Questions and Answers
What is Skill Acquisition?
The part of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatment that focuses on teaching and maintaining new skills to help the learner function more independently and productively in life.
What are the essential components of a written Skill Acquisition Plan?
A written document that specifies how to teach a particular skill consistently.
What should a Skill Acquisition Plan specify?
The overall target to be taught.
What teaching procedures might a Skill Acquisition Plan specify?
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What materials should be specified in a Skill Acquisition Plan?
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How should a learning environment be prepared for a Skill Acquisition Plan?
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What does a Skill Acquisition Plan specify about instruction?
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What is the target response in a Skill Acquisition Plan?
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What may a Skill Acquisition Plan specify about reinforcement?
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What should a Skill Acquisition Plan determine regarding prompting?
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What type of skills are typically taught using a Skill Acquisition Plan?
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What does session preparation in a Skill Acquisition Plan involve?
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What is positive reinforcement in the context of ABA?
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What is negative reinforcement?
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What is an unconditioned reinforcer?
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What are conditioned reinforcers?
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What are tokens in the context of ABA?
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What does it mean to balance discrete trial training and naturalistic teaching?
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What is shaping?
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What is Task Analysis and Chaining?
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Which of the following are examples of Task Analysis and Chaining? (Select all that apply)
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Which chaining type involves teaching the last step first?
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Explain forward chaining.
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What is backward chaining?
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What is total task presentation?
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Discrimination means the ability of a learner to understand the differences between two or more ______.
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What does stimulus control mean?
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Give an example of how stimulus control works.
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What is a discriminative stimulus?
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What does simultaneous discrimination involve?
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What is mass trials in simultaneous discrimination training?
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What is random rotation in simultaneous discrimination training?
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Define successive discriminations.
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What is prompting?
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Describe physical prompting.
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What is verbal prompting?
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Explain prompt fading.
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What is generalization in training?
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Define response generalization.
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What is multiple exemplar training?
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Study Notes
Skill Acquisition in ABA
- Focuses on teaching and maintaining new skills for independence and productivity.
- Integral part of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatment.
Skill Acquisition Plan Components
- Written Skill Acquisition Plan: A structured document guiding the teaching process; must adhere to ensure treatment integrity.
- Terminal Skill or Goal: Defines overall target to be taught in the skill acquisition plan.
- Teaching Procedures: Specifies methods for teaching, such as discrete trial teaching or natural environment teaching.
- Materials: Lists teaching materials needed; e.g., bread and ingredients for sandwich preparation.
- Preparing the Learning Environment: Minimize distractions and have appropriate reinforcers ready.
- Instruction: Details on how to deliver instructions to learners.
- Target Response: Specifies what response is expected from the learner after instruction.
- Reinforcement: Guidelines on reinforcers, which should be adjusted based on learner preferences.
- Prompting or Prompt Fading: Establishes prompts to assist learners and procedures for gradually reducing prompts.
- Teaching Targets or Exemplars: Identifies multiple targets or examples for skills to be acquired.
- Session Preparation: Initial time in each session for reviewing plans and recent notes.
Reinforcement Principles
- Contingencies of Reinforcement: Reinforcement strengthens behaviors; positive reinforcement adds a pleasant consequence.
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Types of Reinforcement:
- Positive Reinforcement: Adds a desirable stimulus to increase behavior; e.g., turning on a favorite radio station for calm behavior.
- Negative Reinforcement: Removal of an unpleasant stimulus to strengthen behavior; e.g., turning down loud music.
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Unconditioned vs. Conditioned Reinforcement:
- Unconditioned Reinforcers: Operate based on natural instincts (e.g., food and water).
- Conditioned Reinforcers: Gain value through learning experiences.
Token Systems and Schedules
- Tokens: Conditioned reinforcers that can be exchanged for preferred items or activities.
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Reinforcement Schedules:
- Continuous: Reinforcement occurs every time a behavior is exhibited.
- Intermittent: Reinforcement given only some of the time; includes fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval formats.
Naturalistic and Discrete Trial Training
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Discrete Trial Training (DTT): A highly structured method focusing on rapid learning through clear instruction, response, and consequence.
