THE EFFECTS OF ERRORLESS LEARNING AND
BACKWARD CHAINING ON THE ACQUISITION OF
INTERNET SKILLS IN ADULTS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
JARED JEROME, ERIC P. FRANTINO, AND PETER STURMEY
QUEENS COLLEGE AND THE GRADUATE CENTER OF THE CITY
UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
An vital space within the studying and growth of people with disabilities is the
acquisition of unbiased, age-appropriate leisure expertise. Three adults with autism and psychological
retardation had been taught to entry particular Web websites utilizing backward chaining and most-toleast intrusive prompting. The variety of unbiased steps accomplished within the activity Assessment
elevated following coaching.
DESCRIPTORS: autism, laptop use, leisure expertise
_______________________________________________________________________________
Age-appropriate leisure expertise are vital
and valued for all people, and the usage of
private computer systems has change into an vital
type of leisure exercise for a lot of, together with
these with developmental disabilities. A number of
prior investigations have demonstrated efficient
strategies for coaching leisure expertise to people
with developmental disabilities. For instance,
Luyben, Funk, Morgan, Clark, and Delulio
(1986) educated three adults with delicate psychological
retardation a side-of-the-foot soccer go utilizing
chaining and prompting. The go was analyzed
into 9 steps that had been taught sequentially
via ahead chaining with a various diploma
of prompts as coaching progressed. At first,
verbal instruction plus a bodily immediate had been
used. These had been succeeded by imitative
prompts, gestural prompts, and at last, verbal
prompts alone. Ultimately the goal conduct of
aspect passing the soccer ball was realized with out
prompts for all members.
Frank, Wacker, Berg, and McMahon (1985)
taught 5 people with psychological retardation to
carry out two laptop duties. There have been 32 steps
required to provoke and terminate a spelling
program and 23 steps required to provoke and
terminate a clock program on the pc. Each
expertise had been evaluated in a mixed a number of
baseline (throughout college students) and sequential withdrawal design. After the primary two coaching classes
through which image prompts had been used, the
share of right steps accomplished elevated
throughout classes for every participant. When the
image prompts had been eliminated within the second
baseline situation, nonetheless, the share of
right steps decreased. The posttest and followup procedures confirmed a return to the excessive
percentages discovered after the primary two coaching
classes with image prompts. Thus, Frank et al.
demonstrated that image prompts had been very
efficient within the coaching of laptop expertise to
people with developmental disabilities.
Though these research present that adults with
developmental disabilities can study each leisure
and laptop expertise utilizing prompting, ahead
and backward chaining, and differential reinforcement, no earlier analysis has proven that adults
with developmental disabilities will be taught to
use the Web to entry age-appropriate grownup
leisure actions. Thus, the purpose of the present
research was to show adults with autism and psychological
retardation to entry age-appropriate Internet sites on
the Web utilizing a mixed errorless studying
and backward chaining process.
METHOD
Members and Settings
Chris and Mark had been 32-year-old and 24-yearold males, respectively, and each had been
Requests for reprints ought to be despatched to Jared Jerome,
67-41 Burns St. Apt. L7, Forest Hills, New York 11375.
doi: 10.1901/jaba.2007.41-06
JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 2007, 40, 185–189 NUMBER 1 (SPRING 2007)
185
recognized with autism and delicate psychological retardation. Ethan was a 25-year-old man who had
been recognized with delicate psychological retardation and
deafness. Every man was chosen to be a participant
as a result of, when requested ‘‘Do you wish to play on the
laptop?’’ he obtained up and walked to the
laptop and sat subsequent to it inside 10 s on 5
consecutive trials, and if he turned on the ability
button on both the pc or the monitor on
5 consecutive trials when prompted.
All classes had been performed in a day-habilitation middle for adults with psychological retardation
and autism. The classes passed off both in
the participant’s classroom or in a separate
classroom with a unique laptop. Throughout all
classes, the participant was seated in a chair
roughly 1 m away from and dealing with the
laptop.
Response Measurement and Reliability
Throughout all situations, knowledge had been collected on
the variety of unbiased duties accomplished.
The frequency of steps accomplished per session
was primarily based on a 13-step activity Assessment (described
under), and the information had been analyzed primarily based on the
variety of steps accomplished independently
relative to the full variety of steps. Interobserver settlement was assessed on 53% of all
classes by having a second observer concurrently however independently gather knowledge on the
completion of every step of the duty Assessment. An
settlement was outlined as each observers
marking a verify when a step of the duty Assessment
was carried out or marking an X when a step
was not carried out. Settlement was calculated
by dividing the variety of steps with agreements by the variety of steps with agreements
plus the variety of steps with disagreements
multiplied by 100%. Settlement averaged
100% for activity completion all through baseline
and postteaching.
Process
The next 13-step activity Assessment was
performed to develop the requisite expertise
essential to entry a selected Site:
1. Press the pc energy button.
2. Press the monitor energy button.
three. Place hand on the mouse.
four. Transfer the cursor with the mouse till it
factors to the Web ExplorerH icon.
