Premature Ventricular Contractions and more

Dora,
To begin let me say that our daughter has a great deal of difficulty
with receptives (when we began she only responded receptively to her name)
and at first I tried presenting several targets at a time and it did not
work for her . . . so we tried the following as recommended by our
consultant. This may be waaaaay to easy for some, but for our daughter it's
worked just well.
Actually, when it comes to receptive labeling (identifying objects)
errorless learning is EXACTLY a good starting point. We took my things my
daughter likes and used ELL to teach her to identify them..
I began by presenting one object "Pooh" - you give the Sd "Touch Pooh"
and prompt her to touch it (I have her tap it - not grab it since the
command is "touch"). At first I put it right before her face (holding it in
my hand) and would make sure she would tap and not grab (use a full physical
prompt). Once she gets the "just touch" part then you want to move the
object around so that she has to scan for it. I placed it above my head,
off to her side, you get the idea. Scanning is really important. You also
want to place it in a neutral place (a table, on the floor, etc.) so she
doesn't get the idea that it's something you need to be holding. Again, you
may start with a full physical prompt and work your way down to a partial
prompt or even just a glance. Once she touches the object right after you
present the Sd 3 days in a row then you begin presenting it against
something totally unfamiliar to her (we used things like a can of tuna, a
stapler, etc.) - a non/familiar distractor. You present the Sd. "Touch
Pooh" and prompt her to touch it. If you are holding one in each hand -
then the Pooh you would put right in front of her face and the n/f dist.
within her sight but out of her reach. THE IDEA HERE IS THAT SHE DOESN'T
TOUCH THE DISTRACTOR - hence the idea of errorless. Be sure to switch the
two around and you are looking for her to scan . . . Also, you want to
present in a neutral place, again not always holding it. In the case of a
table you'd put the Pooh close to her and the distractor far from her.
Prompt if you need for her to touch it and once she's touching consistently
then you slowly begin to move the distractor closer to the target. The key
here is not to let her be wrong. If you are holding the Pooh and as you
begin to move the two objects closer she tries to touch the wrong one - you
quickly intercept her hand with the target. So that even though she was
aiming for the wrong one she touches the right one (this is something you
get better at with time). You may need to backtrack a bit and go back to
placing your distractor a bit farther away. I usually begin with my hands
and then present at a table (harder to intercept those "wrong" answers).
Once you have moved to where she is correctly identifying the Pooh when
presented against a n/f distractor (and by the way, the n/f distractor
doesn't have to remain the same (e.g. always the can of tuna) but has to
remain VERY unfamiliar). Then you present against two unfamiliar
distractors (here you can't hold in your hand so it gets a little trickier -
but you can use the positional prompt I've mentioned). Our consultant says
you quickly want to move from an array of two to an array of three. Also,
this sounds like it would take forever, but you want to reduce/remove your
prompting as quickly as you can. Also, if I found that in the morning we
had moved towards an independent, correct response consistently and in the
afternoon, especially after a good 2-3 hour nap, I would treat the afternoon
response as a "first trial" data. So it didn't need to of take 3
consecutive days to get a correct independent response to move onto the next
step in the sequence.
The sequence I follow is the following:
Target alone
Target v. 1 n/f distractor
Target v. 1 familiar (f) distractor
(this is something she is familiar with but not something you will
target soon - ex. we have tons of those figurines from McDonald's - all
those tie-ins to movies. She recognizes them but doesn't carry them around
(a sign that it is a preferred), I use these, or a part of a toy (peg from
pegboard) as "familiar distractors).
T v. 2 n/f distractors
T v. 1f & 1 n/f distractors
T v. 2 f distractors
Once you have two targets that have gone through the entire sequence
then you add:
T v. 1MT & 1 n/f (MT=mastered target)
T v. 1MT & 1 f
T v. 2MT
Now, eventually, once we were down pretty far down this sequence, we
would introduce another target and begin the process with that one (e.g. one
day we may be on ("Blue" v. 1 MT and 1 f) and ("ball" v. 1f & 1 n/f) and
("Mickey" alone) - three targets at various steps in the process). But you
may find that you need to introuduce one target and complete the sequence at
a time before introducing another.
I can't stress enough how important not letting your child be wrong is.
Also, you need to change your n/f distractors around too (after a while
these become "familiar" and lose their purpose). Also, try to remove the
prompts as quickly as your child can handle it. And again, our consultant
stressed that once we needed to look for our daughter to be scanning (this
data gets marked as a + with a circle around it) because it shows that she
really knows what she is looking for. Now, eventually she knows these so
well that she answers immediately, almost with no thought process involved -
but that comes with time.
I tried to explain this so that it makes sense, as someone else
mentioned before, I got it down to a science, but it's hard to put into
words. In the process, I tend to go on and on . . . sorry!
It sounds as though you are just beginning to find out about S/P . . .
keep in mind that we do not do receptive label trials one after the another.
What I've described happens as we are presenting many other types of Sds.,
gross motor imitation, echoics, gross motor with an objects, etc.
Hope this works well for you!
All the best!
Isabel
ipawling@...
From: DC <lists@...

