Principal Investigator(s):
Haven Niland
Grant Type:
Graduate Research
Funding:
1,954
Organization:
University of North Texas
Year Awarded:
2021
Status:
In Progress
Location:
Denton, Texas
Topics:
Early Intervention
Abstract
Behavioral intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) focuses on building many skills in a short amount of time through individualized programming. As such, effective and efficient teaching strategies must be identified to maximize learning outcomes. Prompting is a common teaching strategy to promote acquisition and independence of skills. Despite the ubiquity of prompts, not all prompts are effective for all learners, and some prompts may be more challenging to fade out. Prompts are typically described as response or stimulus prompts. Literature suggests that stimulus prompts can be effective, but stimulus prompts may be underutilized in behavioral intervention for children with ASD. In part, this is because the types of stimulus prompts that are most effective and efficient and the conditions under which they should be used are unclear. In addition, there are economical and practical barriers to the preparation of, implementation of, and training to use stimulus prompts. The purpose of this applied study is to use assessment-based instruction to identify effective and efficient stimulus prompt types to teach matching skills to children with ASD. Ecologically valid stimulus prompts will be selected based on a descriptive assessment of children’s apps and games. We will compare common stimulus prompts using an adapted-alternating treatments design. We will use tablet-based instruction in an effort to reduce the practical barriers of stimulus prompts and report data on the skills assessed prior to tablet-based instruction. If stimulus prompts are found to be effective, this study will provide data to suggest ones that may be effective for other learners or similar programs and create the possibility for them to be implemented feasibly in applied practice. The outcomes of this study will inform clinical programming for participants and provide the field of applied behavior analysis with a methodology for stimulus-prompt assessments to develop individualized instruction for children with ASD.
