Programming Treatment Baselines l l Definition measured rates
Programming Treatment
Baselines l l Definition - measured rates of behaviors in the absence of treatment Natural, typical or habitual level of responses - operant level
Baselines l Help: • the clinician determine the %’s of client’s correct production • determine the % of speaking time a client sustains a certain voice quality, etc. • determine academic and general behaviors like number of math problems, etc.
Baselines any behavior the clinician plans to teach, increase, or decrease during treatment sessions must be baserated
Baselines l Reasons for establishing baselines • they give reliable and valid measure of client’s behaviors prior to treatment. You must evoke the target behavior several times. • They make it possible to evaluate client improvement and treatment effectiveness. You always measure response rates during treatment.
Baseline Characteristics l Reliable…stable across time • measure the behavior until there is some stability l should sample the target behaviors adequately • lots and lots of opportunities to sample the behavior
Baseline Procedures l l Specify target behaviors Prepare stimulus items ……. - about 20 items Prepare a recording sheet, contains: • basic client and clinician information • listing of target behaviors • spaces to record each client attempt
Baseline Procedures Administer Baseline trials Trial= structured opportunity to produce a given target with or without modeling l • evoked trial - clinician asks a open question • modeled trial - the clinician models • informally evaluate the effects of previous modeled trial. Present other stimulus under evoked trial conditions Do not reinforce correct responses.
Analysis of Baseline Try to convert what information you have obtained into percentages.
Basic Treatment Plan
Training Sequence l l l Initiated after target behaviors are baserated one or more target behaviors may be trained in single treatment sessions training trial is similar to modeled trial except it includes the treatment variable or the specific consequence programmed for the target responses, both positive and negative reinforcements
Steps in training trial See page 124
Training Criterion The clinician should have an objective training criterions that specifies how many correct responses must be recorded consecutively before the response can be considered tentatively learned. • 10 to 20 maybe across two sessions • 90% accuracy on a block of 10 to 20 trials
Managing of Treatment Contingencies l l l correct responses must be reinforced immediately reinforcement must not be ambiguous avoid mechanical delivery of reinforcement verbal praise must be strong natural, and full of affect and accompanied by facial expressions same goes with incorrect responses measure the response rate to monitor the effect of the consequent events
Target responses vs. target behaviors l target behavior • an empirical class of many similar responses (table 5. 1) • abstract l target response • concrete To teach target behaviors clinicians teach target responses that belong to its class. A target response is an exemplar of a target behavior.
Target responses to train l l Clinicians must decide when enough responses have been trained to go on to other targets because a target behavior has been attained. A target behavior is fully mastered when it is produced by the client in his or her natural environment under normal conditions or stimuli and consequences.
Moving to next target behavior l l Conduct a probe - procedure to assess the generalized production of a trained target behavior Initial probe criterion = 90% correct production of the behavior being trained in the context of selected untrained words, phrases or sentences. • Start with the next target behavior
Moving to next target behavior l Final probe assesses the generalized production of the target in conversational speech produced in the client’s natural environments. = correct production of target behaviors at 90% or better in natural settings
Initial Probe procedure l l l Administer as soon as the client has met the training criterion on a certain number of stimulus items AS a general rule, probes should be implemented after four to six stimulus items have been trained. Use stimuli that was not used in training
Initial Probe procedure l intermixed probe = a probe in which the already trained items are also used • two piles, trained and untrained items, present them in alternation, or have one pile with trained and untrained items l There are no contingent consequences.
Probe result analysis l calculate percentage correct given to untrained stimuli
Sequence of treatment l If the probe proves 90% accuracy the clinician • may choose to go to another target • do the same target at a higher level of accuracy • develop program of maintenance
Single vs. multiple behavior training
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