Jennie and others,
When we started tacting we began with pictures that were very reinforcing
to David.....lots of foods, some playground equipment, tv, computer, etc.
That Language Builder set that Julie from Different Roads to Learning sells
is a great set of pictures to start with. It has some pictures that are
duplicated with just a white background and then there are other pictures
that have similar matches but aren't exact duplicates. Most of the
pictures are singles though. But they are very clear, up to date, and all
the same size.
Since you want to use errorless learning, you always provide the prompt the
child needs until they don't need a prompt anymore. So, on receptive id,
you point to the picture you are asking for....
"Give me ______.", while pointing or touching the picture.....use the least
prompt that will get the child to give you the card you asked for. On
tacts, you start out by saying, "What is it?" and with no pause you say the
name of the item. Then gradually you might fade to just the beginning
sound of the word, and then when the child starts saying the word the same
time as you, then you fade back a second.
Lynda

Hi everyone:)
whew..just finished an INTERESTING session with my son...Now, first let me
say in the S/P spirit, I had some problems with reinforcement today...during
our session I counld not find ANYTHING that my son felt was cool enough to go
to the trouble to work for ...at all. But instead of the usual I'm bored
behavior I got thrown a few loops today. He told me " Hey! I'm sick" he
obviously is not... "No Mom..it's your turn to work!" and was VERY insistant
that I sit in the tiny child sized chair ( not an easy feat mind you!)
however he could not figure out what to do with me once he got me there...and
then when I tried again he said " HEY! No ! your in trouble! " Also
during the break times he ignored my attempts to engage him, told his stuffed
animals to "ssshhhhh" and tried to sneak behind me when he thought I wasn't
looking and steal the reinforcers he did not want a minute ago! YIKES. Am I
just the worst therapist in the world or does this stuff happen to any of you
guys? As a mom I am thrilled at his "creativity" in trying to get out of work
and his attempts at reinforcer theft were entertaining however we didn't get
a whole lot done. HELP! Beside trying to get better reinforcers (yet again)
any other suggestions...?
Thanks,Spencer ( who is still very new to this S/P stuff but is trying to get
it all sorted out enough to give it a go...beginning with the new
attitude...my son is not noncompliant I am having teaching difficulties :) )

Hi everyone,
Our son had lots of problems with receptive language skills in his Lovaas
program. We have been working with Dr. Carbone since August. First of
all, he doesn't believe in auditory processing problems. He says it is a
function of using errorless learning and good prompting and fading
procedures, linked to a strong reinforcer.
Since he also had some compliance problems, the first three months Vince
gave us some drills designed mostly to work on compliance but also to work
on his receptive and expressive repertoire. We did three kinds of drills:
receptive id, where we put out three pictures and asked for each one once,
initially prompting every response. We started this with 15 pictures and
added new ones as David aquired them. The verbal instruction was, "Give me
_______." We also did some tacting, saying "What is it?" We started with
15 pictures here too....mostly ones that were very reinforcing for David
and ones that were already in his manding repertoire. The third thing we
did was an echoic drill. We made up a list of 50 words and each time we
would have David echo us in saying 10 of these words. Our measure for
these words was how quick he said them, how loud they were and how clear
they were. If he doesn't say them quickly, loudly and clearly the first
time, you have him repeat that word up to five times before moving onto the
next word.
We did the same pattern each for each drill sequence.....3 receptive id, 3
tacts, 10 echoics and about 10 motor imitations. We would always do all
the receptive id together but the rest we would mix up, maybe doing a
couple echoics and then some motor imitation and then back to echoics and
then some tacts. On the tacts, you verbally prompt them until you think
the child can say it on their own, and then you begin using a 1 second
delay. All this time we were also working on getting 200-300 mands a day.
Seems like there was one more thing we were doing but I can't remember.
After three months, Vince came back and said we had good instructional
control so we moved on. Now for receptive id we use a field of 4 and a
stack of about 30-40 cards that we go through all at once. For tacts we
put out a field of nine in rows of three and work on all nine at once. He
started us on FFC....where we say the feature or function or class phrase
and David has to say which picture we are talking about....we started with
a field of five pictures here. An example would be, "Tell me which one you
ride to school?", and David responds with the word bus. We are also still
doing some echoics to work on articulation and loudness. He also started
us on some categories. We put out four cards and get David to memorize a
string of responses to a question....."Tell me some foods you like", and he
responds, "grapes, chicken, apples, fries."
Our son, who still has very poor receptive language, is making really good
progress on the categories and FFC drills. I am amazed. I thought he
would labor over them, but he has learned to respond to 5 carrier phrases
for each of the five pictures we selected in two weeks. He has also
learned 2 categories. For these drills, you start out using tacts that are
very strong already. I have been amazed.
David is still having lots of trouble learning tacts.....only one or two
new ones a week. But he is picking up 10-15 new receptive id labels a
week. So we are moving along. We are having some problems getting him to
pay attention to drills where he needs to look at the pictures on the
table, and we are sorting out our teaching technique to see what the
problem is.
Lynda

