Chapter 6

Application of Withdrawal Design

A-B-A Design

• The Study: Teaching Socially Valid Social Interaction Responses to Students with Severe Disabilities in an Integrated School Setting

• Research Question: The study explored the effectiveness of constant time delay to teach children with severe disabilities appropriate social interaction skills

• The subjects:– 2 males– 12 and 13 years old– Autistic– Verbal (prompt-dependent and

echolalic)– Displaying aggressive and self-injurious

behavior

A-B-A Design

• Setting:– Self-contained special education

classroom– 3 other student with similar disabilities

A-B-A Design

• Dependent Variables:– The subjects’ responses to social

greetings– 4 different possibilities

• Correct response given within 5 seconds of initiation

• No response given within 5 seconds of initiation

• Echolalic response (repetition of part or all of initiated greeting)

• Prompted response (correct response to initiation after prompt)

A-B-A Design

• Independent Variable:– Constant Time Delay Procedure

implemented by the teacher• A greeting is presented to the student• If the student responds incorrectly or fails to

respond the correct response in provided• If the student responds correctly verbal

praise is given

A-B-A Design

• The intervention:– 10 trails each consisting of 5 greetings– Student is presented with a social

greeting• A correct response within 5 seconds elicited

verbal praise• An incorrect or echolalic response resulted

in the trainer stating “No” and proving the appropriate response. If the student then gave the correct response they were praised, otherwise the correct response was provided again

A-B-A Design

• Data collection– Baseline data was collected for each

student for 4 days prior to the intervention

– During the intervention responses were recorded as: Correct, Error, Echolalic, or Prompted Correct based on the students responses to initiated greetings

– Baseline was reinstated after the intervention

A-B-A Design

• The Results:– For both students correct responses to

social greetings increased during the intervention phase

– Echolalic responses to social greetings decreased during the intervention

– Student 1decreased echolalic responding from 70% to 21%

– Student 2 decreased echolalic to 0%

A-B-A Design

• The Design:– Allowed for testing the impact of an

intervention across subjects– Established functional relationship between

time delay procedure and student responses to social greeting

• Limitations:−The response level in the second baseline was

similar to that of the intervention phase (carryover effects). This makes it difficult to establish a functional relationship.

−Ethically it was inappropriate to end the study with a baseline phase

A-B-A Design

A-B-A-B Design

• The Study: Parent Reinforcement for Child Achievement: The Use of a Lottery to Maximize Parent Training Effects

• Research Question: An evaluation of a reinforcement program in which parents received lottery tickets and prizes as their children mastered language skills in a home-based early intervention project

• Subjects:– 2 girls and 1 boy– Between 2-2 ½ years old– Developmental delays– Language delays (unable to verbalize,

imitate, and follow directions)

• Setting:– In subjects homes (low income areas)

A-B-A-B Design

• Dependent Variable:– Children’s Responses to various

language based tasks• Responding to name• Waving goodbye• Clapping pointing to pictures• Receptive language tasks• Expressive language tasks (sound imitation,

naming objects)

A-B-A-B Design

• Independent Variable:– Reinforcement through delivery of

lottery tickets (exchangeable for prizes)– Reinforcement for parents was

contingent upon children demonstrating improvements in language based tasks

– Fixed ratio reinforcement was used beginning with FR-1 and gradually being decreased to FR-3

A-B-A-B Design

• The Intervention:– At each home visit 3 tasks were assigned

to a child based on therapist’s evaluation– The task was to be done at home with the

parent– On the following home visit the therapist

would evaluate mastery of the task– Each task mastered resulted on a lottery

ticket for the parent

A-B-A-B Design

• Data Collection:– Therapists recorded children’s mastery of

language based tasks

• Results: Mastery of tasks– Subject 1: A1 3 tasks, B1 9 tasks, A2 2 tasks,

B2 10 tasks– Subject 2: A1 1 task, B1 9 tasks, A2 7 tasks, B2

0 tasks – Subject 3: A1 1 task, B1 5 tasks, A2 0 tasks, B2

5 tasks

A-B-A-B Design

• The Design:– By repeating the treatment and baseline the

validity of the functional relationship between intervention and target behavior is strengthened

– Ending with a treatment phase is ethically more sound

• Limitations:– Ethical conflict with reinforcing behavior that

should already be present (parents putting forth effort to increase their child’s language skills)

– Will they maintain maximum effort when the reinforcement is removed?

A-B-A-B Design

A-B-A-C Design

• The Study: Using Guided Compliance Versus Time-out to Promote Child Compliance

• Research Question: To determine if guided compliance is more effective than time-out in promoting child adherence

• Subjects:– 5 children (4 male, 1 female)– 3-6 years old– Mild developmental delays

• Setting:– Treatment room with a one-way mirror

A-B-A-C Design

• Dependent Variable– Child compliance to adult request within

10 seconds of the request

• Independent variable– Guided compliance technique (physical

guidance)– Time-out technique

A-B-A-C Design

• The intervention:– A request was made in all sessions by calling a

child’s name, establishing eye-contact, and issuing a request

– Guided compliance phase: if within 10 seconds of a request the child complied verbal praise was given, If the child did not comply the child was physically guided to complete the task

– Time-out phase: if within 10 seconds of a request the child complied verbal praise was given, If the child did not comply they were placed in a chair facing the corner for 30 seconds

A-B-A-C Design

• Data Collection:– Each trial was coded by the pbsever as correct

for compliance or incorrect for non-compliance– Subjects were seen individually– Each subject was present with 10 requests

• Results: Mean percentage of compliance– Baseline: below 41% for all subjects– Time-out: between 85%– Guided Compliance: 59%

A-B-A-C Design

• The Design:– Allowed for the comparison of two treatments

• Limitations– In some instances there was no change in

compliance rates between baseline and guided compliance

– The researcher believe that for some children guided compliance may have only served to maintain the non-compliance

A-B-A-C Design

A-B-A-B-A-B Design

• The Study: Effects of Two-Teacher Rates on Off-Task Behavior, Answering correctly, and Participation

• Research Question: The study compared the effectiveness of slow-rate presentation and fast-rate presentation on student off-task behavior, answering correctly, and participation

• Subjects:– A male and Female student– First grade– Identified by teachers as being poor

readers, and off task

• Setting:– Classroom setting– During daily reading instruction

A-B-A-B-A-B Design

• Dependent Variable– Off task behavior: disruptive behavior, leaving

chair, inappropriate talking– Correct answering:– Participation: responding within 1 second of

the teacher’s cue

• Independent Variables– The level presentation (fast or slow) of the

reading program

A-B-A-B-A-B Design

• The Intervention– The reading program was presented in

either the slow-rate (in which there was a delay between students response and presentation of next task) or the fast-rate (presentation of tasks without delay for response)

A-B-A-B-A-B Design

• Data Collection:– Off task behaviors, participation, and

correct responses were recorded

• Results– Fast-rate presentation decreased off-

task behavior and increased participation and correct responses

A-B-A-B-A-B Design

• The Design:– Treatment phases were repeated three

times in order to establish functional relationship

– The presentation prior the study was not determined, this means the baseline condition is questionable

• Limitations:– Using the fast-rate presentation might

lead to increased incorrect responses

A-B-A-B-A-B Design