CIHR Video Conference Novemeber 21. Winnipeg, Manitoba.

2. Arnal, L., Fazzio, D., Martin, G.L., Yu, C.T., Keilback, L., & Starke, M. (2007, November). Poster presented at the 16th Annual St. Amant Conference for Developmental Disabilities and Autism. Winnipeg, Manitoba.

3. Arnal, L., Fazzio, D., Martin, G.L., Yu, C.T., Keilback, L., & Starke, M. (2007, November). Instructing Students to Conduct Discrete-Trials Teaching to Confederates Simulating Children with Autism. Poster presented at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Manitoba Association for Behavior Analysis. Winnipeg, Manitoba.

4. Arnal, L., Fazzio, D., Martin, G.L., Yu, C.T., Keilback, L., & Starke, M. (2007, November). Instructing Students to Conduct Discrete-Trials Teaching to Confederates Simulating Children with Autism. Poster presented at the 2008 Association for Behavior Analysis Convention in Chicago. Chicago, Illinois.

 

5. Fazzio, D., Martin, G.L., Yu, C.T., Arnal, L., Starke, M., & Keilback, L. (2007, September). Instructing Tutors and Parents to Conduct Discrete-Trials Teaching with Children with Autism. Presented at the 16th Annual St. Amant Conference for Developmental Disabilities and Autism. Winnipeg, Manitoba.

6. Fazzio, D., Martin, G.L., Yu, C.T., Arnal, L., Starke, M., & Keilback, L. (2007, November). Instructing Tutors and Parents to Conduct Discrete-Trials Teaching with Children with Autism. Presented at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Manitoba Association for Behavior Analysis. Winnipeg, Manitoba.

 

7. Martin, G., Arnal, L., Thiessen, C., Fazzio, D., & Yu, D. (2008, July). Evaluating a self-instructional manual to teach instructors to conduct discrete-trials teaching to children with autism. Poster presented at the XXIX International Congress of Psychology, Berlin, Germany.

 

8. Thiessen, C., Fazzio, D., Martin, G.L., Arnal, L., Keilback, L. (2007). Evaluating a self-instructional strategy plus monetary contingency to train instructors to conduct discrete-trials teaching with children with autism. Poster presented at the 2^nd Annual Conference of the Manitoba Association for Behavior Analysis. Winnipeg, Manitoba.