Science Archives - Page 7 of 11 - Autism: Chaos to Calm

Behavior Basics 33 and 34: End of Week Wrap-up

March 21, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

33. Slow reinforcement is ineffective for teaching a child, especially one with autism.

A child with autism lives in the moment. He is keenly aware of what is happening right now, and often, right now he has at least three or four behaviors (physical movements) going on simultaneously. Those movements change very quickly—every few seconds he’s doing other actions. Let’s say the child momentarily does one action that you wish to reinforce, so you run over and say, “Hey, good boy for doing that,” and hand out a treat. I timed myself walking a distance of 12 feet, saying, “Hey, good boy for doing that,” and handing over a treat. It took 4 seconds. In those 4 seconds, a child with autism has performed many more movements and is thinking about those new movements. The one you liked, that happened about 5 or 6 seconds ago, is history. So if you walk over to your child, praise him and hand over a treat, you are too slow and too late. The child won’t know what you reinforced. He won’t know what you want him to do again. Your reinforcement will be ineffective because it is not paired precisely with the desired behavior. Effective reinforcement is timely, on-time, and precise information. It tells the child, “That thing you are doing right now is great. Do it some more.” Our voices and words, of which we are so enamored, are slow, clumsy and too late to give exact, pinpoint information to the child. So, help the child out. Make sure that, during the time that he is doing a desired action, he gets the information, “YES. That’s right,” and now a treat is on the way. See Behavior Basic #34 for more information.

34. What’s the solution to late reinforcement? Use a conditioned reinforcer.

In Behavior Basic #33 we discussed the fact that a child with autism needs pinpoint accuracy of reinforcement in order to know that he should do a behavior again. We cannot provide such speedy, accurate reinforcement with our slow voices or confusing gestures. An excellent way to provide fast, timely information to the child is with an acoustical signal, a “tag,” or click-sound, made by a tagger. The best way to reinforce a child is when he is actually doing the behavior you want — to reinforce in that “right now” micro-second. How can you reinforce so quickly? With a TAGteach tagger. A tagger allows you to provide split-second information to the child while he is performing the desired behavior. So the procedure is: observe child, tag desired behavior, give treat. By following up each tag with a treat, the tag becomes a “conditioned reinforcer.” When the child hears the tag, he knows a treat is coming his way. Eventually, the sound of the tag is reinforcing in and of itself. He learns to listen for the tag, think about what he was doing that earned the tag, and then perform the behavior again—because it brought about a pleasant consequence. Precise, timely reinforcement builds behaviors faster. There is nothing else like it.

REMINDER: This concludes the wrap-up of Behavior Basics for the week. Please remember the schedule: On the release date of each module, the Behavior Basics for that module will be compiled into a PDF ebook available from our blog and Facebook page. Click on this link to download the entire series of 42 Behavior Basics for free: http://statictab.com/m7bizwt.

TAGteacher tale: Skill and faith – shaping behavior in a child with autism

March 17, 2014February 15, 2016 Joan Orr

By Joan Orr MSc

There are two things that a TAGteacher needs to be successful. These are skill in applying the technology and faith in the technology. The skill comes from having a good understanding of the principles underlying the science of behavior, having a good understanding of the principles of TAGteach and lots of tagging practice. The faith comes from experience and seeing it work again and again and just knowing that it works.

Denise Blackman posted a story to the TAGteach Yahoo group that gives a perfect illustration of the combination of skill and faith resulting in a successful outcome.

Here is Denise’s post (reposted with permission):

I don’t normally post, but I had a fun experience today and want to share it.

I work as a consultant to a preschool program for children with autism. Yesterday we were discussing one of the kids, “Robert”, an almost 4-year-old boy who does not currently speak, make eye contact, imitate, play with others, or follow most directions.

One of the many things “Robert” is working on is writing. His writing goal is to draw a vertical line. Unfortunately he wasn’t making any progress on the goal. Rather than trying to copy the line, he just scribbled on the paper. We decided to try TAGteach with him.

