Teaching Techniques ABA
Teaching Techniques ABA
Teaching Techniques ABA
to Improve Conversation Skills of Students
with ASD and Other Social Cognition Deficits
Lynn Cannon, M.ED
Courtney Goldstein, M.A., CCC‐SLP
Eve Muller, Ph.D.
November 2014
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Disclosures
Lynn Cannon, Social Learning Coordinator, Ivymount School
•Financial Disclosures – current employee of Ivymount School
•Nonfinancial Disclosures – co‐author of Conversation Club curriculum
Courtney Goldstein, Speech Language Pathologist, The Parkside School
•Financial Disclosures – formerly an employee of Ivymount School
•Nonfinancial Disclosures – co‐author of Conversation Club curriculum
Eve Muller, Coordinator of Program Evaluation and Outcomes Research,
Ivymount School
•Financial Disclosures – current employee of Ivymount School
•Nonfinancial Disclosures – co‐author of Conversation Club curriculum
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Goals of Presentation
1. Identify skills needed for a conversation
2. Review current literature and interventions available
3. Learn “Conversation Club” strategies and frameworks
for teaching conversation skills
4. Review evidence supporting use of the “Conversation
Club” program to teach conversation
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Conversation Skills
Environmental
Awareness
Perspective and Body
Taking and Readiness Good Listening
Social Behaviors
Motivation
Gaining
Topic
Attention
Maintenance
Behaviors
Conversation
Conversation
Initiation and Conversation Repair
Topic Selection
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Review of Current Literature
Previous research has demonstrated success in
boosting conversation skill levels with limitations
‐ Set the bar too low
‐ Taught discrete conversation skills
(Charlop& Milstein, 1989; Chin & Bernard‐Opitz, 2000; Chung, Reavis, Moconi, Drewry,
Matthws, & Tasse, 2007; Dotson, Leaf, Sheldon, & Sherman, 2010; Leaf, Taubman,
Bloomfield, Paulos‐Rafuse, Leaf, McEachin, & Oppenheim, 2009; Sarokoff, Taylor, &
Poulson, 2001)
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Teaching
• Rationale for why, breakdown of
Interaction
the skill, teacher demonstration,
Procedure (TIP) student practice, reinforcement
Framework
• Rationale for underlying social
significance
Social Thinking
• Use of highly motivating super
heroes/ characters
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Background
2012‐2013
2014
Conversation Club continues Social Thinking
Program occurs Program Providers
during lunchtime continues with Conference
Research Study Lower School Preparing for
Pilot students publication
Modifications Program
made for a variety continues beyond
of learners lunch time
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Collaboration Model
Classroom • Collaboration across
Social Learning disciplines to meet the
Speech Language needs of each individual
Coordinator
Pathologist child
• Shared responsibilities in
terms of:
Occupational – Planning for explicit,
Researcher individualized and
Therapist differentiated instruction
– Creation of materials
– Program implementation
– Assessment
Social Worker Head Teacher – Data Collection and
Analysis
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Staff Training
• Ongoing trainings for teaching and classroom staff for:
– Consistency across professionals regarding teaching
protocol and language use
– Greater understanding regarding the social
significance of each still taught
– More frequent opportunities for reinforcement
throughout the school day
– Learning of a new skillset outside of their own
discipline
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Role of the SLP
• Planning of explicit instruction
• Creation of materials
• Explicit teaching during lunch
• Assessment
– Formal testing
– Informal checklists
– Interviews at baseline and end of study
• Staff training
– Ensure all staff are using the same simplified language
– Identify if students are having difficulty due to the language used
– Know when to seek out support from the Speech Language
Pathologist
– Support modifying the program based on the needs of each
student
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Selecting Participants
• Lower School children in 1st‐4th grades
• Children with varying social cognitive deficits
including challenges participating in
conversation with peers
• Children who benefit from utilizing visuals to
support learning
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Eligibility Criteria
• Elementary School Aged Students
– Grades 1‐4
• ROWPVT Standard Score 85
• Students needed to accurately:
– Answer “who,” “what,” “where” and “when” questions
based on visual information
– Attend to a speaker for at least 1 conversational exchange
– Expressively formulate sentences of at least 4 words in
length
– Decode words and/or have a strong sight word
vocabulary
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Baseline Video
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Key Objectives
Environmental
Awareness
Perspective and Body
Taking and Readiness Good Listening
Social Behaviors
Motivation
Gaining
Topic
Attention
Maintenance
Behaviors
Conversation
Conversation
Initiation and Conversation Repair
Topic Selection
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Sequence of Instruction
Lesson 1 Meet Friendly Freddy: Introduction to Conversation Club
Lesson 2 What is a Conversation?
