The paper looks into the issue of assessing the language, communication, as well as assistive cognitive behavior. The single-case documentation focuses on a non-vocal but verbal 7-year old boy, Sam, who communicates using an AAC device as well as minimal signs. The focus is to promote Sam’s self-determination skills among students with at risk disabilities. The importance is essential because at risk students should be in a position of learning to direct their own live. Through self-determination, it will be possible to assist Sam to improve the quality of his life by achieving independence across his life span. For this reason, the sub-categories that the self-determination design should follow include self-knowledge and self-management, which are cornerstones of cognitive-behavioral strategies for the management or regulation of an individual’s behavior.
The importance of increasing Sam’s independent manding is to ensure that he acquires skills that are inclusive of intra-verbal, tacting, as well as receptive skills. For Sam, manding relates to the need for ensuring that he attains the use of 2-3 words that are inclusive of an adjective. The objective is to ensure that he achieves this without including a carrier phase at a rate of 20 times in an hour by responding to the cold prone for three consecutive days across two members of staff correctly. The time-series design considered for implementation can assist in providing a rigorous evaluation of the effects of the intervention. Since single-case designs are usually varied, the correct response considered is blue book. The fundamental reason for considering this approach is based on the provision that it is attainable and can be reinforced.
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Statement of purpose
Single-case design is a vital tool used for the development as well as implementation of evidence-based practice applicable to communication sciences and communication disorders. The fundamental purpose of this presentation relates to the determination of the most appropriate target behavior (DV) for Sam to increase independent manding.
Literature review
A considerable number of criteria have been created for the identification of the most suitable clinical and educational practices supported by research in speech-language science, rehabilitation disciplines, as well as psychology, among other disciplines. The mand repertoire is vital for early language learners, which is an indication that it is of critical importance. According to Barger-Anderson, Domaracki, Vakulick, and Kubina (2004), single-case designs can assist in the personalization of the data collection process since the data is obtain from each individual and analyzed individually. The mand repertoire increases the possibility of acquiring access to the particular items, information, activities, and actions of the child when another person controls the access to the stimuli.
According to Albert et al. (2012), if a child wants social or physical interaction, he or she might request for the same from a parent. Conversely, the parent delivers on the request, consequently acting as a reinforcer of the particular mand topography, which is the hug in this case. Since the reinforcer of the specific mand is corresponding with precision with the motivation of the child in mind, it would be possible to determine that the mand benefits the speaker. Conversely, the mand is likely to lead to the development of a communicative repertoire. Additionally, Albert et al. (2012) posit that manding assists in establishing the reciprocal speaker as well as listener roles, which are essential for increasing the child’s verbal competence. Practitioners working with children with language disorders can create a conceptual framework necessary for language training by analyzing the verbal behavior of the child.
An essential element to consider in line with the creation of an appropriate conceptual framework requires an understanding of the meaning of mand. Albert et al. (2012) refer to a definition by Skinner to indicate that the mand is a verbal operant that reinforces a response through the characterization of a consequence of its implementation. For this reason, the functional control of the mand should be based on conditions that include deprivation or aversive stimulation. A mand simply refers to the request to receive a preferred action (Byiers, Reichle & Symons, 2012) . It is unique in every child and depends on the response evoked through motivation. The motivating operation of this verbal operant could be considered as the stimulating condition that alters some stimulus as reinforcers or evokes all the responses that reinforce might have produced in the past. For this reason, the motivating operation increases the possibility of a repeat of previously produced behavior in the child.
It is essential to increase the awareness of individuals regarding the qualities as well as the attributes of single-case designs due to the existing misconceptions. Barger-Anderson, Domaracki, Vakulick, and Kubina (2004) emphasize on the fact that single-designs provide professionals with the opportunity to discard variability that might be caused by any other thing apart from treatment employed or another independent variable. Control should go on until it is possible to visually determine that the treatment has been effective. Single-case designs use control procedures in which each of the child serves as his or her own control. However, it might be difficult to achieve control when dealing with more than one person.
Rationale for the study
The rationale for conducting this study is based on the need to ensure that Sam receives an alternate procedure that would contrive motivation. In this light, the participant will be taught to complete a certain form of behavior that can lead to a terminal reinforcer. After the chain of behavior is learned, the chain can be interrupted through the removal of an item that can complete it. For this reason, the completion of the chain, including the terminal reinforce is assessed to determine whether Sam has manded the missing item, by using such a procedure, it would be possible to determine the mand for the missing item that would have to be used to complete the behavior chain of different activities. By interpreting the chain of reinforcements, it will be possible to demonstrate that manipulating the motivation operation for the missing items could be indicative of discriminative control. Moreover, the study will focus on demonstrating the manner in which the interrupted chain procedure can be used for momentarily conditioning the previous neutral items as reinforcers. Such kind of manipulation can assist in determining whether the Sam’s mand repertoire is expanding or otherwise.
