Behaviourist At Play

Repertoire-altering effect

Wed, 08 May 2013 23:31:00 -0400

Hi Anonymous,

I am not sure if this is a tact or a mand? For now, I am going to interpret this as either a) a request for #ABAchat topic or b) a request for me to write a post on this topic. I can certainly accomplish these both (in due time of course)!

Stay tuned!

~Tricia-Lee

Spring 2013 #ABAchat Schedule

Sun, 05 May 2013 11:41:52 -0400

Announcing the Spring 2013 #ABAchat schedule. As always, we welcome people from all areas of the field to join in a casual discussion on topics and issues relating to Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). For more information on what #ABAchat is and how to join, please read this.

A small change to note: we’ll be starting at 9:30 p.m. EST (instead of our usual 9 p.m. EST)

Topics were suggested by #ABAchat participants; however, other topic suggestions and offers to moderate/host the chats by people other than myself are always welcome. I often moderate the chats but I am by no means an expert at the topics being discussed. If you don’t see a topic that interests you, please offer to contribute to our #ABAchat community by hosting a chat, suggest articles to share etc.

Wednesday May 8, 2013 - Effectiveness of praise*

Wednesday May 15, 2013 - The use of apps for behaviour analysis.* Hosted by Kathy Murphy, SLP, BCBA and Summer Conway, Special Education Teacher

*Please note that the topics for these dates may alternate as we’re waiting to confirm dates of our guest moderators!

Wednesday May 22, 2013 - no ABAchat this week! We’ll pause as people will be preparing for, or travelling to #ABAI2013. Follow the hashtag for #ABAI2013 to keep up with new ideas and presentations at this year’s conference!

Wednesday May 29, 2013 - Ethical Corner: Balancing “least restrictive” with “most effective” - decision making tools and criteria

Wednesday June 5, 2013 - Assessment tools used in ABA: VB-MAPP, ABLLS, AFLS

Wednesday June 12, 2013 - Home-based ABA programs: ethics and parent involvement

Wednesday June 19, 2013 - Token economies - introduction of, application and monitoring, troubleshooting

Wednesday June 26, 2013 - Journal Club **send us your suggestions, articles you’d like to discuss with peers!

Looking forward to our chats together! Have a question or topic idea? Find me on Twitter (@behaviouratplay) or drop me a line in my ‘ask’ box.

~Tricia-Lee

When someone brings up my specialty at a party

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:06:00 -0400

allmyfriendsareacademics:

Mention behaviour, behaviour change, behaviourism, B.F. Skinner, reinforcement, punishment and this is me!

How do you assess 1) setting events 2)MO's ?

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 17:49:12 -0400

Hi Anonymous and thanks for the question. Before I answer, I’ll refer readers to previous posts on 1) setting events and 2) motivating operations (MOs)

I tend to assess for these variables through observation and recording of the antecedent conditions that are present before the target behaviour occurs - i.e., the who, what, where, when of the situation before (see Horner, 1994). Some of the environmental variables I may make a point of noting include:

Clarity and ease of work expectations - is the work too difficult or boring? Are the expectations clear? Sometimes these variables act as the establishing operation (EO) for escape.
Addition of other sensory stimuli in the environment - noise level, proximity to others, lights, temperature, smells.
Occurrence of minor disappointments (i.e., delays or denied access to reinforcers, preferred activities) and/or changes to the routine. Sometimes a few of these happening together or one after the other “set-up” our learner to have a tougher time coping with the next disappointment or change.
Biomedical signs or symptoms: is the client more sleepy? Have they eaten lately? Are they showing signs of pain or discomfort? Have they come from a period of highly active or sedentary level of activity?
Communication from home or other caregivers. Sometimes caregivers will inform us that the person did not sleep well, or they’re coming down with something.