- DTT includes error correction procedures to reinforce accurate responses.
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Naturalistic Teaching: Child-directed learning that embeds motivation within contexts and combines mastered skills.
- Includes techniques like pivotal response training and incidental teaching, focusing on real-life applications.
Mastery Criteria and Shaping
- Mastery Criteria: Sets benchmarks for determining when skills are mastered; typically requires high accuracy over multiple sessions.
- Shaping: Reinforcement of successive approximations towards a target behavior until the desired behavior is achieved.
Task Analysis and Chaining
- Task Analysis: Breakdown of complex skills into smaller, teachable components, creating a behavioral chain.
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Chaining Varieties:
- Forward Chaining: Teaching starts with the first step of the sequence.
- Backward Chaining: Learner performs the last step independently while all prior steps are prompted.
- Total Task Presentation: The complete task is taught at once, allowing the learner to practice all steps with minimal prompts.
Discrimination Training
- Essential for learning to differentiate between behaviors or stimuli; focuses on understanding the distinctions in reactions based on context.### Stimulus Control
- Refers to behaviors reinforced in the presence of specific stimuli or instructions, leading to consistent behavior in those contexts.
- Example: A child with ASD learns that tantrums elicit a break from tasks, indicating that the grandmother has stimulus control over the behavior.
Discriminative Stimulus
- Instruction that has established stimulus control in teaching settings; desired behaviors are reinforced by the presence of the instructor.
Simultaneous Discriminations
- Involves distinguishing between two or more stimuli occurring simultaneously, e.g., multiple-choice questions.
Steps in Simultaneous Discrimination Training
- Mass Trials: Repeated simple discrimination trials, e.g., asking a learner to touch a specific toy multiple times.
- Mass Trial with a Distractor: Involves one additional stimulus, such as presenting two pictures while asking to identify one.
- Random Rotation: Alternates asking about different stimuli in a random order, representing a more difficult level of discrimination.
Successive Discriminations
- Engaging in one behavior in the presence of a stimulus, then a different behavior with another stimulus later.
Prompting
- Uses supplementary stimuli to elicit responses from learners; essential to fade prompts for independence.
Types of Prompting
- Physical: Provides assistance through touch; includes full and partial physical prompts.
- Model: Demonstrates the desired behavior, can be a vocal or physical demonstration.
- Verbal: Offers instructions or questions to guide appropriate responses.
- Gestural: Uses non-verbal cues, like pointing at the correct item.
- Proximity: Places the correct stimulus closer to the learner.
- Visual: Utilizes visual schedules to aid transitions and understanding.
Prompting Categories
- Extrastimulus Prompts: External cues provided outside the target stimulus.
- Intrastimulus Prompts: Cues embedded within the target stimulus itself.
Prompt Fading
- A critical process where prompts are gradually reduced to encourage learner independence; can be done in two ways:
- Least to Most: Start with minimal prompts and increase if needed.
- Most to Least: Begin with full assistance and decrease over time.
- Time Delay: Introduces pauses before prompting to encourage independent responses.
- Prompt Dependence: Refers to the failure to fade prompts despite multiple attempts.
Stimulus Control Transfer Procedures
- Essential when a behavior should be evoked by a different stimulus that allows for independent response in real-life contexts.
Generalization Procedures
- Involves applying learned behavior to various settings and stimuli, viewed as a central goal in treatment.
- Stimulus Generalization: Behavior learned in one context occurs in similar contexts.
- Response Generalization: A trained behavior leads to the emergence of related behaviors.
Multiple Example Training (MET)
- A strategy involving teaching multiple examples of a concept to promote generalization.
Training Across People and Settings
- Important for learners with ASD; includes varied instructors and environments to reinforce learning.
Maximizing Learning Opportunities
- Learning optimizes when learners interact with antecedents, respond, and receive consequences; focus on quality opportunities.
Maintenance Procedures
- Ensures skills persist over time, even after direct targeting has ceased; critical for generalization.
Transitioning to Natural Reinforcers
- Aims to gradually adapt reinforcement schedules to align with naturally occurring reinforcements in daily life.
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