Zachary is really good at labeling things - objects and pictures but only when
asked first. Not spontaneously. He does not "tact" things in the environment
spontaneously (except chuck e cheese and he says "ice-cream" or "drink coke"
when he sees McDonalds -- and then I would say those are "mands" because he is
not just saying "chuck e cheese" because he sees it but also because he wants
it.)
How do you go about getting a child to "tact" a tree when he sees a tree?
Do you pretty much attack this as you do "manding"? Take your clicker out and
start asking "what do you see?" "what's this?" etc.
The reason I am asking this is because I have been reading that "tacting" should
come before "intraverbals" and before "RFFC's". Can you tell me what level
tacting has to be in place before addressing the other two topics above? Should
"tacting" be very much generalized before we address RFFCs or intraverbals? If
so, we need to back up....
Thanks in advance. Rhonda
Rhonda and Dan Miga
bbird098@...
Visit FEAT-NT for great information AND information on the Dallas
Carbone/McGreevy Conference in January
www.flash.net/~sjapollo/featnt

OneList,
Please discontinue my subscription for now. I am having problems finding time
to read and delete information for now. I may want to add again at a later date
when I have more time.
thank you,
Sharon Saunders

Listmates -
The Washington Post has an article on memory that indicates we
apparently we store memories of things based on function, feature and
class - I thought some here might be interested. The link is below.
Bev, parent of 9-year-old ABAer with severely delayed language
Mccoy@...
You have been sent this message as a courtesy of the Washington Post
(http://www.washingtonpost.com) <http://www.washingtonpost.com)
Memory, Out of the Corner of the Mind
Researchers, using a variety of sophisticated new imaging devices, are
beginning to understand some of neuroscience's most central questions:
How are memories organized in the brain?
To view the entire article, go to
<http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/health/A52552-1999Dec13.html
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/health/A52552-1999Dec13.html

Mark,
I really appreciated your post on the length of a sitting and your
reference to differential reinforcement. Your comment about somehow you
have reinforced not responding struck a cord with me. We are struggling
right now too with David on receptive id and tact drills, where we are
having a hard time getting him to look at the pictures. Last time Vince
was here I understood him to say to use edibles for differential
reinforcement during drills and not to vary much the amount of work we are
having David do in each sitting. But I really liked your idea about using
the tv for differential reinforcement since that is the strongest
reinforcer. I am going to give that a try.
Your comment on tying the differential reinforcement to independent
responding was very well said. I think that is a key in this type of
teaching. We are just having a difficult time getting the hang of it.
I cannot believe Grant only gets to watch tv for 5 seconds. David is
currently at 30-45 seconds. We have tried lesser amounts and he has let us
know that it isn't enough.
Lynda

