Computer-based spelling instruction for students with developmental disabilities.

Learning to spell on the computer may lead to functionally useful writing skills. Alan and Suzy, teenagers with developmental disabilities, were already proficient on a variety of naming and matching tasks but had difficulties spelling; Suzy also made errors reading orally. In Experiment 1, computer teaching led to new anagram and written spelling performances.

Creating activity schedules using Microsoft Powerpoint.

We describe how PowerPoint presentation software can be used to create computer activity schedules to teach individuals with special needs. Presented are the steps involved in creating activity schedules with close-ended and open-ended activities, and for preparing schedules that include photos, sounds, text, and videos that can be used to occasion an individual's engagement in a variety of learning activities.

Delayed matching to two-picture samples by individuals with and without disabilities: an analysis of the role of naming.

Delayed matching to complex, two-picture samples (e.g., cat-dog) may be improved when the samples occasion differential verbal behavior.

Observational learning and the formation of classes of reading skills by individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities.

We investigated whether individuals with developmental disabilities will demonstrate stimulus classes after observing another individual demonstrate the prerequisite conditional discriminations. In Experiment 1, participants learned conditional discriminations among dictated words, pictures, and printed words. They also observed a model without disabilities demonstrate conditional discriminations among a different set of dictated words, pictures, and printed words.

Designing interventions that include delayed reinforcement: implications of recent laboratory research.

Unlabelled: The search for robust and durable interventions in everyday situations typically involves the use of delayed reinforcers, sometimes delivered well after a target behavior occurs. Integrating the findings from laboratory research on delayed reinforcement can contribute to the design and analysis of those applied interventions. As illustrations, we examine articles from the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior that analyzed delayed reinforcement with respect to response allocation (A.

Integrating basic and applied research and the utility of Lattal and Perone's Handbook of research methods in human operant behavior.

Lattal and Perone's Handbook of methods used in human operant research on behavioral processes will be a valuable resource for researchers who want to bridge laboratory developments with applied study. As a supplemental resource, investigators are also encouraged to examine the series of papers in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis that discuss basic research and its potential for application. Increased knowledge of behavioral processes in laboratory research could lead to innovative solutions to practical problems addressed by applied behavior analysts in the home, classroom, clinic, and community.

Written lists as mediating stimuli in the matching-to-sample performances of individuals with mental retardation.

Students with mental retardation learned to write lists in order to perform a matching task that they could not do otherwise. After an initial assessment phase, reinforcement was arranged in the computerized tasks to follow selection of the six pictures that were identical to those in the six-picture samples presented. In Study 1, even though the participants wrote a list of the names of the six sample pictures on each trial, read a list, or did both, they often made errors when a brief delay preceded picture selection.

Picture naming, matching to sample, and head injury: a stimulus control analysis.

Computer-based procedures were used to examine oral naming and matching-to-sample performances in an adult with a head injury. Relatively few errors occurred when pictures were (a) named, (b) matched to dictated names presented simultaneously, (c) matched to dictation after a delay, and (d) matched to identical pictures presented simultaneously. More errors occurred on delayed than on simultaneous identity matching.

Transitivity and emergent sequence performances in young children.

Children taught to sequence pairs of visual stimuli also performed additional sequences without direct training. In Experiment 1, the children were trained to produce a six-stimulus sequence (A > B > C > D > E > F) with one set of forms, and five overlapping two-stimulus sequences (A > B, B > C, C > D, D > E, and E > F) with another set of forms. Few of the children succeeded on tests for the untrained two- (e.

On the benefits of direct teaching of spelling in children's language arts instruction.

Three studies involved 5 children, ages 6 to 8 years, who were experiencing difficulty in learning skills in reading. Each participated in several spelling tasks which led to improved reading skills, perhaps because stimulus were formed.

Teaching computer-based spelling to individuals with developmental and hearing disabilities: transfer of stimulus control to writing tasks.

Computer-based instruction may yield widely useful handwritten spelling. Illustrative cases involved individuals with mental retardation and hearing impairments. The participant in Study 1 matched computer pictures and printed words to one another but did not spell the words to pictures.

Naming, the formation of stimulus classes, and applied behavior analysis.

The methods used in Sidman's original studies on equivalence classes provide a framework for analyzing functional verbal behavior. Sidman and others have shown how teaching receptive, name-referent matching may produce rudimentary oral reading and word comprehension skills. Eikeseth and Smith (1992) have extended these findings by showing that children with autism may acquire equivalence classes after learning to supply a common oral name to each stimulus in a potential class.

Delayed matching to complex samples and the formation of stimulus classes in children.

In two experiments (ns = 3 plus a previously tested child, and 2, respectively), children learned delayed matching with complex samples, each consisting of a form and a printed nonsense word. Forms or printed words were comparison stimuli. For form comparisons, selecting the form identical to that in the preceding sample was reinforced.

