USING A TAPED INTERVENTION TO IMPROVE KINDERGARTENSTUDENTS’ NUMBER IDENTIFICATION

KATHERINE R. KROHN, CHRISTOPHER H. SKINNER, AND EMILY J. FULLER

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE

AND

CORRINE GREEAR

KNOX COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

A multiple baseline design across students was used to evaluate the effects of a taped numbers(TN) intervention on the number-identification accuracy of 4 kindergarten students. DuringTN, students attempted to name the numbers 0 through 9 on randomized lists before eachnumber was provided via a tape player 2 s later. All 4 students showed immediate increases andreached 100% in number-identification accuracy. One student reached 100% accuracy after TNwas supplemented with performance feedback, reinforcement, and overcorrection.

Key words: mathematics, early intervention, academic responding, constant prompt delay

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Although most children begin school withcore number competencies, others need targetedteaching and learning activities to acquire theseskills (Klibanoff, Levine, Huttenlocher, Vasi-lyeva, & Hedges, 2006; National ResearchCouncil, 2009). The ability to identify numbersis a critical early numeracy competency and aprerequisite for the development of other mathskills (Jordan, Kaplan, Olah, & Locuniak,2006). Although number-identification deficitsmay predict later mathematics difficulties(Clarke & Shinn, 2004; Fuchs et al., 2007),few studies have examined effective ways toremedy this early skill deficit (Chard et al.,2008; Gersten, Jordan, & Flojo, 2005).

Taped interventions offer a low-tech solutionto the delivery of basic academic skill instructionand have been used to remedy sight-word reading(e.g., Bliss, Skinner, & Adams, 2006) and math-fact deficits (e.g., McCallum, Skinner, Turner, &

Saecker, 2006), enhancing both accuracy andautomaticity. In taped interventions, students arepresented with visual stimuli (e.g., word lists,math problems) and are instructed to say thecorrect response before it is provided by anaudiotape recorder. Such procedures minimizeerrors and allow a large number of learning trialswithin a short amount of time, thereby maximiz-ing learning rates (see Skinner, 2008). Tapedinterventions have been used with both individ-uals and groups, but usually have been appliedwith older elementary school children in specialeducation settings. The current study extendsresearch on taped interventions by targeting abasic numeracy skill (as opposed to higher levelmath skills), adapting previous procedures (i.e.,using a tone to signal the introduction of a newtrial rather than numbering the trials; selecting a2-s constant prompt delay), intervening in thegeneral education setting as a means of primaryprevention, and evaluating the effects of themodified intervention with kindergarten students.

METHOD

Participants and Setting

Four kindergarten students (two boys and twogirls) participated. Three students were Hispanic

Emily J. Fuller is now at Hamblen County Schools,Tennessee.

This work was completed with the support of the KornLearning Assessment and Social Skills Center at theUniversity of Tennessee.

Correspondence concerning this article should beaddressed to Katherine Krohn, who is now at theCincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (e-mail:Katherine.Krohn@cchmc.org).

doi: 10.1901/jaba.2012.45-437

JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 2012, 45, 437–441 NUMBER 2 (SUMMER 2012)

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(referred to as Anita, Cristina, and Carlos) andreceived services from a teacher for Englishlanguage learners who indicated that each hadlimited English language skills, typically spoke inshort sentences, and relied heavily on nonverbalcommunication. The other participant (David, anAfrican-American) was nominated for inclusionby his teacher, who felt that he might benefit fromthe small-group instruction in math. All fourparticipants were referred due to difficulty withnumber identification. Sessions were conducted ata table in a back corner of the classroom.

Response Measurement andInterobserver Agreement

Data on correct number identification werecollected using assessment sheets with the num-bers 0 through 9 listed in a random order. Fivedifferent assessment sheets were constructed andalternated across sessions to ensure that studentsdid not memorize placement of numbers. Theprimary experimenter assessed participants indi-vidually by pointing to each number on the sheetand asking the student to name the number. Nofeedback was provided. If the student did notrespond accurately within 5 s, the experimenterscored an error and pointed to the next number;students were permitted one self-correction withinthat time frame. For each assessment, the numbersread correctly were summed and converted to apercentage score, which served as our dependentvariable.

Interobserver agreement data were collectedduring at least 25% of assessment sessions foreach participant. Agreement was determined bycomparing the numbers written down by eachobserver. There were no disagreements across allstudents and sessions.

Design and Procedure

Sessions took place in the mornings 3 daysper week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). Amultiple baseline design across subjects wasused to evaluate the effects of the tapednumbers (TN) intervention. The interventionwas applied both individually and in small

groups. Carlos received the TN intervention byhimself during the first intervention session. Foreach of the following three TN sessions, anotherstudent was added to the TN group.

Baseline. Students received their regular math-ematics instruction. Individual assessments werecompleted during a morning transition period.

Taped numbers. At the start of the session, eachparticipant was given the same worksheet thatcontained four columns listing the numerals 0through 9 in random order (i.e., a worksheetcontained 40 trials). Five different TN worksheetswere constructed, and one was randomly selectedfor each session. Worksheets corresponded to anaudiotaped recording of the numbers, in whichthe numbers were read aloud in the order theyappeared on the worksheet. The tapes wereconstructed so that each trial consisted of a 1-stone to signal the start of the trial, followed by a2-s delay for the student to attempt to read thenumber aloud, and then a recording of thenumber being read in English. The next trialbegan 2 s later when the next tone sounded. Weused 2-s response intervals, because previousresearchers reported that longer intervals evokedoff-task behavior (Windingstad, Skinner, Row-land, Cardin, & Fearrington, 2009).