The other reason considered for choosing the study is based on the need to assess the effectiveness of single-case design when compared to multiple designs. In this light, it would be vital to take note of the provision that the single-case designs are becoming more popular as well as acceptable by professionals in the field. According to Barger-Anderson, Domaracki, Vakulick, and Kubina (2004), single-case designs can be acceptable when used for the classroom-based research. The designs can be beneficial, particularly when a researcher is conducting literacy research. Barger-Anderson, Domaracki, Vakulick, and Kubina (2004) account for the idea that single-case designs can accommodate a wide range of instructional strategies, which can be used in the assessment of whether a participant is effectively engaging in the process.
The other rationale for using this method relates to the idea that single-case designs are regarded as important tool for the implementation of evidence-based practice. Byiers, Reichle, and Symons (2012) support this notion by focusing on providing the audience with information that they could use to establish evidence-based practice. For this reason, the reason for conducting the study includes determining whether the single-case design could be the best form for use in educational and clinical practices. This provision takes note of the idea that the establishment of treatment as evidence based could be indicative of the idea that the intervention would be effective with most of the participants.
Thesis statement
This study focuses on revealing that Sam will be reinforced when he properly mands and not when he mands improperly.
Methodology
Participant and setting
The participant is a 7-year old that communicates using minimal signs and an AAC device. The idea considered is to increase Sam’s independent manding. In this case, the reinforcement procedure to be implemented will be differential reinforcement in compatible behaviors. For this reason, the reinforcement procedure will focus on increasing his independent manding as a precursor for other skills he is to acquire later in life such as being receptive, intra-verbal as well as tacting.
Target behaviors
As indicated earlier, one of the targeted behaviors is manding. The process considered in achieving this target behavior is independent manding. In this light, a mand is recorded as independent when Sam exchanges a picture symbol upon request, including the exchange of preferred items without prompts. The other method that could be used during the process of establishing the participant’s independent is through vocal prompt delay. With this process, the period before a prompt is slowly increased based on a predetermined criterion (Albert et al., 2012). With constant prompt delays, the amount of time that passes prior to a prompt remains consistent. For instance, the prompts could be delayed once every 10 seconds. It is also established that the participant uses minimal signs when communicating. For this reason, teaching manding could occur through the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and manual sign language. These methods have been used in addition to prompt fading. The sessions take place in a self-contained learning environment that has tables and chairs.
The other targeted behavior is speech. The process targets two categories of speech, which include Sam’s word vocalizations and his vocal approximations. The word vocalization is recorded and when the participant clearly states an item, he is manding. When the participant does not pronounce a word clearly, the process is not recorded due to the difficulty of approximations about what he might have said. However, when the vocalization is close to the name of a manded item, the vocalization is recorded.
Procedure
A teacher-cued independent intervention for Sam was used in the daily two-part instructional time. The procedure involved the use of ABAB withdrawal design, which is vital for testing the results of the implemented intervention. Sam sat near posters displaying pictures of different items. Before daily sessions, he chose something that he could relate to then the teacher reviewed the images with him. Each of the sessions took 20 minutes. During the initial 20-minute sessions, Sam took 20 minutes of instruction and 20 minutes of individual work while seated. While seated, a bell sounded every two minutes and Sam had to mark an item on the chart provided to determine if he knew the items. This intervention was easily implemented in the setting chosen for the process. A withdrawal period from the sessions was used to confirm whether the interventions implemented were the reason for the reinforced behavior. Observations were used to confirm whether the reinforced behavior for the day was statistically significant.
Results
Both the manding as well as speech were measured using event recording through the first, second as well as the third authors. The recordings were rotated in a quasi-random order. The was collected and analyzed based on the step-wise change in the frequency of Sam’s behavior. During some of the response opportunities provided, Sam was neither in a position of picking up not exchanging a picture or respond to an item he desired. However, his level of independence grew over a given period. In this regard, using PECS, Sam was able to meet the acquisition criteria developed from the onset even though he generalized the acquisition.
