Karl Smith Accelerations Educational Software Mariam Al Rashdi Middle East Representative

1. Teaching Individuals with Autism & Other Severe Learning Deficiencies: Effective Methods for Teachers & Computers Karl Smith Accelerations Educational Software Mariam Al Rashdi Middle East Representative

2. Low Functioning Students • Severe learning deficiencies • Poor learning behaviors Accelerations Educational Software

3. Severe Learning Deficiencies • Severe learning deficiencies can be a combination of a poor ability to: • Imitate • Understand observed relationships • Learn skills quickly • Generalize skills • Retain information • Communicate effectively & fluently Accelerations Educational Software

4. Poor Learning Behaviors • Tolerance of boredom • Repetitious behaviors • Content with the familiar/successful • No tolerance to insecurity (no self confidence) • Uninterested to extremely fearful of the unfamiliar • Does not like change • Does not tend to explore • Does not want to fail • Does not want to fail again Accelerations Educational Software

5. Poor Learning Behaviors • Focused on limited set of abilities and interests • Sometimes quite strange from our standards • Simple cause & effect • Extreme interest and ability in very or relatively narrow topic(s) • Escape • Easily distracted • Does not pay attention • Does not comply • Runs or pulls away • Tantrums • Attacks (pinches, hits, kicks, bites, head butts) • Self Injury Accelerations Educational Software

6. Learning • Learning involves doing things that the student: • Has not done before • Has not done much • Has not been successful with before • Past Learning Experience makes the learner… • Cooperative • Slightly Uncooperative • Uncooperative • Combative • Poor Learning Experiences >>>> develop Poor Learning Behaviors Accelerations Educational Software

7. Autism • Students with some of the most: • Severe Learning Deficiencies >>>> Extremely Poor Learning Experiences >>>> Extremely Poor Learning Behaviors • Effective methods have and are being developed • Addresses learning deficiencies • Addresses poor learning behaviors • Shown to be effective with other learning disabilities • Extensive amounts of 1-on-1 Accelerations Educational Software

8. Effective Teaching • Motivate to do what is difficult or of no interest • Find appropriate reinforcement • Fade reinforcement • Change reinforcement to maintain motivation • Do not reinforce inappropriate behaviors or incorrect answers • Teach at the appropriate level • Sometimes need to break down even further Accelerations Educational Software

9. Effective Teaching • Sufficient support • Start from where student can not fail • Build to where student can be independently successful • Control step size and practice needed • Use full range of prompt and prompt fading techniques • Maintain skills • Generalize skills • Contrive learning situation • Adapt teaching to learner’s needs Accelerations Educational Software

10. Effective Teaching • Build history of success • Provide sufficient Frequency and Intensity • Monitor teaching effectiveness • Collect and analyze data • Change teaching methods as necessary • Micromanage the learning process • Adapt intervention intensity Accelerations Educational Software

11. A Lot of Work • Explicitly teach most of what we need student to know • Provide extensive human intervention using effective methods • We need inexpensive computer software to provide some of the instruction Accelerations Educational Software

12. Computers Can Help • Computers can also implement effective teaching principles for these difficult to teach students. • Great environment to provide reinforcement • Great at collecting data and providing reports • Great at assisting the analysis of data • Infinitely patient – will not tire or get frustrated • Can be made to be adapted to student’s needs • Can mimic various teaching methods • Can support independent use by even low functioning students Accelerations Educational Software

13. Common Software Problems • Most currently available commercially available teaching software has little accommodation for independent instruction of some of our most difficult to educate learners. Here are some of the problems: • Most software inadvertently reinforces incorrect answers and inappropriate behaviors by making a sound or a little visual effect. Our learner will consider success making that sound or visual happen over and over. • Most software provides no ability to choose learner specific reinforcement. Some learners have intense interests and we need to tap into these interests to get instructional control. Accelerations Educational Software

14. Common Software Problems • Most software reinforces all the time or very frequently. This breaks a fundamental principle of fading the reinforcement to the minimal level necessary to maintain the behavior. From a practical viewpoint, frequent reinforcement also decreases instructional time and thus slows learning. Another consequence of frequent reinforcement is that the reinforcers will more quickly lose their motivational value. In fact initially positive reinforcers can become boring or even annoying and thus de-motivating. • Most software does not provide an ability to change the reinforcement as needed to keep the reinforcement interesting and motivating. The learner that learns extremely slowly will generally tire of the same reinforcement before he learns much from the software. • Most software can not start from where the learner can not fail. In software terms this means having the capability of presenting only one answer. Accelerations Educational Software

15. Common Software Problems • Most software uses very limited prompting and prompt fading to support the student to independent success. • Most software has limited or no ability to start the learner at an appropriate level in a sequence and provide a learner specific size of steps and amount of practice. • Most software has limited ability to keep the learner from getting stuck. Exploratory environments usually do not work since our learner will tend to just do the same thing. Our target learner has limited ability to follow instructions and is not well self directed. • Most software is not structured such that a low functioning learner can be taught to use it independently. Accelerations Educational Software

16. Common Software Problems • Most software provides little or no ability to adapt the teaching method. Even with very careful control of the stimulation, some learners will be derailed by software features. If there are no options concerning these features, the software is of no or limited benefit for the student. • Most software does not focus the learner on the critical concept. Some of the problems are: busy screens, use of drawings and icons instead of photo icons (photos with backgrounds removed). Accelerations Educational Software

17. Example Effective Software • DT Trainer was designed using behavioral teaching principles • DT Trainer is designed for independent use even by low functioning students Accelerations Educational Software

18. DT Trainer • Controls the stimulation to insure that inappropriate behaviors or incorrect responses are not inadvertently reinforced. • Provides complete control over the reinforcement frequency. • Contains a large variety of reinforcers and allows users to add reinforcers. Accelerations Educational Software

19. DT Trainer • Allows the user to change the number and selected reinforcers at any time. • Can start by giving the learner only the correct answer to select. • Combines two methods of prompting and prompt fading. • Can start the learner at any point in the training sequence. Accelerations Educational Software

20. DT Trainer • Structured to keep the student from getting stuck. • Designed for independent use by even very low functioning individuals. • Provides defaults for teaching options but allows user to change as required. • Uses a clean teaching environment and photo icons. Accelerations Educational Software

21. Contact Info • malrashdi@dttrainer.com • www.dttrainer.com/middleeast Accelerations Educational Software