Spelling and writing, oh my! TAGteach saves the day.

TAGteach is so versatile

Not only does TAGteach help with behavior, you can also use it to help kids overcome learning obstacles.

Here are two examples of how people used TAGteach to help kids who were unhappy about completing their spelling and writing assignments. These were quick, spur-of-the-moment interventions, but they created great outcomes.

TAGteach and Spelling

Rosie G., a parent from the UK, has a lovely daughter who needed to practice her spelling. Rosie explains, “Sophie really didn’t want to practice her spelling [word]s and we were on the verge of a major tantrum but I tagged each ‘correct’ letter of each word and we got through it calmly.”

Example: Spell “crisis.” The tag point is: “Say letter.”

“C” tag

“R” tag

“I” tag

“S” tag

“I” tag

“S” tag

Great job Rosie and Sophie! The precise reinforcement of each correct letter told Sophie she was right! She experienced continuous success, reinforcement and praise. Her emotions changed from anger to calm.

TAGteach and Writing

A friend was working with a young girl with a developmental disability, who balked at writing four long sentences on a worksheet. The tutor calmly pulled out a tagger and tagged the student for every letter of every word she wrote in the workbook.

The tag point was: “Write letter.” The tutor tagged each time the girl wrote a letter. After every ten tags she earned a ticket to trade in for treats or trinkets. The girl’s writing pace actually picked up and settled into a smooth, cheerful rhythm. Outcome: workbook exercises completed calmly and on time.

Conclusion

These two simple interventions show how TAGteach can quickly change a stressful situation into a calm situation. In each of these cases, the student was unhappy, upset or apprehensive about doing the work. With continuous support, success and a nice reinforcer at the end, both girls completed their assignments accurately and happily.

What is TAGteach?

TAGteach stands for Teaching with Acoustical Guidance. TAGteach is a teaching and communication method based on the scientific principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).

TAGteach enables extremely precise positive reinforcement of behavior by using an acoustical signal to “mark” the behavior – at the precise moment the child performs the behavior! The acoustical signal is a short, sharp sound made by a handheld device (the “tagger”). When the child performs the correct action, the parent/instructor immediately presses the button on the tagger and hands over a treat (candy, treat, token, praise, social recognition, or money) as a reinforcer.

With TAGteach, it is easy to reinforce behaviors precisely and quickly. The immediate, accurate feedback and positive reinforcement result in the child performing the correct action more often, and for longer periods of time. With immediate feedback and learning tasks broken down into small steps, children (and adults) can learn many new skills with TAGteach — at their own pace.