ERIC EJ798636: The Effects of Errorless Learning and Backward Chaining on the Acquisition of Internet Skills in Adults with Developmental Disabilities

2007·0.12 MB·English

by  ERIC

JOURNALOFAPPLIEDBEHAVIORANALYSIS 2007, 40, 185–189 NUMBER1 (SPRING2007)
THE EFFECTS OF ERRORLESS LEARNING AND
BACKWARD CHAINING ON THE ACQUISITION OF
INTERNETSKILLSINADULTSWITHDEVELOPMENTALDISABILITIES
JARED JEROME, ERIC P. FRANTINO, AND PETER STURMEY
QUEENSCOLLEGEANDTHEGRADUATECENTEROFTHECITY
UNIVERSITYOFNEWYORK
An important area in the learning and development of individuals with disabilities is the
acquisitionofindependent,age-appropriateleisureskills.Threeadultswithautismandmental
retardation were taught to access specific Internet sites using backward chaining and most-to-
least intrusive prompting. The number of independent steps completed in the task analysis
increasedfollowing training.
DESCRIPTORS: autism,computeruse, leisure skills
_______________________________________________________________________________
Age-appropriate leisure skills are important baseline (across students) and sequential with-
and valued for all individuals, and the use of drawaldesign.Afterthefirsttwotrainingsessions
personal computers has become an important in which picture prompts were used, the
form of leisure activity for many, including percentage of correct steps completed increased
those with developmental disabilities. Several across sessions for each participant. When the
prior investigations have demonstrated effective picture prompts were removed in the second
methods for training leisure skills to individuals baseline condition, however, the percentage of
with developmental disabilities. For example, correct steps decreased. The posttest and follow-
Luyben, Funk, Morgan, Clark, and Delulio up procedures showed a return to the high
(1986) trained 3 adults with mild mental percentages found after the first two training
retardation a side-of-the-foot soccer pass using sessionswithpictureprompts.Thus,Franketal.
chainingandprompting.Thepasswasanalyzed demonstrated that picture prompts were very
into nine steps that were taught sequentially effective in the training of computer skills to
through forward chaining with a varying degree individuals with developmental disabilities.
of prompts as training progressed. At first, Although these studies show that adults with
verbal instruction plus a physical prompt were developmental disabilities can learn both leisure
used. These were succeeded by imitative and computer skills using prompting, forward
prompts, gestural prompts, and finally, verbal andbackwardchaining,anddifferentialreinforce-
promptsalone.Eventuallythetargetbehaviorof ment,nopreviousresearchhasshownthatadults
side passing the soccer ball was learned without with developmental disabilities can be taught to
prompts for all participants. use the Internet to access age-appropriate adult
Frank, Wacker, Berg, and McMahon (1985) leisure activities. Thus, the aim of the current
taught 5 individuals with mental retardation to studywastoteachadultswithautismandmental
performtwocomputertasks.Therewere32steps retardationtoaccessage-appropriateWebsiteson
required to initiate and terminate a spelling the Internet using a combined errorless learning
program and 23 steps required to initiate and and backward chaining procedure.
terminateaclockprogramonthecomputer.Both
METHOD
skills were evaluated in a combined multiple
Participants and Settings
Requests for reprints should be sent to Jared Jerome,
ChrisandMarkwere32-year-oldand24-year-
67-41Burns St.Apt. L7,Forest Hills,New York11375.
doi:10.1901/jaba.2007.41-06 old men, respectively, and both had been
185
186 JARED JEROME et al.
diagnosed with autism and mild mental re- 1. Press the computer power button.
tardation.Ethanwasa25-year-oldmanwhohad 2. Press the monitor power button.
beendiagnosedwithmildmentalretardationand 3. Place hand on the mouse.
deafness.Eachmanwaschosentobeaparticipant 4. Move the cursor with the mouse until it
because,whenasked‘‘Doyouwanttoplayonthe points to the Internet ExplorerH icon.
computer?’’ he got up and walked to the 5. Double click the Internet ExplorerH
computer and sat next to it within 10 s on five icon.
consecutive trials, and if he turned on the power 6. Move the cursor with the mouse to the
buttononeitherthecomputerorthemonitoron GoogleH search box.
five consecutive trials when prompted. 7. Left click in the box.