Dear listers, (now that I am in a better frame of mind---after a very
challenging morning)
Zachary is hyperlexic. His first words were letters and numbers. He can recite
his alphabet backwards and has been doing so as long as I can remember. We have
taught him how to use the computer keyboard by allowing him to stim (writing out
his favorite video title and FBI warnings!!). Our concern in the beginning was
comprehension. Therefore, we have always had a "label-word match program", that
came prior to receptive or expressive programs. We have learned that Zachary
has a hard time listening and if he is allowed to read the word or question
first he comprehends it better.
So we ALWAYS introduce programs with the written word. I was wondering if
anyone has done that with Dr. Carbone's teachings?
Example being: RFFC.
Have the picture of a COW.
Tell me about a cow. (and the child picks out all the sentences about a cow
from a pile of sentences.)
It's an animal.
It has 4 legs.
It moos.
etc.
A prompt to that might be "A cow is an animal" (every sentence has the word cow
in it.)
I wanted to know if anyone has done RFFCs in this way and if so, how did they
fade the word card prompts? I am sure I will be able to figure this out... but
if someone else has already taught this way, I did not want to reinvent the
wheel (so to say.)
Another way I thought of doing this was with a list.
At the top have a picture of the COW and have Zach velcro the sentences below
it. (just so he would have some place concrete to put his answers.)
After he is done, we would have him read the sentences to us (which we hope will
increase is vocabulary, thus decreasing the need for using the written word.)
(This is how we have improved his articulation of words... by letting him read
the words out loud as well as repeating the words.)
Thanks for any suggestions. Rhonda

Are there any listers out there that have (or work with) children with
hyperlexia using these teaching techniques? Please e-mail me privately.
Rhonda, who is frustrated today and needs a margarita!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rhonda and Dan Miga
bbird098@...
Visit FEAT-NT for great information AND information on the Dallas
Carbone/McGreevy Conference in January
www.flash.net/~sjapollo/featnt

Hi all,
Now that we've started to think about making the switch over to Dr.
Carbone's methods, I'm aware of how much I don't know. We've been doing
Lovaas for a year with our daughter, with OK, but not spectacular, results.
Her academic skills developed remarkably, but her language skills did not.
Some questions about a typical Carbone session:
1. How long is a sitting. In Lovaas, Shira does drills for 5-10 minutes,
then takes a break (in the work room) equal to half the drill time. we also
play with her during breaks if she starts stimming. We leave the room after
about 45 minutes for a 15 minute break. A typical morning has 3 such
sessions.
What is the structure using NET? How long is an NET "sitting".
2. In Lovaas, Shira gets a reinforcer when she successfully does drills
(with differential reinforcement). How does this work in NET? In the S/P
book, they talk about delivering reinforcers, and also about MANDING for the
reinforcer. From reading on the list here, I've gotten the impression that
in NET the Lovaas-type reinforcing is minimal; however, if she does things
particularly well, she is ALLOWED/ENCOURAGED to mand for a strong
reinforcer.
My impression of an NET session is the following:
Teacher: What's this? (shows picture of a white cat)
Shira: cat
Teacher: What color?
Shira: white
Teacher: Good! (social reinforcer) What sound does it make?
shira: meow
Teacher: What is a cat?
Shira: animal
Teacher: Great shira!
Questions:
a. do we continue with drills using another animal, or a toy car using
same questions, or something completely different, such as VI or fine motor
NVI, or a puzzle, or a reading drill....
b. The above sequence should take about 30 seconds. In NET, this is
much too long! (you'd get only 5-6 responses per minute). How do you get
the time down to 4 seconds per full transaction, for minute after minute
after minute?
c. How is the "manded" reinforcer introduced? I gathered that it is
visible all the time. What does Shira need to do to gain access to the
reinforcer -- and how do we indicate to her that now is the time to mand for
it. What if she mands for it before we finish drilling (unprompted)?
d. How do you deal with the reinforcer slowing down the pace? Does she
need to keep manding while playing with the reinforcer? Is the reinforcer
part of the drilling? e.g.:
Teacher: What do you want?
Shira: auto (toy car)
Teacher: gives shira the car
Now what? does shira get "time off" to play with the car?
We're in Israel, and I hope to go to a Carbone Workshop in March. However,
we don't want to wait until then to start things off (time is SO precious).
Thanks in advance for any answers!
Best Wishes to all,
Jack

This is a post I made to the Me-List not long ago. So all you Me-Listers
can skip it. I will be happy to get more detailed on how we began teaching
sign if anyone needs it.

