The behavioral approach to the treatment of articulation

The behavioral Approach to the Treatment of Articulation Disorders

By zainab AhmedDepartment of special education

uok

• This presentation is based on “Controlling and modifying behavior the procedures described are the result of research conducted by such noted learning theorists as: J. WATSON, E.L.THORNDIKE, C.HULLB.F. SKINNER”

• One of the most important things speech language pathologist do is help others change some aspect of their communicative behavior

Stimulus & Response

• The stimulus and response are very different. For example a stimulus is some type of action or change that occurs.

• The response is the way something acts after the stimulus has happened

S+R=?

STIMULUS + RESPONSE = LEARNING

OPERANT CONDITIONING

Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior.

REINFORCEMENT

• Anything that increases the likelihood that a response will occur.

• reinforcement is defined by the effect that it has on behavior –

• it increases or strengthens the behavior.• Primary reinforcement:• food, air, sleep, water• Secondary reinforcement:• also known as conditioned reinforcement, involves stimuli

that have become rewarding by being paired with another reinforcing stimulus

Identifying the target behavior

• FOR example, a smoker wants to quit smoking, that is the behaviour. They want to change their behaviour and learn not to want to smoke.

The behavior to be changed is called the Target Behaviour. You are targeting the behaviour that needs to be changed.

OBJECTIVE VS SUBJECTIVE BEHAVIOR

• OBJECTIVE:

Inarticulated soundWe may observe acoustic elements of the sound,Air stream direction, tongue placement interdental lisp, substitution , omission

• SUBJECTIVE:

Sloppy speech, slurred consonants, or lazy tongue

Antecedent event

Antecedent events are stimuli that evoke response from the client. They include the use of Cues and promts: Cues= hints promts= exact response• 1- auditory stimuli• (spoken instruction, models of sound)• 2- visual stimuli (Visual models)• 3-kinesthetic Manipulatation of part of clients speech mechanism: (touching the cheeks, holding the jaw, use of tongue blade to position placing peanut butter on the alveolar ridge.

Consequent event

• Consequent events refer to the outcomes, or events that follow from the Behavior of interest.

Increasing behavior rate

• Use of positive reinforcement:

• Similar to a reward (although more precise than a reward), a positive reinforcement is something a human or an animal will put in effort to receive.

Choosing Reinforcers

WORDS AS POTENTIAL REINFORCERS

Use of tokens

• An alternative to use an verbal statements as Reinforcers.

For example:If toys are chosen as redeemable items, then a variety of toys are presented to a child. Then then child is told that these items can be purchased with tokens eared by responding correctly.

Self reinforcement

Learning occurs only when one is reinforced for making certain responses.

Decreasing behavior rate

• Response rate decreases when reinforcement is removed.

Time out

• A procedure that has been used to reduce the frequency of some behaviors.

• * all opportunities for obtaining reinforcers are eliminated

• * a child may placed in certain room or totally ignored for a certain of time.

• This procedure is usually used in reducing disruptive behavior, echolalia, stuttering

punishment

• Punishment in form of aversive stimuli such a threat, slap is not appropriate.

• Instead you can give a instructive comment for example:

• “no you forgot to close your teeth”

Or“ no your tongue struck out”“ no you didn’t put your tongue high enough.

Response cost

• If you give tokens following correct responses and take them away following uncorrect responses.

Use of antecedent and consequent events in articulation training

• Antecedent event: Type of response the child will produce.

• Consequent event:Increase or decrease the likelihood a response will occur in the future.

Analyzing effects of antecedent and consequent events

Antecedent event

Explaining and describing goals or procedures.

Modelling the desired behavior or instructing a person how to produce it

Consequent event

Bad evalationsGood evaluations

• Observing and recording behaviors• Computing percentage of correct responses• Computing rate of respose• Longarithmic graphing techniques• Task analysis• Criterian test

Rules to follow using behavioral therapy

1. Immediacy (immediate reward in form of token, point)

2. Attention ( it’s a powerful social reward)

3. Pairing rewards

4. Continuous reward

5. Selective reward ( for e.g pronouncing correct /s/ sound

6-Small steps (easy to difficult)

7-Getting the childs attention

8-Imitation

9-Relevant cues

“A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying”. B. F. Skinner