Behavior Basics 31 and 32: End of Week Wrap-up

March 14, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

31. The timing of the reinforcer tells the child what he did right.

We have talked about how children with autism may have many behaviors (physical movements) going on at the same time. At some point, the child will perform a movement that you want to see happen more often. When this one specific movement is happening–in the blur of many other movements–the only way to distinguish it from the blur of activity is with pinpoint timing. With TAGteach you can pinpoint that micro-second of desired action by pressing the tagger, and then delivering the reinforcement as quickly as possible after that. The child knows that the sound means that a treat is coming, so the child pays attention to what he or she does that causes the sound to happen. The pinpoint timing of the tag (click sound) gives the child information about which specific movement is earning the reinforcement. When the child with autism knows exactly which behavior is earning reinforcement, he or she will do that action more often.

32. Late reinforcement is ineffective for teaching a child, especially one with autism.

Children with autism often perform many behaviors in quick succession and in changing sequences. When they are performing behaviors (physical movements) so quickly, it is a challenge for us to tell them exactly which behavior we want, and it is a challenge for them to figure it out. Generally, people use their voices to tell a child, “Good job,” or, “That’s it.” The problem is that words come out of our mouths a second or two after the child does the behavior, plus the words themselves take one or two seconds to emerge: this means a three to five second delay in getting information to the child. In that three to five second period, the child will have performed several other behaviors. How can the child figure out, in his confusing world, what that praise was intended for, even assuming he can understand the words? The information is too late to have meaning for him. The late praise and even later delivery of reinforcement will slow down the child’s learning process. Why create confusion and delay when we can provide real-time, split-second information? Delay is the last thing a child with autism needs. Fast timely action brings much better results.

TAGteach, a waiting game where both parties win!

March 10, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

The waiting game

In a game, there is usually a winner and a loser. TAGteach involves waiting, but this waiting game ends up with two winners and no losers. Here’s how the TAGteach Waiting Game works:

TAGteach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) is a wonderful tool for teaching children with autism. It has many features that make it highly effective for this population. TAGteach combines an acoustical signal (a “tag” or click) with positive reinforcement to increase functional behaviors.

The acoustical signal or “tag” delivers precise, timely information to the child about what he or she has done that is correct. The tag is quick and requires no words, so the parent can reinforce a desired behavior more quickly and more often, and the child has more opportunities to learn.

With TAGteach, the desired behavior is broken down into small parts so the child can learn one small step at a time. And finally, TAGteach is based on the principles of ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis). The most important scientific law of ABA is that a behavior that is reinforced is a behavior that will occur again. By reinforcing appropriate, functional behaviors, you will teach a child to perform these behaviors more often and for longer periods of time.

First step -Assess and decide

The first step, when starting with TAGteach, is to assess your child. There is a free, downloadable Child Observation Chart on this website that you can use to make notes about your child’s behaviors (physical movements of the body). Five minutes of observation will give you an eye-opening description of your child’s behaviors.

Whenever I do the observation with my child, I’m always surprised at the difference between what I think is going on and what is actually going on. Once you have a list of what the child is doing, you can decide which behaviors you would like to see more often. If the child storms about the house a lot, you probably would like him to walk slowly. If the child screams a lot, you probably would like more Quiet Mouth or Appropriate Vocalization behavior.

Behavior Basics 29 and 30: End of the Week Wrap-up

March 7, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

29. You must give the reinforcer at the exact moment the child does the behavior.

In Behavior Basic 28 we discussed the importance of timing when reinforcing behavior in a child with autism. You must reinforce the child at the precise moment he does the desired physical movement. If you reinforce too early or too late, the child will be confused; he won’t know what he did to earn the reinforcer, so he probably won’t repeat that exact desired movement. It is not easy to reinforce a child at the split second he does a desired movement, but TAGteach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) makes it easy. When I set out to teach my son to kick a ball, my first tag point (physical movement to reinforce) was “Walks near ball.” The ball was out in the yard and every time he dashed within five feet of it I tagged and gave him a reward. Even though he was busy running and yowling, he realized very quickly that being in the vicinity of that ball resulted in very nice consequences. Soon he was running and walking around the ball, just the result I wanted.