Steph wrote:
Part of the
Steph: would you mind describing what "a block of responses" looks like when
you are doing that at the table? I know this would vary with each child.
But a few examples might help me visualize whether we are doing this
correctly.
(Maybe you could give an example of what a block might look like for a child
who has just started out and has only a few mands and a few tacts vs. a
child who has an increasing number of mands, 100's of tacts, may be working
on intraverbals and is ready to start doing RFFC's. --- no connection of the
later to my child <grin
My point here is that many parents on this list have been doing ABA programs
for 2-3 years and the child has many skills and then there are parents who
are just starting out and may not be at that level yet.
Thanks in advance. Rhonda

I just want to say that "this teaching" is not new. What is new is the
exposure it is getting because Dr. Carbone has been able to schedule
workshops this year, which he has not done in the past.
As far as published papers, etc. There is a collection of all their papers
for sale. It costs $42.95 and you can order it directly from Behavior
Analysts, Inc.
Title: A Collection of Reprints on Verbal Behavior by Mark L. Sundberg and
Jack Michael
This volume of reprints brings together empirical research and conceptual
analyses published by Sundberg and/or Michael and their collaborators over
the past 15 years. These papers have been previously published in journals
such as The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Journal of the Experimental
Analysis of Behavior, Journal of ABA, Behaviorism and The Behavior Analyst.
The book contains 28 reprints and includes sections on establishing
operations and the mand, teaching verbal behavior to individuals with
language impairments, teaching verbal behavior to nonhumans,
topography-based and selection-based verbal behavior, automatic
reinforcement and punishment, conceptual issues, research topics and
reference lists (302 pages)
To order your copy send 42.95 + 7.00 s/h + 8.25% tax (CA residents only) to:
Behavior Analysts, Inc.
Order Dept.
3329 Vincent Road
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
website www.corteks.com/stars
phone (925) 210-9374 fax (925) 210-9379
Hope this helps and sheds some light on the "new" teaching approach.
Rhonda

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to make a couple of quick comments.
Mark Cyr's post on errorless teaching and prompts is so well written.
Everyone should read it at least once a day and work on implementing what
it says. It says ALOT! His post brings clear to me why I don't write more
posts trying to explain Vince's ideas. It is really hard to implement
without having gotten the training in person. Shoot, even having Vince as
our consultant we still have difficulty implementing the right balance of
errorless teaching, prompting and fading. Mark is not kidding when he says
you have to have skilled therapists who can read the child as they are
working with them. Our son David is very challenging to teach and so we
still struggle alot as to how to get him to pay attention. Which brings me
to my second point.
One of the reasons you do this fast paced drilling is to keep the child's
attention. I was just talking to Vince tonight and he reminded me that
with David, the faster you do the drills the more likely he is to pay
attention. If you do them too slow, he is going to go into his automatic
reinforcement mode......looking around the room, babbling, playing with his
fingers, etc. Vince has recommended to us that we go for at least 20
responses per minute, and more if we can manage it. It seems hard to do at
first but you get used to it very quickly as you practice. Vince also said
that if you don't do the drills quickly enough, then David will not figure
out that he is delaying his reinforcement by not paying attention and
having to be prompted, i.e., not responding independently. That was such a
key thing that Mark said in his post.
Lynda

DTT-NET listers.
Brief Intro: We have a 3 yr-old boy with autism he is non-verbal and has
been in an 35+ hrs/wk ABA program closely supervised by and experienced ABA
consultant.
We will be attending the Dallas conference in Jan with some of our staff.
My question is, can an experienced ABA practitioner learn enough in two days
to sucessfully implement (some?, most? , all of?) the methodology with only
the S&P books as a guide? Or is it really necessary to have a consultant
trained in S&P to guide the program? It's my understanding that Dr. Carbone
has made it clear that he believes that it requires several years of closely
supervised experience using these methods before someone can run a program
for an individual child. In a brief email exchange with me last Auguest, he
specifically recomended to me that after attending the conference with our
lead therapist we should look for an consultant experienced in S&P to
oversee our program. Given the shortage of people with ABA experience, much
less experience with S&P, it seems clear that most people attending these
seminars will have to return to their homes and try to implement it on their
own. How sucessful will they be?
Would it be wiser to continue a more "Lovaas" style program if that is what
your consultant has used successfully with other children? Is it that
Lovaas works better for some children and S&P for others? If you are going
to use some of the S&P methods, which should you start with? These are hard
questions and perhaps the answer is simply that you should closely monitor
the data and determine what works best for each child.
The ABA community has a reputation of asking hard questions of other
"methods". Specifically, we want to see the data that shows what results
have been acheived. What data is there to support the S&P methodolgy? I
assume it is the primary form of teaching at the STARS school they are
associated with. Has any outcome data been published with relation to the
school? I'm sure that Sundberg and Partington have published a number of
studies and articles--just look at their web page. (see "staff publications"
option at http://www.corteks.com/STARS/) Has anyone on this list read those
studies? How about data for "home programs" using the same methods? I
realize that it may be to early to have this kind of data. My concern is
that maybe we are only hearing the from people who are getting the "best
outcomes" now and that may be creating a "rush" to try this without knowing
how it really stacks up against more traditional Lovaas style ABA programs.
David Eland
e-mail: davide@...

