ABSTRACT
Precision teaching is a measurement system that uses frequency as its basic data and plots those data on a standard celeration chart for practitioners to make decisions (Maloney, 1998). Kay, a 17-year-old girl with autism spectrum disorder and profound speech sound disorder, participated in this multiple-baseline across-behaviors study. The syllables "thu," "fu," and "cu" were targeted for higher frequencies of correct echoic responding in isolation. Lip-tongue-teeth position prompts, frequency building (Fabrizio & Moors, 2003, European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 4(1-2), 23-36), and feedback were used in brief timed practice trials for the first 2 skills. Priming (Cihon et al., 2017) was also added to the third syllable. The frequency of correct responses accelerated from low levels in baseline to a frequency aim of 60 per minute or higher, with intervention for all 3 targets. The accuracy of her articulation with 30 functional words with the component consonant sounds was measured and showed significant improvements from baseline to postintervention. The outcomes representing fluent performance were also achieved. The implications of training for fluency of syllables on word speech are discussed.
ABSTRACT
Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, around the middle of March 2020, in-clinic intervention services based in applied behavior analysis provided to children had to be stopped abruptly in India. This qualitative and quantitative case study details how Behavior Momentum India (BMI), an organisation providing ABA-based interventions, transitioned services from in clinic to telehealth while continuing to target each student's skill acquisition goals in language and communication domains. A cohort of 92 students diagnosed with autism or other learning disabilities participated in this study; 51 therapists, 9 behavior supervisors, and a doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analyst collaborated with parents; 78% of the students and 82% of the therapists used smartphones; and only a few used iPads and laptops. Therapists conducted direct sessions and parent-mediated sessions with 82 students. With 10 students, behavior supervisors trained parents to implement interventions with their children. The critical transition decisions, logistics, and ethical challenges were identified using qualitative methods. Despite significantly reduced session durations, all students continued to acquire targeted skills, and 52% of the students acquired more skills in telehealth compared to in clinic. A parent satisfaction survey returned high ratings onour organization's initiative, and 72% of the parents reported that their familiarity and confidence with the science of applied behavior analysis had increased.
ABSTRACT
Children with autism are at a higher risk of being affected by speech disorders and often require remedial intervention. Eikeseth and Nesset (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 36(3), 325-337, 2003) used sufficient-response exemplar training of vocal imitation in conjunction with prompting, chaining, and shaping procedures to successfully teach 2 typically developing children to articulate several Norwegian words with blends. The present study extends and adapts these procedures to children with autism. Participants were TA, an 11-year-old boy, and KS, a 15-year-old girl, both with autism and speech sound disorders. For each participant, 3 sets of 10 words with specific blends in the initial position were targeted for training. Vocal imitation training with within-stimulus prompts was used for both participants. For KS, lip-tongue-teeth position prompts and chaining were added during the training of certain words. A multiple-baseline across-behaviors (word sets with target blends) design demonstrated improvement in the articulation of trained words and generalization of correct articulation to untrained words with both participants. The findings suggest that speech sound disorders in children with autism can be addressed with behavioral interventions.