30. The timing of the reinforcer is information for the child.

In Behavior Basic 29 I described how I tagged my son every time he dashed within five feet of a ball. This was Step One of my program to teach him to kick the ball. Because my son heard the tag and received reinforcement when he ran or walked within five feet of the ball, he deduced that the area around the ball was a great place to be. I did not verbally ask him to approach the ball. I did not show him how to walk near the ball. I did not take him by the hand and drag him to the ball. All I did was tag him precisely when he was in the vicinity of it. The quick click of the tagger and the reinforcement gave him this information. We accomplished Step One quickly, easily and with no stress and no exasperation.

What if you could push a button for better behaviors in your child with autism? Impossible? With TAGteach it can be done!

February 24, 2014November 6, 2017 Martha Gabler

Would you wish for this button?

Many of us autism parents wish we could sometimes just push a button that would change our kids’ behaviors. We joke, “I wish my kid had an off-switch.” Many of our kids have challenging behaviors that disrupt normal and necessary family activities like grocery shopping, going out in the car, or simply taking a walk.

We would like our children to have the skills that would allow them to participate in family and community life. Well, it’s possible, and you can do it by pressing a button.

A special button

However, the button I’m going to discuss is not an ordinary button. This button is placed on top of a small clicker device called a “tagger.” With a tagger and some basic information about using positive reinforcement any parent can build better behaviors in a child with significant behavior challenges. I know because I did this with my child. Here’s an example, and an explanation.

Pressing a button to increase calm behaviors

My son is now a teenager; at age three he was diagnosed with severe autism, plus he was profoundly nonverbal. Like many children with autism, my son was often very agitated. It was sad to see him so agitated that he couldn’t enjoy life, so I started to think about how to help him feel calmer. First I spent some time observing him. I noticed that when he was agitated he displayed a lot of physical activity: darting about, bouncing on one foot or two feet, swiveling his arms, and of course, shrieking. Since I knew about TAGteach, I decided to “tag” and reinforce the following physical movements: Quiet Mouth, Hands Still, and Feet Still.

Behavior Basics 25 and 26: End of week wrap-up

February 22, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

25. To build a desired behavior, reinforce it every time it occurs.

The scientific laws of behavior tell us that positive reinforcement increases a behavior. The next step to talk about is how often to reinforce a behavior. The general rule is, to build a behavior you must reinforce this new desired behavior every time it occurs! Naturally this takes vigilance, but it is important for the child. He has to experience that every time he does this particular desired action (touches a block, puts a puzzle piece in place, says “thank you”), he will receive a reward of his liking. This experience will cause him to repeat the behavior more often. When this happens, you are well on the way to building a new behavior. Reinforcing an action every time it occurs is called a “continuous reinforcement schedule.” Continuous reinforcement is the first part of a behavior building plan. TAGteach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) is an excellent tool when building behavior with a continuous reinforcement schedule. TAGteach allows you to “tag” and reinforce behaviors precisely and much more frequently than with verbal praise or other methods. With TAGteach you can reinforce a behavior every few seconds, or almost continuously, if the child is displaying the behavior at a high rate. It’s an invaluable tool for this stage of the behavior building process.

26. Remember, movements are behaviors. Behaviors are movements.

Let’s review what a behavior is. A behavior is one or more physical movements of the body. A behavior may be simple and use only one physical movement (turning the head to look at the source of a sound) or it be complex and require several different physical movements in a particular sequence (washing hands). Many times we think of the desired end result of our teaching process as a “behavior,” without taking the time to break that behavior down into separate physical movements of the arms, legs, head or torso. It is much easier and faster to teach one small physical movement at a time than a constellation of different movements in a sequence. It is much easier and faster for a child to learn one small physical movement at a time than a complex sequence of movements. You want the child to have success, so break the behavior down into physical movements she can do. TAGteach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) is an invaluable tool for breaking a behavior down into its component physical movements. You can only tag one small movement at a time, so simply holding the tagger in your hand makes you think about what specific movement you want the child to do.