The experimenter sat at the table with theparticipant during each session and read thefollowing instructions at the start of the session:

Let’s play this game. When you hear a noise, say thenumber you see and then wait until you hear whatthe tape says to see if you got it right. Then, repeatthe number after you hear the tape say it. What youwant to do is try to beat the tape and say the numberbefore you hear the answer. Are you ready?

To help students keep their place and promptsimultaneous responding, the experimenterpointed to each number following the tone.Students were assessed both individually andimmediately after each TN session. TN sessionsrequired about 3 to 4 min (tape length wasapproximately 200 s), and each student’sassessment never exceeded 40 s.

A treatment integrity checklist was used toevaluate whether the experimenter implemented

438 KATHERINE R. KROHN et al.

procedures correctly (i.e., read the appropriatedirections before starting the tape, promptedstudents to attend to the correct stimulus,placed the appropriate worksheet in front ofstudents, withheld feedback in the assessment).An independent observer recorded treatmentintegrity data during four of the 12 TNsessions. Treatment integrity was 100%.

Feedback, overcorrection, and reinforcement.Immediately after the first TN session, Carlosshowed improved number-identification accura-cy. However, his performance was variable, and henever reached 100% accuracy after 11 TNsessions. Consequently, on the 12th session, TNwas supplemented with performance feedback,overcorrection, and reinforcement. After each TNassessment, the experimenter evaluated Carlos’sassessment sheet and told him which numbers heidentified correctly and incorrectly. Next, he wasasked to write the latter numbers three times andto say each number aloud while writing. Carlosalso was told that he would receive a sticker (ateacher-recommended reward) when he respond-ed with 100% accuracy on assessments.

Maintenance. Participants moved to the main-tenance phase when they achieved 100% accuracyon three of four consecutive assessments. Accuracywas assessed as in other phases, but children nolonger participated in TN sessions.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The percentage of numbers identified correct-ly across baseline, intervention, and maintenancephases are displayed in Figure 1 for each student(gaps in the data paths correspond to studentabsences). All four participants showed a clearincreasing trend in number-identification accu-racy following the application of TN. Nooverlapping data points were observed betweenconditions for students, with the exception ofCristina (the percentage of nonoverlapping databetween Cristina’s baseline and interventionphases was approximately 86%). Cristina’sbaseline performance was variable, and shecontinued to make errors when naming two

numerals (i.e., 6 and 9) until the seventh TNsession. David’s accuracy increased to 100%following one TN session and remained perfectfor the next three sessions. David’s immediateacquisition and sustained mastery, combinedwith teacher-reported low rates of attention andparticipation during regular classroom mathe-matics instruction, suggested the possibility of aperformance deficit rather than a skill deficit.Anita demonstrated a similar pattern of respond-ing to David, but anecdotal evidence of herbehavior during lessons suggested that TNremediated a skill deficit. Anita, Cristina, andDavid achieved and maintained 100% accuracywith TN, whereas Carlos achieved and main-tained 100% accuracy after TN was supple-mented with feedback, overcorrection, andreinforcement.

The results support the effectiveness of tape-assisted interventions and provide evidence ofgenerality to a wider population of learners(kindergarten students, three of whom wereEnglish language learners) and tasks (numberidentification). Although maintenance dataspanned approximately 1 month, the teacherreported that all participants continued to dem-onstrate mastery at the conclusion of the schoolyear. Because educators often do not have theresources (time, additional help) to superviseindividual students who receive remedial interven-tions (Shriver, 2007), the minimal time invest-ment required to produce the materials for thiseffective, low-tech intervention (i.e., approximately2 hr) is a significant advantage. In addition, oncerecordings and worksheets are constructed, theycan be reused or reproduced. However, to increaseteachers’ confidence that TN procedures can beapplied and sustained in their classrooms, futureresearch should determine if they can be appliedwithout the high levels of supervision providedduring the current study.

The current procedures can be conceptualizedas an automated variation of a constant prompt-delay procedure (Wolery et al., 1992). Withconstant prompt delay, there is a controlling

TAPED NUMBERS INTERVENTION 439

prompt (the numbers produced by the tape) thatfollows a task direction (the tone signals the startof a number-identification trial). Previous re-search has explored computer-assisted instruc-

tion using prompt-delay procedures (see Kos-cinski & Gast, 1993), which has the potential tobe extended to young students with deficientnumber-identification repertoires. Although

Figure 1. Percentage of numbers identified correctly by the four participants during the assessment sessions acrossbaseline, intervention, and maintenance phases. Supplemental intervention procedures for Carlos included feedback (F),overcorrection (O), and reinforcement (R).

440 KATHERINE R. KROHN et al.

Hitchcock and Noonan (2000) found computer-assisted instruction with a constant prompt-delayprocedure to be superior to comparable teacher-initiated instruction, teachers were needed tofacilitate the preschool students’ access to anduse of the computer. Thus, the low-tech TNintervention may be as effective as a computer-assisted intervention in terms of necessary teacherresources.

Despite the strong and positive effects of TNon number identification for three of theparticipants, there are some limitations worthnoting. A primary limitation is the absence ofdata on responding during the taped interven-tion sessions, which might help to discern themechanisms responsible for behavior change.For example, it is unclear whether activeresponding was necessary to produce treatmenteffects or whether learning was simply the resultof repeated exposure to the correct answer. Peerinfluence also was not accounted for in thecurrent study; therefore, the contributions ofthe game-like structure, choral responding, andpeer modeling to intervention effectiveness areunknown. Delivering the TN intervention inisolation or in a group format with headphonesmay allow future research on the potentialimpact of peer modeling or motivation tocompete with peers. Finally, regarding Carlos’ssupplemental procedures, a component analysismight have been beneficial to determine whichfactors were essential in facilitating accuracy.

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Received November 23, 2010Final acceptance October 31, 2011Action Editor, Jennifer Austin

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