BEFORE CONDITIONS AND DISCRIMINATIVE STIMULI

Week 4

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Before the Trial

In many cases, what happens before the behavior is just as important as what happens after

Finding strong reinforcers, obtaining the child’s attention, and delivering the SD all are crucial aspects of the learning opportunity

We will review why these things are important, discuss how you can lose points, look at good and bad performances, and give you a few tips to improve your skills

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Monitoring Criteria

Preference Assessment Attending SD as written Intonation These are the areas listed on the

monitoring form, however, supervisors may give warnings or deduct points for other actions or inactions during the before condition

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Preference Assessments

If you do not have an effective reinforcer, you will probably not see good performance

Just because a reinforcer has been working for a few minutes doesn’t mean it will continue working

Therefore, it is crucial to frequently identify and consistently use strong reinforcers

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Preference Assessments

Reinforcer assessment versus Preference assessment A preference assessment can be as simple

as “which one” before a trial begins Mix up the choices frequently

Even if your child is performing well, you should still do a preference assessment every 4-5 trials

Using PECS to perform preference assessments can help you to identify strong reinforcers

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Preference Assessments

For token economies Typically, one preference assessment per set of

trials will be sufficient However, your child’s preferences may change,

and it is ok to switch icons during a procedure What to watch out for

Too many preference assessments in a row Too frequent Escape/attention/tangible maintained behavior

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Preference Assessments

Videos Example of reinforcer assessment – table

and booth Example of correct behavior (35, Departure

w/TE) Example of incorrect behavior (33) One “real life” example, pick out positives

and negatives (good attending and pref assess)

Reminder of what you will lose points for Using ineffective reinforcers and not

adjusting Too many preference assessments

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Attending

If the child does not attend to the SD, then the SD may as well not exist An SD signals the availability of reinforcement or

punishment, but it can’t be a signal if the organism doesn’t notice it

Several things that the child may have to attend to Materials Auditory stimuli Comparison/sample stimuli Models

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Attending

How to gain the child’s attention Use of reinforcers Reinforcing eye contact and other

appropriate behaviors when they occur ELOs Reducing extraneous distractions

What NOT to do Blinders Excessive attention/showing reinforcers

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Attending

Videos Good tutor performance (Good attending…,

IM phrases)) Poor tutor performance (33-1:35) “Real life” example (35)

Reminder of criteria/point loss Delivering SD without attention Losing attention through patterns of

behavior/pacing

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SD as Written

Consistency is important when running discrete trials

With up to three different tutors on any given day, it is important that the child is exposed to consistent instructions

It is important to be familiar with each phase of each procedure when running them The SD may change from phase to phase

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SD as Written

Videos Good performance Poor performance “real life” example (IM phrases)

How to lose points Incorrect topography of SD

Wrong words Wrong prompts

Delivering SD at wrong times Delivering SD too many or too few times

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Intonation

We try to deliver the SD in a neutral tone This should make it easier for the

children to discriminate between an SD

and social reinforcement The SD should not be too fast or too slow,

too high pitched or too low pitched

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Intonation

Videos (or just live examples) Good performance Poor performance “Real life” example (IM phrases)

How to lose points SD is not clear SD is too “happy” or “sad”

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Supervisor’s Discretion

The four areas listed on the monitoring form have been covered

But there are many other behaviors that happen before the child’s response that may fall into this category

Your supervisor will warn you on the first occurrence, and take points off for any additional occurrences

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QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?