Increasing conversations between older adults with dementia using textual stimuli.

Dementia often leads to behavior changes such as deficits in communication and social interaction; one effective antecedent strategy for improving communication involves rearranged or supplemental stimuli. In the present study, researchers placed individualized textual prompts on the dinner table of three women at an assisted-living facility. Textual stimuli included prompts such as "Debbie, ask Pat where she liked to travel," and led to increases in conversation duration.

Using a Behavioral Intervention to Improve Performance of a Women's College Lacrosse Team.

This study examined the use of prompting and an interdependent group negative reinforcement contingency to improve performance of 12 collegiate women's lacrosse players. The team coaches wanted players to "name passes," defined as saying the name of a player who should catch the ball at least 1 s before the catch. The intervention was evaluated using an A-B-A-B design, and results indicated that prompting and negative reinforcement (removing sprints at the end of practice for desired performance) were successful for improving names on passes.

Caregivers as Interventionists and Trainers: Teaching Mands to Children with Developmental Disabilities.

We evaluated the use of behavioral skills training (BST) to train caregivers to conduct procedures commonly associated with mand training. We trained two caregivers on the following procedures: (a) conducting preference assessments, (b) delivering preferred items contingent on appropriate behavior, (c) capturing and contriving motivating operations, (d) conducting probes to assess the child's current mand repertoire, (e) errorless prompting procedures using echoic prompts, (f) vocal shaping, (g) collecting data, and (h) correcting errors. We also assessed whether a trained caregiver could in turn train their spouse on these procedures.