TAGteach and Autism_blue

TAGteach and Autism

Mary Lynch Barbera, RN, MSN, BCBABarbera Behavior ConsultingABAI May 2010www.marybarbera.comwww.verbalbehaviorapproach.com

My Background

First-born son, Lucas, diagnosed with autism in 1999 Founding President of ASA Berks County BCBA in 2003—Barbera Behavior Consulting PA Verbal Behavior Project for past 7 years PhD Candidate in Leadership at Alvernia University Author of The Verbal Behavior Approach: How to Teach

Children with Autism and Related Disorders

TAGteach

Learned about TAGteach last spring. Read Behavior Analysis for Effective Teaching

(Vargas, 2009) and Reaching the Animal Mind (Pryor, 2009)

Took the TAGteach e-learning course last summer (www.tagteach.com)

Collaborated with Theresa McKeon over the past year to increase the use of TAGteach to help people with autism.

Need-to-Know Points about TAGteach

TAG stands for Teaching with Acoustical Guidance and it evolved from Karen Pryor’s Clicker Training technology.

TAGteach was first used with gymnasts by Theresa McKeon (http://verbalbehaviorapproach.blogspot.com/)

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of TAGteach to improve the skills of children and adults with autism and related disorders.

TAGteach

TAGteach is a completely positive approach which uses ABA principles of shaping and conditioned reinforcement.

With TAGteach there is no error correction procedure and no nagging, reprimands or punishment. If the student does not have success after 3 attempts, the TAG teacher adds a prompt or returns to the point of success.

TAGteach and Autism

I have successfully used TAGteach with children with autism to improve:ArticulationHandwriting Individual respondingGroup respondingTasks (such as shoe tying) with multiple steps

Shoe Tying

In preparation for this presentation, I designed an AB multiple probe design shoe tying study with my son, Lucas serving as the single subject participant.

Lucas Almost 14 years old Moderate to severe autism Can dress himself and almost Independent with showering Shoe tying was never attempted in the past (Special

Olympics swimming—coach told him to tie his bathing suit)

Designing the Study

Reviewed current shoe tying TAGteach videos with NT children available on-line.

Realized Lucas would need more visual and hand-over-hand prompts in addition to TAG.

Developed 10- step task analysis based on my recent experience teaching another client to tie his shoes.

Ten Steps

1. Cross red over yellow2. Yellow into red3. Pull strings tight4. Yellow into bow5. Tape to tape6. Wrap red around (pick up at tape mark)7. Red through thumb hole8. Grab red with right9. Grab yellow with left10. Pull both bows

TAG was conditioned

TAG was easily conditioned with edible reinforcement months prior to the study

Theresa recommended having Lucas TAG me. While it did not work with TAGGING me with shoe tying, Lucas was able to accurately TAG for one finger up (versus two or three fingers up) verifying that Lucas understood what the TAG meant.

Shoe Tying Video

Graph

Shoe Tying

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Sessions

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Baseline

Intervention

Findings/Discussion

Lucas enjoyed the TAG sessions and learned to tie shoes with white laces in approximately 1 ½ hours of total instruction (working now tying shoes on his feet)

Children with autism may need visual, imitative, and/or physical prompts in addition to TAG.

It may not be important to fade prompts until the whole skill is fluent

More data is needed on the use of TAGteach with children at various points on the autism spectrum with a variety of skills

References

Barbera & Rasmussen (2007). The verbal behavior approach: How to teach children with autism and related disorders. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Cooper, Heron, & Heward (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merill/Prentice Hall.

Pryor, K. (2009). Reaching the animal mind: Clicker training and what it teaches us about all animals. New York: Scribner.

Vargas, J. (2009). Behavior analysis for effective teaching. New York: Routledge.

Thank you!

Questions/Comments? Contact:

www.marybarbera.comwww.vbapproach.com