Dear listers, Thought I would explain the fwded posts- Cathy Santopadre
is the mother of Elizabeth Santopadre whose story was featured on
Dateline last year. She has recovered from pretty severe autism. This
piece really sparked interest in NET. Cathy works at Behavior Analysts
Inc. It would be great if she would join this list!Lynette

I saved these posts that were put up on the me-list after the Dateline
piece about Elizabeth Santopadre. Thought you all might be interested!
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Hi friends,
I am very intersted in the specific differences between Dr. Carbone's
programming and P/S. One aspect I have noticed is that Dr.Carbone does
not seem to emphasize the "pairing" of the therapist with reinforcement
in the initial stages of the program.
Apart from that I don't know how much more is significantly different.
As for the speedy response this is called "precision teaching" and is
something that may be more utilized and widespread in Florida? I know
that a behaviorist named Jack Scott, from Florida spoke on precision
teaching at an ABA conference I attended a couple years ago. He stressed
the quick confident response and giving intermittent reinforcement to
keep the child guessing as to when it will occur, thus motivating the
child to stay on his toes.
I believe this is an important issue, and I am not in favor of allowing
the child processing time, as I have seen kids develope even worse
"processing" problems over the course of their ABA programs. Allowing
too much time tends to lead to allowing even more time and pretty soon
the child is just tuning out the Sd. Then he's given a "No" and another
Sd which he tunes out , and this is followed by a prompt which the child
has undoubtedly come to expect-why work?
Anyway, I'm hardly an expert on this. But I do work as a Kumon Math
Instructor and we definetely require quick confident written response to
the tune of 250 addition problems in less than ten minutes! This is
achieved thru tons of drill and practice. But the criteria for mastery
is both accuracy AND speed. Intersting! Lynette

Dear List,
As we slowly prepare for a more S/P/ Carbonish type mode, still trying to
find a happy medium for what works, we wonder how to make some subtle
changes now.
Ok, maybe if I give an example you can help with some ideas.
We're still having Ize identify colors receptively, and he is doing great
if I do say so, pretty much mastering, "red, blue, yellow, green, black,
white, orange, purple and brown." We have had him match and we have of
course had him point or touch or show us the photograph cards, the colored
stars and the circles that are solid colors. Now, I guess is where do we go
with this now, and we have to be careful because the longer the sentence or
receptive instruction the harder it is for Isaac. He's made incredible
progress receptively since his neuro-surgeries, but it is still a healing
process, and I want to be sure he is not too confused.
I have tried, "point to yellow cup, red cup, etc." among the red, yellow
and blue cups, and he gets it, but is uncertain and still struggles when we
add words. Would I start to just do the color and not add cup on to it till
he gets those colors for those objects. How do you do this in a non-Lovaas
like way? Would you just try each one once and then prompt and go on to
another cup or what? Does it matter if he can get it with a cup word on the
end right now?
And related, we have him mastering, MAD, HAPPY and SAD photos. So far he
has two cards each of this emotion. Over the weekend we had him
identifying, "Point to Sad Baby" and "Point to Happy Lady," and he did
fine. We did not yet put the "Sad Baby" and the "Sad Man" in the same field
yet. I think we may do a sort soon and have him put a bunch of SADS
together and HAPPYS and stuff, and say, PUT WITH SAD for non-identical.
Just wondering how this is expanded.
Jennie

T
no, this is not a virus. It is stationary. I switched internet providers
and it has taken me a few days to figure out how to turn it off. It should
be off now... let me know if the baloon keeps on coming. sorry. Rhonda

If you have a homepage or a website you think would be benficial to our readers
(ie Sundberg/Partington, Dr. McGreevy's, etc.) Please feel free to post it here
so our readers can find more information about this type of teaching. thanks.
Rhonda
http://www.onelist.com/links/DTT-NET
(you may not be able to go directly to this page UNLESS you have signed into
www.onelist.com first... then go to the above link... :)