5. Double clickthe Web ExplorerH
icon.
6. Transfer the cursor with the mouse to the
GoogleH search field.
7. Left clickin the field.
eight. Sort within the search matter of curiosity.
9. Place hand backon mouse.
10. Transfer cursor to the field labeled ‘‘search.’’
11. Single clickthe field.
12. Transfer the cursor with the mouse all the way down to
the Site of selection.
13. Single clickthe Site of selection.
Throughout all steps, clicking was outlined as
pushing down with the suitable index finger on
the entrance a part of the mouse.
Prior to every day’s classes, a stimulus
choice Assessment (primarily based on DeLeon &
Iwata, 1996) was performed to find out the
gadgets to be offered as reinforcers throughout the
educating classes. For all members, small
edible gadgets (e.g., jelly beans) had been used as
reinforcers.
Most popular on-line video games or Internet sites for every
participant had been decided earlier than baseline by
asking program employees what matters the
members after which observing the members
interact within the recreation or Site for a minimal
of 5 min when the Internet sites had been accessed
by the experimenters. Employees knowledgeable the
experimenters that the members typically used
these Internet sites, however the employees needed to entry the
Internet sites for them. To realize entry to the
most popular Web exercise, members wanted
to double click on the hyperlink to the Site from
a search engine (i.e., the GoogleH homepage;
www.google.com). Chris and Ethan labored to
entry a web-based pinball recreation, and Mark
labored to entry a Site that performed music
movies (particular hyperlinks can be found from the primary
creator).
186 JARED JEROME et al.
Baseline. Throughout baseline, every session started
with the experimenter saying, ‘‘[name], do you
wish to play on the pc?’’ After the
participant sat down, the experimenter stood
1 m behind the participant. The experimenter
mentioned nothing else and didn’t ship every other
prompts throughout the baseline situation. When
the participant both seemed away from the
laptop or didn’t interact within the preliminary step or
any subsequent step of the duty for two min, the
trial was terminated and the experimenter
accessed the goal on-line recreation or Site
and allowed the participant to work together with the
on-line recreation or Site for five min. All baseline
classes lasted between 2 and 5 min, relying
on the participant’s conduct.
Instructing. Within the educating situation, the
experimenter stood 1 m behind the seated
participant all through the session. When every
educating session started, nonetheless, the preliminary 12
steps of the duty Assessment had been full such
that the participant was solely required to click on
on the hyperlink for his or her most popular web exercise
current on the GoogleH homepage. The
experimenter then mentioned, ‘‘[name], start enjoying
on the pc.’’ If the participant accurately
accomplished this step, entry to the popular
web exercise was delivered for five min.
If the participant didn’t click on the mouse after
three s, an errorless studying process was used to
click on the GoogleH hyperlink. A most-to-least intrusive
prompting process (i.e., hand-over-hand
steering, adopted by hand-over-wrist steering, then hand-over-elbow steering, and
lastly hand-over-shoulder steering) was used
till all prompts had been pale and the participant
independently clicked on the GoogleH hyperlink.
Experimenters progressed to a much less intrusive
immediate after the participant carried out the duty
with the earlier immediate on two consecutive
trials. Thus, the members weren’t given the
alternative to carry out an incorrect activity on the
laptop. Except the most-toleast intrusive prompting process, no different
verbal prompts had been delivered.
The prompting process continued till
the participant independently accomplished every
of the 13 task-analysis steps two occasions consecutively. After mastery of every step, coaching on
the earlier step was added. For instance, as soon as
the participant independently accomplished the
13th step on two consecutive trials, the
prompting process was utilized to the 12th
step and so forth, primarily based on a backward chaining
process. When all 13 steps had been accomplished
independently for 3 consecutive classes,
educating was thought-about to be accomplished.
All through the educating situation, the
experimenters delivered edible gadgets after the
participant accomplished every step of the duty
Assessment, for each prompted and unbiased
activity completion. Edible gadgets had been delivered
as a type of fast reinforcement to
keep conduct within the absence of the
delayed reinforcement offered by accessing
the Web exercise. As well as, the participant
obtained 5-min entry to the popular
Web exercise after completion of the ultimate
step within the activity Assessment, no matter whether or not
completion of that step was prompted or
occurred independently. Every educating session
lasted for a most of 40 min primarily based on the
most time obtainable on the members’
schedules.
Postteaching. Postteaching classes had been performed in an equivalent method to the baseline
situation; that’s, edible reinforcers and
prompts weren’t delivered. The one distinction
was if the members didn’t full the 13-
step chain, the session was terminated with out
entry to the Site. Members had been
required to progress from one step to the following
inside the identical 2-min time-frame that existed
throughout baseline.