Once I have a hypothesis about a possible setting event or MO affecting the behaviour I may then move to a more direct measurement of these events (where possible) or I compare rates of the target behaviour under one condition versus another. Some of the things I’ve directly measured or compared include:

Tracking when and how often positive reinforcement is delivered, how often the person experiences success
The inter-response time between an event and the target behaviour.
Comparing rates of the behaviour between two different types of activities (e.g., individual work versus group work; seated work versus motor tasks, preferred activities versus non-preferred; see Dunlap, Kern-Dunlap, Clarke & Robins, 1991; Foster-Johnson, Ferro & Dunlap, 1994).
Weekly rates of the behaviour when person is premenstrual versus not
Comparing rates of behaviour against the barometric pressure (where our hypothesis was person experiencing migraines related to weather conditions).

This is the beauty of the scientist-practitioner model inherent in the standards of Applied Behaviour Analysis. We use measurements of events before, during and after to determine what may (or may not) be a setting event or an MO contributing to the occurrence of the behaviour. Just as every person and their behavioural repertoire is unique, so are the various assessment methods we may use to confirm that a functional relationships exists.

References:

Dunlap, G., Kern-Dunlap, L., Clarke, S. & Robbins, F.R. (1991). Functional assessment, curricular revisions and severe behavior problems. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 24(2), 387-397.

Foster-Johnson, L., Ferro, J. & Dunlap, G. (1994). Preferred curricular activities and reduced problem behaviors in students with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 27(3), 493-504.

Horner, R.H. (1994). Functional assessment: Contributions and future directions. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 27(2), 401-404.

Did you see that cop car?

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:44:33 -0400

Under the overpass? Waiting for people to whiz by doing more than 120 km/hour? I did. And what did that signal? That punishment is ready and available if I don’t slow down. So I decreased my speed.

Cop cars hiding out in obscure places: being an effective S^DP since before you read about behaviourism.

barefootbehavior: Often times the simplest explanation for...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:53:44 -0400

barefootbehavior:

Often times the simplest explanation for behavior is the best. #behavioranalysis #parsimony

Antecedent Control All Over Those Mini-Eggs: Part II

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:29:00 -0400

Just when I thought I had arranged my environment just so, a big bag of Cadbury mini eggs showed up at our team meeting.

I think we can predict what happened next.

Antecedent Control All Over Those Mini-Eggs

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 08:20:00 -0400

This is a story of how not to find yourself eating all the Easter chocolates you bought for the kids.

I thought I was being a good auntie by getting all the Easter stuff ahead of time. I brought all the goods inside the house to deal with later. This was probably a bad move since before I could gift them, I started to creep inside the bag and eat some of the chocolate. Chocolate was just sitting there, ready and available, signaling what yummy reinforcement would likely come if I ate some. And so I did.

And boy did it reinforce the behaviour! The next day I ate more. The day after that another bag of mini-eggs disappeared in my mouth. As long as there was preferred chocolate in the house, I was eating it. It was too easy. This continued to the point of needing to go back to the store to replace what I had eaten. The goods were spread too thin for me to proudly deliver what remained.

Rather than purchase the same chocolate and find myself in a similar situation, I decided to arrange some of the antecedent (i.e. before behaviour) variables by getting a particular brand of chocolates I did not like. Since I tend to avoid these chocolates (because they’re punishing), their presence in my house would not cue me to eat them. Those chocolate then made it to their rightful owners.

Problem solved on my end. My sister however has something else to say about that!

Related posts:

Antecedent control to wash my face

Post-It Notes as antecedent cues

Summer Reading?

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 23:08:00 -0400

cognitivedefusion replied to your post: Watch MY Language

Finally finished reading the RFT book I had been putting off forever. Astounding read, covers the basics starting with Skinner and basically picks up where he left off. Highly suggested!

Yes, I want to dive deeper into RFT as a little side project or distraction from reading my BACB exam prep materials. It might make the beach bag this summer.

Watch MY Language

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 22:40:00 -0400

Ever since I have been in this field and learned more about Skinner’s (1957) Verbal Behavior I find myself analyzing written language and communication: catching any word or sentence that might function differently (i.e., have a different meaning or outcome) for someone else. I am watching what I say and don’t say.