In relation to the concept of speech, Sam was not able to demonstrate a measurable speech level of improvement during the study. For this reason, no speech data was available to display to show his progress. The recordings reveal that he did not exhibit changes as derived from the vocal approximation during baseline. This provision is indicative of the idea that he maintained the same level of vocal approximations during the generalization process.
Graph I: Representation of the step-wise change in the frequency of the participant’s behavior
Discussion
For Sam, the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) seemingly increased his levels of independent manding. In this regard, it was possible for Sam to meet the acquisition criteria set forth in the initial phase. However, he generalized his manding skills to his classroom teacher, and the development occurred primarily during the later stages of during the implementation of the reinforcement procedure. In the light of this provision, there is a possibility of arguing that this study extended research on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) through the replication of previous studies on the same. This discovery might be used to suggest that aided communication systems such as PECS could be regarded as effective for teaching non-vocal children basic communication. On the other hand, the finding demonstrates that systems such as AAC and PECS can be effective in promoting speech in some users, even though it might not have been effective in promoting the same for Sam
Based on the results from the investigations, it could be concluded that the study is consistent with previous studies that discovered that PECS could be used to increase a participant’s level of independence, including spontaneous manding ( Paul, 2008) . Additionally, the findings could be used to suggest that PECS is a viable system that can be used effectively for teaching manding to school-going children. However, for the system to be highly effective, the child has to be taken through several phases. For each phase, the trials should be increased to ensure that the child acquires a higher level of independence. Even though the rates of acquisition using the PECS phases might be different for different children, Sam’s rate of acquisition was slightly higher than previously reported. However, the reasons for the increase are not known even though Sam appeared to prefer items more easily, which would suggest that the items he preferred required less reinforcement value.
Previous investigations have reported that an increase in speech acquisition might take during the advanced phases of the implementation process ( Paul, 2008) . The increase might be attributed to the fact that during the later phases of the implementation, there could be a function of explicit reinforcement that might delay the procedure. However, the type of mand training that has been demonstrated through this study has direct implications that could be used for targeting hallmark characteristics in children such as Sam. This could be through the lack of spontaneous language that includes emitting unprompted mands. The study could be used to predict that increasing spontaneous mand repertoires in children with relatable developmental activities could be evoked by using motivating operations rather than simply using images of an item. For this reason, this study extends the latter line of research by using an interruption chain procedure that can assist in teaching children with similar developmental disabilities to mand the items that might have been missing but are still under their control. For this reason, practitioners working with children with the developmental disorders could use the training procedures to increase the frequency as well as the variety of unprompted mands that the children emit.
Limitations of the study
The research design utilizes baseline logic under two experimental conditions. The limitation of using such a design could be based on the provision that it creates ethical concerns. Even though the withdrawal brief is essential for enhancing the effectiveness of the intervention, it might be considered as unethical when the intention is to ensure the child acquired durable behavior changes. In relation to the assessment of the target behavior that might be harmful to the participant, counting the frequencies of the target behavior might also create ethical concerns. The primary disadvantage is the inability to care that the variables might not be reversible since the order effect of such an intervention includes the provision that it might prohibit appropriate interpretation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there is a possibility of determining that the ABAB model could be used in preparing single-subject research design that could reduce some of the possible mistakes that are inclusive of the acquisition of weak data or the reliability of the collected data. This could happen when the research structure is vulnerable. In spite of this provision, the single-case designs can be beneficial in the educational setting since the instructor can easily implement the research design. Conversely, single-case designs can provide instructors with an avenue through which they could examine literacy components. The research design accounts for a variety of instructional approaches that rely upon sound studies. For this reason, their application, based on the needs of a child, can lead to the improvement of a child’s independence.
References
Albert, K., Carbone, V., Murray, D., Hagerty, M., & Sweeney-Kerwin, E. (2012). Increasing the Mand Repertoire of Children With Autism Through the Use of an Interrupted Chain Procedure. Behavior Analysis In Practice , 5 (2), 65-76. doi: 10.1007/bf03391825
Barger-Anderson, R., Domaracki, J. W., Kearney-Vakulick, N., & Kubina, R. M. (2004). Multiple baseline designs: The use of a single-case experimental design in literacy research. Reading Improvement , 41 (4), 217-225.
Byiers, B., Reichle, J., & Symons, F. (2012). Single-Subject Experimental Design for Evidence-Based Practice. American Journal Of Speech-Language Pathology , 21 (4), 397. doi: 10.1044/1058-0360(2012/11-0036)
Paul R. (2008). Interventions to improve communication in autism. Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America , 17 (4), 835-856.
