You’ve heard about the acoustical support, TAGteach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance). You may be wondering how it works in a real life teaching situation with real kids and real instructors. Here are three short videos, totaling 6 minutes, that show the “how” of TAGteach magic in action.
Video #1: The Lesson: TAGteach Parkour: Lazy Vault — Coaching Past Fear (2.47 minutes)
In this video, a young woman is learning to do a vault. She is dispirited and fearful. Her coaches observe and end up developing the following series of tag points:
- Jump off outside leg
- Switch feet
- Eyes on instructor — At this point the instructors stop to reconsider. The learner is frustrated. The instructor realizes there is a piece missing. She does the action herself and makes a new plan to proceed.
- Arm straight
- Jump off outside foot
- Leg straight before start
- Grab with back hand
Now watch the learner’s final performance!
Video #2: The Learners: Child Athletes Talk About TAGteach (0.45 minutes)
Listen to these young children tell what they think about TAGteach after experiencing a TAGteach lesson. It’s enlightening!
- You focus on the tag point
- You focus on one thing at a time
- They prefer to hear the clicker over “good job”
- The clicker doesn’t say “maybe” or “you should have been here”
- Coaches will tell you a bunch of corrections at the same time, and they’re hard to remember.
- It helps the coaches not to yell at you all the time
Video #3: The Instructor: TAGtennis Coach Loves TAGteach (2.18 minutes)
The tennis coach observes the following benefits of using TAGteach:
- The tag is a huge incentive
- Students are trying harder and working harder
- When they are tagged, it’s in the exact moment, so they can feel what’s going on
- Tagging is saving so much time and so much speech
- I’m not talking as much and I’m getting way more results; it’s way more efficient
- The kids can’t wait to get the tag; they’re working harder to get that tag
- It’s increased how fast they are learning and the value of what I can give them – in a much shorter time
As you can see from these videos, it’s a hit all around!
TAGteach delivers successful instruction that learners and instructors both enjoy. Best of all, kids learn faster and teachers teach more efficiently. Successful teaching, happy learners, satisfied instructors: this is what TAGteach delivers.
You too can do this
Pick up a tagger (or ballpoint pen, or flashlight with clicky top). Tag and reinforce an action that your child is doing that you like. See your child do that great action more often. Watch a new skill develop. Easy, effective, joyous.
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.
For more information visit the TAGteach website.
Join the free TAGteach Yahoo Group.
TAGteach taggers are available here.
See Martha’s book about TAGteach for Autism or feel free to ask me a question (with no obligation).
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