Dear Listers, welcome. This list is growing fast. We are already up to almost
100 members. We have a few people asking questions, but most people are lurking
to see just what this list is going to be about.
First of all, let me ask those of you who have joined, to please write to the
list and introduce yourselves (parent, professional, how long you have been
doing DTT-NET teaching, etc.) and let us know what it is you would like DTT-NET
to do for you.
My goals for this list:
1. To be beneficial to the many families who are starting to incorporate a
combination of discrete trial teaching (DTT), natural environmental teaching
(NET), with the help of Skinner's (1957) functional analysis of verbal behavior.
(thus where our list name DTT-NET is derived from-- Please read chapter 13 of
Teaching Language to Children by S/P for a detailed explanation of how the
combination works together.)
2. The Lovaas type teaching is only one part of the wonderful wide world of
ABA, which is what the me-list represents. Both approaches are the same in
that they are ABA but there tend to be many differences that could become very
confusing to a new parent starting out. I think it would be difficult for
people to give advice on how to do a program, when you do not know whether a
parent is implementing DTT, NET or both. (e.g. teaching labels. Lovaas teaches
one label at a time, Carbone teaches several at one time. This could be very
confusing and the results could be frustrating for both the parent and the child
if they are not consistent in their implementation and technique.)
3. My son, Zachary, achieved many wonderful academic gains from our original
DTT program. He had no language when we began. Due to our extensive verbal
imitation program, he now has pretty good articulation BUT he does not know how
to use those beautiful words without being prompted. Which is what made me
look further for teaching techniques that addressed our needs more (with
research to back it's claims!!--- I want you to know that Dr. Carbone can quote
to you published research and articles that validate his teachings.... which has
always been important to us me-listers... Prove what you say works, right?).
4. I would like this list to be a place where parents and professionals ask
questions AND get answers. A place where we can work to better the lives of our
children. It is ok to have a bad day but when you leave this list I want you to
have more then a shoulder to cry on. I want you to have the tools you will need
to prevent future bad days. Hopefully, this list will give you "educational"
information that will help you to better a child's life.
5. School districts are looking positively to Dr. Carbone and ABA. (Dr. Lovaas
did not get that type of response, I do not know why. We were often told not to
go in and ask for a Lovaas program BUT I tell you when you mention Carbone to
school district personnel... their faces light up!--if I was his wife, I might
be jealous! <smile
professionals AND teachers. My dream is that school districts, professionals
and parents come together and develop TRUE IEPs for our kids...that challenge
our children... and that they know how to implement those goals with success.
So basically this list will, hopefully, be a fresh start for all parties
involved.
Membership to this list does not have to be approved at this time... but I
reserve the right to do so, if needed, at a later date. Until "united we
stand", this will always be a safe haven for parents and professionals WHO
implement this type of teaching. I will not tolerate people slamming this type
of teaching. You may provide FACTS regarding other interventions, NOT opinion
of your disagreements. (so remember... when you sign on... put on your smiley
faces and drop the frowns off at the door.)
SO DON'T BE SHY, START ASKING YOUR QUESTIONS... AND DEFINITELY GIVE YOUR
ANSWERS.... LET'S GET THIS EDUCATION FORUM STARTED!!
WELCOME, Rhonda Miga
P.S. Any technical questions (like changing to digest, etc.) about the list...
please e-mail me privately. I will be working on a list of directions in the
next few weeks, bare with me.

This list origionated on 12-1-99. If you do not find posts on this list yet...
WELCOME... YOU ARE ONE OF OUR FOUNDING MEMBERS!!!
Please go to the INVITE section, put the addresses of parents and professionals
you would like to see join this list. Spread the word..
We should be up and running with quality questions and answers in the next few
days!
Rhonda Miga, List Owner

In the ABLLS under part E7, the question asks if the child can imitate (I do not
have the exact wording right now) SOFT-LOUD, SLOW-FAST,
DEEP-SQUEAKY.
This is has always been a challenge to teach Zach to not whisper his answers. I
am assuming that this might be the first step to accomplishing that.
Can any of you tell me how you have taught this goal? The exact question is:
How do you teach a child to imitate pitches and speeds (not answering in a quiet
voice but imitating what you say and how you say it.)
Thanks in advance. Rhonda