Stimulus classes in matching to sample and sequence production: the emergence of numeric relations.

We investigated interrelationships among stimulus classes established in matching-to-sample and sequence-production tasks. The analysis focused on the matching and sequencing of quantities, numerals, and arbitrary forms in two individuals with mental retardation. The basic protocol involved: (a) establishing both matching and sequencing performances with some stimuli, (b) training sequencing with a new set of stimuli and assessing whether new matching performances emerged, and (c) training matching with a new set of stimuli and assessing whether new sequencing emerged.

Matching to complex samples and stimulus class formation in adults with autism and young children.

Adults with autism and young children first learned to match one-element comparison stimuli to two-element sample stimuli. Test conditions then examined whether each of the individual sample elements (a) controlled selections of the comparison stimuli to which they were related during training, (b) were interchangeable with one another as either sample or comparison stimuli, and (c) were interchangeable with the original comparison stimuli. Test data were positive and suggested the formation of three-member stimulus classes.

Sequence learning in individuals with behavioural limitations.

The production of sequences by two mentally retarded adults and a normally capable preschooler was assessed after each was trained to touch five physically dissimilar and nonrepresentative forms in an experimenter-specified order (denoted A1-->A2-->A3-->A4-->A5). Performance on the 10 constituent two-term sequences was examined (e.g.

Delayed identity matching to complex samples: teaching students with mental retardation spelling and the prerequisites for equivalence classes.

Students with mental retardation learned delayed matching to sample in which some of the trials involved complex sample stimuli, each consisting of a picture and a printed word. A touch to the sample complex removed it from the computer display and produced either picture comparisons or a choice pool of letters. If the comparisons were pictures, selecting the picture identical to the preceding sample was reinforced.

Assessing control by elements of complex stimuli in delayed matching to sample.

A series of six experiments examined delayed identity matching-to-sample performances of subjects with mental retardation. The stimuli were either one or two simultaneously displayed forms. When the reinforcement contingencies required that only one form exert discriminative control, all subjects achieved high accuracy scores.

Formation of arbitrary stimulus classes in matching to complex samples: supplementary data.

A follow-up study of work published in 1990 showed that consistent use of Tone-relevant trials during training and testing baselines contributed to the reliable formation of 5-member stimulus classes during matching to sample. With Tone-irrelevant trials during either training or testing 4 of 12 subjects formed such classes, but none did so when such trials were used in both training and testing baselines. This extends our prior work.

Conditional stimulus control of childrens' sequence production.

Normally capable children were first taught to touch in sequence each of a set of five physically dissimilar stimuli (Sequence A). Another set of stimuli was then used to train sequence B. Next, direct training established conditional control of the production of the A sequence and its reversal: in the presence of one printed word, touching the stimuli in the order A1----A2----A3----A4----A5 was reinforced; in the presence of another word, touching the stimuli in the order A5----A4----A3----A2----A1 was reinforced.

Spelling and emergent picture-printed word relations established with delayed identity matching to complex samples.

Students with academic deficits learned delayed matching-to-sample tasks that used complex sample stimuli, each consisting of a picture and a printed word. A touch to the sample complex removed it from the computer display and produced either picture comparisons or a choice pool of letters. If the comparisons were pictures, selecting the picture identical to the preceding sample was reinforced.

Symmetry of control by exclusion in humans' arbitrary matching to sample.

Normally capable children and adults were taught arbitrary matching of visual sample stimuli and nonidentical visual comparison stimuli: if Sample A1, selecting comparison B1 was reinforced; if A2, selecting B2 was reinforced. Unreinforced tests included (1) those that assessed preferences between novel comparisons when samples were also novel and (2) those that assessed selections of the least-preferred novel comparisons when the alternate comparisons were familiar B or A stimuli. Subjects during the latter tests tended to select the novel comparisons and not the B or A stimuli; these performances supported an inference of control by exclusion.

Children's identity matching and oddity: assessing control by specific and general sample-comparison relations.

After children in Experiments 1 and 2 learned identity matching or oddity, control by sample-comparison relations was assessed. Tests for generalized control displayed novel samples and two comparison stimuli, one identical to the sample. Specific relations were tested with identical or nonidentical sample-comparison stimuli from one set of stimuli and substitute comparisons from either the other training set or from a novel set.

Control of adolescents' arbitrary matching-to-sample by positive and negative stimulus relations.

In Experiment 1, four developmentally delayed adolescents were taught an A-B matching-to-sample task with nonidentical stimuli: given Sample A1, select Comparison B1; given A2, select B2. During nonreinforced test trials, appropriate matching occurred when B stimuli appeared as samples and A stimuli as comparisons, i.e.