Generalization probes. Starting within the postteaching part, a second laptop grew to become
obtainable in a separate classroom, situated
roughly eight m from the pc used
throughout baseline. The generalization laptop
and monitor had been just like the coaching
INTERNET SKILL DEVELOPMENT 187
Determine 1. Variety of steps of activity Assessment accomplished for three members throughout all trials.
188 JARED JEROME et al.
laptop in dimension and common format (e.g., energy
button, mouse sort). The identical 13-step activity
Assessment allowed entry to the Site of
selection, and the identical process as baseline and
postteaching was used. Generalization probes
had been performed on this second laptop on
52%, 58%, and 38% of postteaching classes
for Chris, Mark, and Ethan, respectively.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The outcomes are proven in Determine 1. Chris had
a spread of 1 to 4 steps accomplished in
baseline. He met criterion for all 13 steps in a single
40-min educating session. In postteaching, he
accomplished all 13 steps of the duty Assessment
throughout each session. Mark accomplished zero to
one steps in baseline. He met criterion after 5
40-min educating classes. In postteaching, he
accomplished 1 to 13 steps, and he accomplished all
13 steps in 10 of 12 classes. Ethan accomplished
zero to 5 steps in baseline. He met criterion in
one 40-min educating session. In postteaching,
he accomplished all 13 steps in each session. Thus,
the variety of steps accomplished independently
elevated after educating for every participant. In
addition, members’ expertise generalized to
a novel laptop.
Earlier analysis has demonstrated the usage of
activity analyses and errorless studying to show
a wide range of nonleisure laptop expertise and different
leisure actions. The current research mixed
the efforts of this earlier analysis by educating
leisure expertise on the pc to adults with
developmental disabilities. A limitation of the
current research was that it taught entry to solely
two Internet sites, a web-based recreation and a music
Site that had been decided to be
most popular previous to the research. Future analysis
ought to prolong this methodology to incorporate selection
amongst a wide range of obtainable Internet sites, as a result of
selecting amongst a number of actions could end result
in increased ranges of activity engagement (Tiger,
Hanley, & Hernandez, 2006). A second
limitation to the research was that just one
generalization laptop was used and was used
solely throughout postteaching and never throughout
baseline. Future analysis ought to consider stimulus generalization throughout totally different computer systems
and areas in addition to response generalization,
comparable to to different Web expertise. Additionally, throughout the
baseline situation members got solely
the next discriminative stimulus: ‘‘[Name],
do you wish to play on the pc?’’ It’s
potential that if members got extra
detailed directions, they’d have been ready
to carry out extra task-analysis steps. Likewise, it
is feasible that the supply of edible reinforcers
within the educating situation could have resulted in
elevated activity completion relative to baseline.
Lastly, though the members accomplished the
13-step chain throughout the postteaching and
generalization situations with none prompting, it was not decided whether or not they realized
to strategy a pc independently to entry
a Site of selection. Future analysis ought to
observe whether or not members would independently provoke educated leisure expertise whereas not
beneath the management of a selected discriminative
stimulus.
REFERENCES
DeLeon, I. G., & Iwata, B. A. (1996). Analysis of
a multiple-stimulus presentation format for assessing
reinforcer preferences. Journal of Utilized Habits
Assessment, 29, 519–532.
Frank, A. R., Wacker, D. P., Berg, W. Ok., & McMahon,
C. M. (1985). Instructing chosen microcomputer expertise
to retarded college students through image prompts. Journal of
Utilized Habits Assessment, 18, 179–185.
Luyben, P. D., Funk, D. M., Morgan, J. Ok., Clark, Ok. A.,
& Delulio, D. W. (1986). Staff sports activities for the
severely retarded: Coaching a side-of-the-foot soccer
go utilizing a maximum-to-minimum immediate discount technique. Journal of Utilized Habits Assessment, 19,
431–436.
Tiger, J. H., Hanley, G. P., & Hernandez, E. (2006). An
analysis of the worth of selection with preschool
youngsters. Journal of Utilized Habits Assessment, 39,
1–16.
Obtained March 16, 2006
Last acceptance September 12, 2006
Motion Editor, Henry Roane
INTERNET SKILL DEVELOPMENT 189
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THE EFFECTS OF ERRORLESS LEARNING AND BACKWARD CHAINING ON INTERNET SKILL ACQUISITION IN ADULTS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
JARED JEROME, ERIC P. FRANTINO, AND PETER STURMEY QUEENS COLLEGE AND THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK GRADUATE CENTER
An vital space within the studying and growth of people with disabilities is the acquisition of unbiased, age-appropriate leisure expertise. Three adults with autism and psychological retardation had been taught to entry particular Web websites utilizing backward chaining and most-toleast intrusive prompting. The variety of unbiased steps accomplished within the activity Assessment elevated following coaching.
DESCRIPTORS: autism, laptop use, leisure expertise
_______________________________________________________________________________
Age-appropriate leisure expertise are vital and valued for all people, and the usage of private computer systems has change into an vital type of leisure exercise