There’s not much time (or space) to get into all the specifics of verbal behaviour in this post, but the key points to know from a behaviour analytic viewpoint are:

Verbal behaviour functions differently depending on the context before and after. Behaviour analysts are more interested in its function than its form. One word can function differently depending on this context. Example: If I say “doughnut” I might be requesting a doughnut. This is called a mand. I might be labeling one that I see. This is called a tact. Or I might be answering someone’s question about what I like to eat. This is known as an intraverbal. All three examples I gave are three different functions of verbal behaviour using the same form, “doughnut”. It’s not obvious which function is at play unless you consider what is going on before and after.
With verbal behaviour, there is both a “speaker” and a “listener” role for whom the behaviour has a different functional relationship. If I ask the question, “Where do you live?” I am manding. The person hears my question and replies with “I live in Toronto”. That is an intraverbal.

I want my verbal behaviour to function as effectively and efficiently as possible. To accomplish that, I have adopted parsimony in what I say and write. I often plan and rehearse what I’m going to say before I go to say it. It takes me several read-overs of an email - both before I press send and ones that I receive - so that I can take both the listener and speaker perspective. I want to make sure I pause on having that knee-jerk reaction to what other may write or say to me. I obsessively read and re-read emails, tweets, blog posts etc. looking for the function.

The curse of being a behaviour analyst (in training) is that you.never.stop.thinking.about.this.stuff. I may be efficient in what I say. I just don’t know how efficient I am with my time.

Reference:

Skinner, B.F. (1957). Verbal Behavior. Copley Publishing Group.

Related Posts:

And what words should I use?

The functions of a compliant

The R-word for example

Does studying for my BACB exam count? Future me will be very...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 16:29:43 -0400

Does studying for my BACB exam count? Future me will be very happy if I pass.

Thanks for the follow! Do u know any good ABA blogs to follow?

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 10:11:00 -0400

Thanks for follow as well! I have roll call of other ABA-related blogs on my main page linked here: http://behaviouristatplay.tumblr.com/rollcall

I will add your blog to the list. Do you know of any others?

Because I want to know more about human behaviour. Because I...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 12:58:00 -0400

Because I want to know more about human behaviour.

Because I want to understand why people do what they do and how they learned to do it in the first place.

When curious, I am behaviourist at play.

I would love to believe in this philosophy. My love for the job...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:05:25 -0400

I would love to believe in this philosophy. My love for the job is distinct from my feelings of having done work. The job is hard work (as are most jobs I’m sure). I keep doing my job because I love what I do and the reinforcement that comes with it: seeing an individual who has been included and is successful in their community.

EDD: What's been your experience with IEPs?

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:12:00 -0400

vwalker:

Useful, informative document with good input from the team? Ridiculous, time-consuming paperwork no one follows? Cooperative meetings? Dreadful meetings? Standards-based?

I am a non-educator team member who may inform IEP goals, accommodations/strategies and methods of assessment. I don’t write them so I can’t comment re: time spent on them. The team is always going back to the student’s IEP to make sure we’re being realistic and that interventions being suggested match up or can be added to it. Outcomes from the functional behaviour assessments we conduct often suggest skills to teach (e.g., replacement behaviours). We treat the IEP as fluid, a work in progress. The IEP guides me in focusing my support to the student and classroom staff.

Team Teachers: Today is #Education Dare Day!

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:43:00 -0400

Team Teachers: Today is #Education Dare Day!:

teamteachers:

When an Education Dare Day is announced from this blog:

Reblog the announcement!

Ask one question related to education on your tumblr for your followers to answer. Post the responses in one single post later.

Ask at LEAST 2 of the tumblrs in the #education community a question in their ask…

Here is my question:

My role is to visit classrooms to assess, collaborate and provide consultation regarding a student’s behaviour in class (typically challenging behaviour). I also coach staff on how to implement behaviour intervention strategies. As a non-educator with a very specific purpose/expertise, what is one thing I could do or say to make a visit to your classroom (and subsequent visits, meetings, communication etc.) more collaborative, successful?

Behavioural Skills Training

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 09:04:00 -0400

Eric and I were visiting my Oma and Opa the other day. They had recently acquired a new TV and digital cable box. My Opa, being the proud Fußballer that he is, ordered GoalTV so that he could watch Bundesliga games. The only problem was that he did not know how to find and access the channel. Without even knowing it, Eric goes into behavioural skills training mode by: 1) explaining how to access the channel; 2) next demonstrating how to access the channel; 3) then having my Opa practice it himself, while giving feedback. Not only that, but Eric then wrote down a step-by-step task analysis or “how-to” which we could leave with Opa. This would cue him when Eric (the “trainer”) was not around.

