Modern medical training consists largely of lecture-based instruction and in vivo or video modeling of specific skills. Other instructional methods, such as teaching with acoustical guidance (TAGteach), have rarely been evaluated. In this study, we compared teaching with tactile guidance, or tactile TAGteach in which a vibratory stimulus is…

Research has demonstrated the efficacy and effectiveness of using high preferred stimuli as reinforcers to change individual behavior. However, these high preferred reinforcers are not always readily available or it may not be in the individual's best interest to use them (i.e., high calorie edibles). Previous research has demonstrated that…

The present study examined the concurrent relations between culture-specific dimensions of family engagement for low-income, Pan-Latine families and children's narrative ability, a critical predictor of reading success. One hundred seventy-five children and their caregivers were recruited from seven Head Start centers in a large city in the…

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching with graduated guidance on teaching the playing backgammon skill, which is one of the leisure skills, to children with "Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)". Three children with ASD participated in this research. A multiple probe design across the participants was used in…

Emerging empirical evidence supports play's potential to stimulate and foster scientific creativity. Focusing on how play relates to scientific creativity in adulthood, this review synthesizes the current state of knowledge in four areas: the play element in scientific research, the playfulness of scientists, mechanisms through which play affects…

Previous studies on skill acquisition have taught targets in stimulus sets composed of different numbers of stimuli. Although the rationale for selection of a stimulus set size is not clear, the number of target stimuli trained within a set is a treatment decision for which there is limited empirical support. The current investigation compared the…

Dressing is an important skill for students with developmental disabilities, so they rely less on caregivers and build independence. Research evaluating dressing skills instruction commonly uses some type of graduated guidance to teach the skill. In this study, three students receiving special education services under autism eligibility had…

We evaluated preference for and efficacy of distributed and accumulated response--reinforcer arrangements during discrete-trial teaching for unmastered tasks. During the distributed arrangement, participants received 30-s access to a reinforcer after each correct response. During accumulated arrangements, access was accrued throughout the work…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty generalizing from directly trained responses to untrained responses (i.e., emergent responding). In this study, we used a chain prompt combined with matrix training to teach 2 participants with ASD to tact 192 three-digit numerals. We used a multiple-baseline design across matrices to…

Money skills are important for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to successfully live independently. A crucial first step is teaching them money identification. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of using TouchMath money (TMM) to teach middle school students with ASD to count money. A multiple probe design across…

Instructors use prompts to assist learners in acquiring skills and then fade those prompts until responding occurs under the appropriate stimulus control conditions. Cengher et al. "Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities," 30, 155-173 (2018) reviewed studies that compared two or more different prompt-fading procedures. The…

This article connects the "Theory of Extended Mind" with the use of three-dimensional, physical objects in dance pedagogy. The theory of the extended mind supposes that cognition is an activity that reaches out from the mind to the body and to the environment. In particular, we take up Dewey's pragmatic Instrumentalism as a framework…

This article extends Dr. Bob Remington's call for collaborations between those supporting behavioral approaches and those supporting more natural developmental approaches to beginning communication intervention. This article expands areas previously discussed by Dr. Remington. Topics that are addressed include pivotal behaviors that may facilitate…

Despite its advantages, discrete-trial instruction (DTI) has been criticized for producing rote responding. Although there is little research supporting this claim, if true, this may be problematic given the propensity of children with autism to engage in restricted and repetitive behavior. One feature that is common in DTI that may contribute to…

The current study extends the literature on task interspersal (TI) by comparing the effects of four different TI ratios on the efficiency of skill acquisition and on levels of problem behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder and related disorders. The four ratios of TI were 3:1, 1:1, 1:3, and 0:1 mastered-to-acquisition tasks. An adapted…