Progressive Time Delay Procedure Research Articles

Providing Small Group Instruction to Children With Disabilities and Same-Age Peers

Small group instruction in classrooms provides children opportunities to collaborate on academic tasks, as well as opportunities for social interactions. Although such arrangements are common for children with typical development, children with moderate to severe disabilities (MSD) may receive few or no opportunities to participate meaningfully in small group instruction with same-age peers with typical development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a progressive time delay procedure for teaching children with MSD (autism spectrum disorder and/or intellectual disability) and those with typical social development, but at-risk for academic failure, to name sight words during small group instruction. In addition, children had multiple opportunities per session to provide tokens to peers, praise peers for correct responses, and initiate conversations and respond to a peer’s conversation initiations. Results indicated that children with and without disabilities can learn to name sight words, as well as learn to initiate conversation when tokens include pictures or photographs of each child’s preferred items or activities. Implications for teachers and future studies are provided.

فعالیة استخدام إجراء التأخیر الزمنی المتدرج فی إکساب مهارة قراءة بعض الکلمات الوظیفیة للتلمیذات ذوات الإعاقة الفکریة البسیطة والمتوسطة (دراســـــة مقـــارنــــة) The Efficiency of Using Progressive Time Delay Procedure (PTD) in Teaching Reading Skill of Some Functional Words to Female Students of Mild and Moderate Intellectual Disabilities ( A Compara

هدفت الدراسة الحالية إلى التعرف على فاعلية استخدام إجراء التأخير الزمني المتدرج في إکساب مهارة قراءة بعض الکلمات الوظيفية للتلميذات ذوات الإعاقة الفکرية البسيطة والمتوسطة، إضافة إلى احتفاظهن بالکلمات المکتسبة، وتعميمهن لها، وأخيرا المقارنة بين الفئتين التلميذات من حيث عدد محاولات اکتساب المهارة، الفترة الزمنية المستغرقة لاکتسابها، ونسبة الأخطاء . تکونت عينة الدراسة من (6) تلميذات ملتحقات بمعهد التربية الفکرية بشرق الرياض، وقد تم تقسيمهن إلى مجموعتين، وتدريبهن على قراءة بعض الکلمات الوظيفية باستخدام إجراء التأخير الزمني المتدرج، وقد استخدمت هذه الدراسة المنهج التجريبي. أظهرت نتائج الدراسة فعالية إجراء التأخير الزمني المتدرج، حيث اکتسبت تلميذات المجموعة الأولى مهارة قراءة بعض الکلمات الوظيفية بها بنسبة نجاح (100%). وتعميمها في المواقف الأخرى بنسبة نجاح تتراوح ما بين (89% - 100%). کذلک ظهرت اکتسبت تلميذات المجموعة الثانية مهارة قراءة بعض الکلمات الوظيفية واحتفظن بها بنسبة نجاح (100%)، وتعميمها في المواقف الأخرى بنسبة نجاح تتراوح ما بين (72% - 100%). توصلت نتائج الدراسة باستخدام إجراء التأخير الزمني المتدرج إلى أنه توجد فروق لا تذکر بين المجموعتين (فئة الإعاقة الفکرية البسيطة، وفئة الإعاقة الفکرية المتوسطة) من حيث عدد المحاولات، الفترة الزمنية المستغرقة لاکتساب المهارة، وتدني نسب الأخطاء The present study aimed to determine Progressive Time Delay (PTD) procedure efficiency in teaching reading skill of some functional to female students with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities. The efficiency of this procedure was also studied maintenance and generalization of acquired words. A comparison was also drawn between mild and moderate intellectual disabilities female students in terms of number of attempts to acquire skill, time span of acquiring skill and error percentage. The study employed single subject method in determining these factors. The study sample comprised (6) female students enrolled in intellectual Education Institute in Eastern Riyadh. It was subdivided into two groups; first one contained (3) students who had mild intellectual disabilities; while second contained (3) students who had moderate intellectual disabilities. The students of both groups were trained on reading some functional using Progressive Time Delay procedure. The study revealed efficiency of PTD procedure in teaching students of both groups the skill of reading functional words in addition to their ability to maintain acquired and generalize them to other situations. The study also revealed that there were no significant differences between two groups (the mild and moderate mentally retarded) in terms of number of attempts, time span used to acquire skill and low number of errors.