By the way, that’s two techniques based on applied behaviour analysis occurring right before my eyes! I am rubbing off on Eric!

Behavioural Skills Training (BST) model is a teaching approach often used for skills where either the real-life situation cannot occur because it is unethical to induce such a thing (e.g., fire, finding a gun; Miltenberger et al., 2005) or where an adult or trainer is likely to be not available in the moment to cue or tell someone what to do. BST has four main features: 1) explanation; 2) modeling; c) rehearsal; and 4) feedback. If feedback is not enough of a reinforcer, additional reinforcers may be delivered.

BST is the strategy behind fire drills, first aid/CPR courses, driver’s education, cooking classes and even staff training (Sarakoff & Sturmey, 2004); something we have all been a part of. The BST model is part of my consultation/coaching of support staff implementing positive behaviour support practices in their classrooms and a part of my workshops as well. People want hands-on experience but I can’t be there in the classroom for all of my trainees, so ensuring BST is a part of any workshop I give is important.

References:

Miltenberger, R.G., Gatheridge, B.J., Satterlund, M., Egemo-Helm, K.R., Johnson, B.M., Jostad, C, Kelso, P., & Flessner, C.A. (2005). Teaching safety skills to children to prevent gun play. An evaluation of in-situ training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 38(3), 395-398

Sarakoff, R.A. & Sturmey, P. (2004). The effects of behavioral skills training on staff implementation of discrete-trial teaching. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 37(4), 535-538.

Related Post:

Making Pudding!

Hmmmm….I didn’t realize colouring had such explicit...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:30:42 -0400

Hmmmm….I didn’t realize colouring had such explicit rules.

Perhaps this is an attempt at defining “good colouring” but I’m afraid we missed the point with respect to socially significant behaviour. Why do we care if children colour in the lines, or use colours that “make sense” with no white spaces? Why are we trying to intervene on colouring?

(via @Behaviourbabe) B.F. Skinner may have been an original...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:48:00 -0400

(via @Behaviourbabe)

B.F. Skinner may have been an original hipster. People thought his ideas were too radical. They feared behaviour technology in the hands of the “wrong people” not recognizing that the technology was in our possession all along.

We all influence behaviour in others, never mind our intent. Don’t you want to know more about how? How you could impart change?

Hi! I was curious if you were familiar with Precision Teaching/the Standard Celeration Chart and what your thoughts and opinions were about it.

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:54:00 -0500

Dear Anonymous

Thank you for your question. I am only familiar with Precision Teaching and Standard Celeration Charts as much as it was taught in my grad courses. I have not had any practical experience in these methods so I do not have any first-hand thoughts or opinions on it. From what I do know, it seems like a no-nonsense approach to teaching skills, moving students along when they have achieved mastery. The chart itself seems overwhelming with all the markings, but I’m sure more exposure to and practice will make it seem easier. Overall, I appreciate its emphasis on observable behaviour (like a good behaviour analyst should!) Counting a person’s demonstration of a skill over time tells us more about a student’s learning than one test score (i.e., one data point). If we’re not seeing progress in the data across several days, there is something ineffective about our teaching method and we can change that. Not much feedback or change happens with a “bad” test score (except for maybe blaming the student for not performing better). We may move onto the next lesson; never mind that test score or that a student might not have acquired the necessary skill.

When the education system is ready for another paradigm shift, perhaps precision teaching/direct instruction will find its way in there. I would like to see more use of the standard celeration sheets in our special-education classrooms where evaluation is already focused on measuring observable behaviours and less so on test scores. Where I live, it is a relatively new thing to have behaviour analysts in the education system. I am mostly doing functional behaviour assessments and consulting to teachers on intervention strategies for challenging behaviours. Perhaps in a few years, applied behaviour analysis will influence teaching practices as well?

I’m curious to know about other settings making use of precision teaching/direct instruction: how is it working?

Resources

http://www.binder-riha.com/PT_DI.pdf

http://celeration.org/