Marco Polo, Wandering and TAGteach

February 17, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler 2 Comments

Legend tells us that Marco Polo wandered across the deserts of Asia to reach the fabled cities of China. Our children with autism can be wanderers too, a source of worry to parents and caregivers. To compound the problem of wandering, many times our kids’ verbal abilities are limited so they cannot respond to shouts or hails. After one frightening episode, I used TAGteach to teach my son a verbal response so that he would be able to answer us if we were looking for him.

Years ago, my son disappeared from sight one afternoon when we were momentarily distracted. Instantly we and several neighbors fanned out looking for him. Nobody could find him. I finally went inside the house and thought to look around carefully. Luckily, I found him out of sight, but curled up in a big chair. Even though I had called out to him, he had not answered. We realized he had to be able to answer us verbally if we were looking for him.

Where is Douglas?

Initially, I sat down with him and taught him to respond to the question, “Where is Douglas?” by waving his arm and shouting “Here.” That worked fairly well, but a question like “Where is Douglas?” or “Where is Tommy?” may be an emotionally laden question for the child. Is he in trouble? Oh no, maybe he should stay quiet! My husband came up with the great idea of teaching him to respond to “Marco” with “Polo.” Everyone knows this phrase; it’s a common game that kids play in the pool during the summer.

Behavior Basics 23 and 24: End of Week Wrap-Up

February 14, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

Behavior Basic #23. To build a desired behavior, reinforce it!

This is the core principle of Applied Behavior Analysis — the golden rule, the way of truth! When teaching, think of what you want the child to achieve (reading a sentence, setting the table, hanging up a coat). When the child performs that great behavior, reinforce it! Give him a treat, token, praise, appreciation, recognition, money, or anything pleasing The child will do that behavior again. When he does it again, reinforce it again! Reinforcement will result in that behavior becoming a routine activity for him. Then go on to the next step and build another great behavior.

Behavior Basid #24. To build a desired behavior, reinforce it immediately after it occurs.

We discussed how important it is to reinforce a behavior so that the child performs it again. But, there is an important detail to think about! When you reinforce the child, you have to do it right away! Reinforce as soon as she performs the behavior. When you reinforce right away, the child will know exactly what she has done that is right. Don’t dawdle or delay! Get in there right away and start handing out praise, thanks, treats, tokens, recognition, or whatever is pleasing to the learner. If you are late with the reinforcer, the child will be confused. What did she do to earn the treat? She won’t repeat the desired behavior and may repeat some other random behavior. The faster you are with immediate reinforcement, the faster the child will gain that great new skill.

Behavior Basics 21 and 22: End of the week wrap-up

February 7, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

21: A reinforcer increases the likelihood that a behavior will happen again.

When a child with autism receives a reinforcer after performing a desired action, the child will be more likely to do it again. The child has experienced a pleasant consequence and, as a rational being, would like to experience another pleasant consequence. This sets in motion a positive cycle, where the child makes more efforts to earn reinforcers, and thus performs the desired behavior again.

22: A reinforcer is anything that the learner likes and will work for (candy, stickers, money, praise, etc.).

A reinforcer can be anything, provided that the learner likes it. It can be candy, treats, tokens (for earning privileges), activities, puzzles, games, money, praise, recognition or the opportunity for social interaction. The important feature of the reinforcer is that the learner (not the instructor) values it and will work for it. Monitor the reinforcements you offer a learner to make sure that the learner continues to like them. If the learner gets tired of a particular reinforcer, try something else until you have some new items that he/she enjoys. Coming up with varied, enticing reinforcers is a wonderful skill to have.