Lesson 3 Getting Ready for Conversation: Looking, Position, Voice
Lesson 4 What is a Topic?: Define and Brainstorm Topics
Lesson 5 Super Brainstorm: Expanding Topics
Lesson 6 Thinking about My Partner: Conversation Club Files
Lesson 7 WH Questions: Use WH Words to Ask and Answer Questions
Lesson 8 Barrier Game: Use Listening Skills to Follow What Partner is Saying
Lesson 9 Meet Polly the Parrot: Descriptive Statements
Lesson 10 What’s Missing?: Listening Skills
Lesson 11 Keep the Conversation Going: Identifying Key Words
Lesson 12 Meet Looking Lisa: Use eyes to think about our conversation partner
Lesson 13 Looking Lisa & Listening Louie: Put it all together‐ Looking Eyes & Listening Ears
Lesson 14 Meet Good Memory Marge: Remembering what our partner says
Lesson 15 Polly the Parrot: Expanding conversation
Lesson 16 Meet New Words Nate: Conversation Starters
Lesson 17 Branching Out: Bridging statements
Lesson 18 Sprouting Leaves: Follow‐up statements
Lesson 19 Bringing it All Together
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Progress Report
• Assesses targeted skills within each
conversation domain
– Conversation Initiation and Topic Selection
– Topic Maintenance
– Perspective Taking and Social Motivation
– Environmental Awareness and Body Readiness
– Good Listening Behaviors
– Gaining Attention Behaviors
– Conversation Repair
• Scale
– Absent, Emerging, Developing, Mastered
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Procedure
30 minute lunch period
Lunch set up
5 minutes
MONDAY‐THURSDAY FRIDAY
20 minutes: 20 minutes:
Explicit Instruction/Brainstorm Generalization
Conversation and Reinforcement Reinforcement
Wrap up/clean up
5 minutes
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Making Lessons Fun
• Conversation is DIFFICULT for the students
we are working with and we must make it
fun in order for it to be motivating
•Club
•Passwords
Reinforcing Student Effort and Engagement
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Conversations and Topics
A conversation is when 2 or
more people share and learn
information. I didn’t know
Maria went to
the zoo!
Yesterday,
I went to
the zoo!
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Preparing for & Initiating Conversation
How do we get ready for a conversation?
Share space with the person
Look at the person
Get their attention
Use an indoor voice
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Topic Maintenance/ Wh Words
Maintain a topic for an
increasing number of
exchanges.
Expand vocabulary/
schema
Ask/ Answer
“WH” Questions
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Barrier Game Video
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Listening Behaviors/ Key Words
Identify key words and
ask follow-up questions.
Good listeners
remember
what their
peers say.
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Expanding Conversation
When the cool club members are When Polly has a
having a conversation, one person conversation, she wants to
may say something about a topic. make sure that her partner
Polly helps that person tell his knows all the information.
Conversation Partner even more She’s going to tell you:
about the topic!
WHO she was with
WHAT she did
WHERE she was
WHEN she did it
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Polly Video
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Attending to Peers
Thinking about our conversation partner by
checking in with our eyes.
Are the interested?
Are they paying attention?
How can I get my partner’s attention?
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Thinking about Conversation Partners
Conversation Club Member Files
• What do I know about
my partner?
• What do I remember
about our past
conversations?
• What do we have in
common?
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Tree Visual
Goal: expanding
conversation and
reducing unexpected
comments
Branches and leaves
represent the
connected comments
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“Conversation Club” Pilot Study
Study Participants
• 7‐9 year olds
• n=7
Gathering Data
• Baseline & end‐of‐year videotapes
Analyzing Data
• Improvement over time?
• Generalization of skills outside of instructional
context both with/without reinforcement?
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Post Video
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CC Outcomes: Increased Peer‐directed Initiations
180.0
160.0
140.0
120.0
100.0
Baseline
EOY w Reinforcement
80.0
EOY w/o Reinforcement
60.0
40.0
20.0
0.0
Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Average
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CC Outcomes: Increased Used of Question
Asking to Introduce and Maintain Conversation
180.0
160.0
140.0
120.0
100.0 Baseline
EOY w Reinforcement
80.0
EOY w/o Reinforcement
60.0
40.0
20.0
0.0
Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Average
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CC Outcomes: Increased Use of
“Wh” Words
25.0
20.0
15.0
Baseline
EOY w Reinforcement
10.0 EOY w/o Reinforcement
5.0
0.0
Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Average
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CC Outcomes: Increased
Gaining Attention Strategies
20.0
18.0
16.0
14.0
12.0
Baseline
10.0
EOY w Reinforcement
8.0 EOY w/o Reinforcement
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Average
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CC Outcomes: Increased Attempts
at Conversation Repair
14.0
12.0
10.0
8.0
Baseline
EOY w Reinforcement
6.0
EOY w/o Reinforcement
4.0
2.0
0.0
Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Average
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CC Study: Limitations
Small sample size
Did not measure:
• Long‐term generalization
• Generalization to non‐lunch contexts
Ongoing challenges:
• Pacing
• Non‐responsiveness
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Tools to Take With You
Find opportunities to practice
Pull instructor out of “lead” role
Make conversation fun
Use visuals
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Next Steps
Continue intervention
Gather ongoing data
Modify curriculum as needed
Publish curriculum
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Conclusions
Conversation Club offers a unique approach to teaching
students with ASD the “how” & “why” of conversation.
Data indicate that CC is an effective means of teaching
conversation skills to this population.
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References
Crooke, P., Hendrix, R., & Rachman, J. (2008). Brief report: Measuring the
effectiveness of teaching social thinking to children with Asperger
Syndrome (AS) and High Functioning Autism (HFA). Journal of Autism
and Developmental Disorders, 38, 581‐591.
Dotson, W., Leaf, J., Sheldon, J., & Sherman, J. (2010). Group teaching of
conversational skills to adolescents on the autism spectrum. Research in
Autism Spectrum Disorders, 4, 199‐209.
Leaf, J., Dotson, W., Oppenheim, M., Sheldon, J., & Sherman, J. (2010). The
effectiveness of a group teaching interaction procedure for teaching
social skills to young children with a pervasive developmental disorder.
Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 4, 186‐198.
Madrigal, S., & Winner, M.G. (2009). Superflex Takes on Glassman and the Team
of Unthinkables. San Jose, CA: Think Social Publishing.
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Contact Information
• lcannon@ivymount.org
• emuller@ivymount.org
• cgoldstein@parksideschool.org
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