All sessions were conducted in a day-habil- 8. Type in the search topic of interest.
itationcenterforadultswithmentalretardation 9. Place hand back on mouse.
and autism. The sessions took place either in 10. Movecursortotheboxlabeled‘‘search.’’
the participant’s classroom or in a separate 11. Single click the box.
classroom with a different computer. Across all
12. Movethecursorwiththemousedownto
sessions, the participant was seated in a chair
the Web site of choice.
approximately 1 m away from and facing the
13. Single click the Web site of choice.
computer.
Across all steps, clicking was defined as
Response Measurement and Reliability pushing down with the right index finger on
Across all conditions, data were collected on the front part of the mouse.
the number of independent tasks completed. Prior to each day’s sessions, a stimulus
The frequency of steps completed per session preference assessment (based on DeLeon &
was based on a 13-step task analysis (described Iwata, 1996) was conducted to determine the
below),andthedatawereanalyzedbasedonthe items to be presented as reinforcers during the
number of steps completed independently teaching sessions. For all participants, small
relative to the total number of steps. Interob- edible items (e.g., jelly beans) were used as
server agreement was assessed on 53% of all reinforcers.
sessions by having a second observer simulta- Preferred online games or Web sites for each
neously but independently collect data on the participant were determined before baseline by
completion of each step of the task analysis. An asking program staff what topics interested the
agreement was defined as both observers participants and then observing the participants
markingacheckwhenastepofthetaskanalysis engage in the game or Web site for a minimum
was performed or marking an X when a step of 5 min when the Web sites had been accessed
was not performed. Agreement was calculated by the experimenters. Staff informed the
by dividing the number of steps with agree- experimenters that the participants often used
ments by the number of steps with agreements those Web sites, but the staff had to access the
plus the number of steps with disagreements Web sites for them. To gain access to the
multiplied by 100%. Agreement averaged preferred Internet activity, participants needed
100% for task completion throughout baseline to double click the link to the Web site from
and postteaching. a search engine (i.e., the GoogleH homepage;
www.google.com). Chris and Ethan worked to
Procedure access an online pinball game, and Mark
The following 13-step task analysis was worked to access a Web site that played music
conducted to develop the requisite skills videos (specific links are available from the first
necessary to access a specific Web site: author).
INTERNET SKILL DEVELOPMENT 187
Baseline. During baseline, each session began The prompting procedure continued until
with the experimenter saying, ‘‘[name], do you the participant independently completed each
want to play on the computer?’’ After the of the 13 task-analysis steps two times consec-
participant sat down, the experimenter stood utively. After mastery of each step, training on
1 m behind the participant. The experimenter the previous step was added. For example, once
said nothing else and did not deliver any other the participant independently completed the
prompts during the baseline condition. When 13th step on two consecutive trials, the
the participant either looked away from the prompting procedure was applied to the 12th
computerordidnotengageintheinitialstepor step and so on, based on a backward chaining
any subsequent step of the task for 2 min, the procedure. When all 13 steps were completed
trial was terminated and the experimenter independently for three consecutive sessions,
accessed the target online game or Web site teaching was considered to be completed.
and allowed the participant to interact with the Throughout the teaching condition, the
onlinegameorWebsitefor5 min.Allbaseline experimenters delivered edible items after the
sessionslastedbetween2and5 min,depending participant completed each step of the task
on the participant’s behavior. analysis, for both prompted and independent
Teaching. In the teaching condition, the task completion. Edible items were delivered
experimenter stood 1 m behind the seated as a form of immediate reinforcement to
participant throughout the session. When each maintain behavior in the absence of the
teaching session began, however, the initial 12 delayed reinforcement provided by accessing
steps of the task analysis were complete such theInternetactivity.Inaddition,theparticipant
that the participant was only required to click received 5-min access to the preferred
on the link for their preferred internet activity Internet activity after completion of the final
present on the GoogleH homepage. The step in the task analysis, regardless of whether
experimenter then said, ‘‘[name], begin playing completion of that step was prompted or
on the computer.’’ If the participant correctly occurred independently. Each teaching session
completed this step, access to the preferred lasted for a maximum of 40 min based on the
internet activity was delivered for 5 min. maximum time available on the participants’
Iftheparticipantdidnotclickthemouseafter schedules.
3 s, an errorless learning procedure was used to Postteaching. Postteaching sessions were con-
clicktheGoogleHlink.Amost-to-leastintrusive ducted in an identical manner to the baseline
prompting procedure (i.e., hand-over-hand condition; that is, edible reinforcers and
guidance, followed by hand-over-wrist guid- promptswerenotdelivered.Theonlydifference
ance, then hand-over-elbow guidance, and was if the participants did not complete the 13-
finally hand-over-shoulder guidance) was used step chain, the session was terminated without
untilallpromptswerefadedandtheparticipant access to the Web site. Participants were
independently clicked on the GoogleH link. required to progress from one step to the next
Experimenters progressed to a less intrusive within the same 2-min time frame that existed
prompt after the participant performed the task during baseline.
with the previous prompt on two consecutive Generalization probes. Beginning in the post-
trials. Thus, the participants were not given the teaching phase, a second computer became
opportunitytoperformanincorrecttaskonthe available in a separate classroom, located
computer. With the exception of the most-to- approximately 8 m from the computer used
least intrusive prompting procedure, no other during baseline. The generalization computer
verbal prompts were delivered. and monitor were similar to the training
188 JARED JEROME et al.
Figure1. Numberof stepsof taskanalysis completed for 3participants acrossalltrials.
INTERNET SKILL DEVELOPMENT 189
computerinsizeandgenerallayout(e.g.,power generalization computer was used and was used
button, mouse type). The same 13-step task only during postteaching and not during
analysis allowed access to the Web site of baseline. Future research should evaluate stim-
choice, and the same procedure as baseline and ulus generalization across different computers
postteaching was used. Generalization probes and locations as well as response generalization,
were conducted on this second computer on such as to other Internet skills. Also, during the
52%, 58%, and 38% of postteaching sessions baseline condition participants were given only
for Chris, Mark, and Ethan, respectively. thefollowingdiscriminativestimulus:‘‘[Name],
do you want to play on the computer?’’ It is
possible that if participants were given more
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
detailedinstructions,theywouldhavebeenable
The results are shown in Figure 1. Chris had
toperformmoretask-analysissteps.Likewise,it
a range of one to four steps completed in
is possible that the delivery of edible reinforcers
baseline.Hemetcriterionforall13stepsinone
in the teaching condition may have resulted in
40-min teaching session. In postteaching, he
increased task completion relative to baseline.
completed all 13 steps of the task analysis
Finally,althoughtheparticipantscompletedthe
during every session. Mark completed zero to
13-step chain during the postteaching and
onestepsinbaseline.Hemetcriterionafterfive
generalization conditions without any prompt-
40-min teaching sessions. In postteaching, he
ing,itwasnotdeterminedwhethertheylearned
completed 1 to 13 steps, and he completed all
toapproachacomputerindependentlytoaccess
13 steps in 10 of 12 sessions. Ethan completed
a Web site of choice. Future research should
zerotofivestepsinbaseline.Hemetcriterionin
observe whether participants would indepen-
one 40-min teaching session. In postteaching,
dently initiate trained leisure skills while not
hecompletedall13stepsineverysession.Thus,
under the control of a specific discriminative
the number of steps completed independently
stimulus.
increased after teaching for each participant. In
addition, participants’ skills generalized to
REFERENCES
a novel computer.
Previousresearchhasdemonstratedtheuseof DeLeon, I. G., & Iwata, B. A. (1996). Evaluation of
a multiple-stimulus presentation format for assessing
task analyses and errorless learning to teach
reinforcer preferences. Journal of Applied Behavior
avarietyofnonleisurecomputerskillsandother Analysis,29,519–532.
leisure activities. The present study combined Frank,A.R.,Wacker,D.P.,Berg,W.K.,&McMahon,
C.M.(1985).Teachingselectedmicrocomputerskills
the efforts of this previous research by teaching
to retarded students via picture prompts. Journal of
leisure skills on the computer to adults with
Applied BehaviorAnalysis,18, 179–185.
developmental disabilities. A limitation of the Luyben,P.D.,Funk,D.M.,Morgan,J.K.,Clark,K.A.,
present study was that it taught access to only & Delulio, D. W. (1986). Team sports for the
severely retarded: Training a side-of-the-foot soccer
two Web sites, an online game and a music
pass using a maximum-to-minimum prompt reduc-
Web site that had been determined to be tionstrategy.JournalofAppliedBehaviorAnalysis,19,
preferred prior to the study. Future research 431–436.
Tiger,J.H.,Hanley,G.P.,&Hernandez,E.(2006).An
should extend this method to include choice
evaluation of the value of choice with preschool
among a variety of available Web sites, because
children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 39,
choosing among multiple activities may result 1–16.
in higher levels of task engagement (Tiger,
Received March 16,2006
Hanley, & Hernandez, 2006). A second
Final acceptanceSeptember 12, 2006
limitation to the study was that only one Action Editor,Henry Roane