Using Progressive Time Delay to Increase Levels of Peer Imitation During Sculpting Play.

A multiple probe across participants with an embedded withdrawal single case research design was used to examine the effectiveness of a progressive time delay (PTD) procedure to teach preschoolers with disabilities to imitate their peers during a sculpting play activity. Data indicated the presence of a functional relation between the use of PTD and contingent reinforcement on increased levels of peer imitation across participants; levels also decreased when PTD was withdrawn, although not to baseline levels. Overall levels of peer imitation had a greater magnitude of change than demonstrated in previous research.

Teaching Young Children With Social-Communication Delays to Label Actions Using Videos and Language Expansion Models

Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related social-communication delays may display difficulties commenting on actions that occur in their natural environment. One method for increasing early conversation skills is direct instruction. Using video examples of actions may increase the salient features of instructional targets and, as such, may be an effective stimulus for presenting actions during instruction. The present study used a multiple-probe design across participants replicated across behaviors to evaluate the effectiveness of a 0- to 4-s progressive time-delay (PTD) procedure using video presentation of actions to teach three preschool-aged children with ASD and related social-communication delays to label actions. In addition, the teacher provided language expansion on all instructional targets, as well as assessed generalization to novel stimuli (videos and pictures or photographs). Results indicate that all participants acquired action labels. Two of the three participants generalized responses to novel videos and pictures while expanding their responses without direct instruction. Implications for teachers targeting action labels in early childhood settings are provided.

Peer Modeling of Commenting During Small Group Direct Instruction for Academic Behaviors

During small group instruction, two groups of children—each group comprised of one child with a disability and two without disabilities—were taught to read words using a progressive time delay procedure (PTD). Apart from the children with disabilities, two typically developing peers in each group were taught to comment on tokens given for correct responding. Academic responding was similar to that in previous studies including older children, but observational learning of peers’ words was variable within and across participants. Although adequate baseline comparisons were not possible and experimental control was not demonstrated, peers and one participant with a disability exhibited variable but increasing levels of commenting over time. Commenting increased over time in one generalization context (generalization across adults) and remained at low levels in the other (generalization across materials).

Comparison of Simultaneous Prompting and Constant Time Delay Procedures in Teaching Children with Autism the Responses to Questions about Personal Information

AbstractThe aim of the current study was to compare simultaneous prompting (SP) and constant time delay (CTD) in terms of their effectiveness and efficiency in teaching children with autism how to respond to questions about personal information. The adapted alternating treatments model was used in the study. Three male students with autism aged 4, 6, and 9, respectively, were included in the study. The findings of the study did not indicate any significant difference in two students with respect to the effectiveness of SP and CTD procedures. On the other hand, SP was observed to create more positive results and lead to a higher level of learning for the third participant. According to the findings, SP was more effective for one participant with respect to all the parameters studied. While SP was more efficient in the other two subjects in terms of incorrect responses, the difference regarding the instructional time to criterion for these two subjects was at a minimal level in favor of SP.Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder * Errorless teaching * Simultaneous prompting * Constant time delayDespite the fact that scientific studies on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been conducted for half a century, there are still various topics that have not yet been explained. A huge variety of researchers from diverse fields such as medicine, psychology, and education have studied ASD. As a result of these studies, individuals that are diagnosed with ASD have been provided with various services with diverse characteristics. However, many of the studies conducted in this field unfortunately lack a scientific basis (Kurt, 2012a). This has created the need to identify procedures that are proven through experimental studies in terms of their effectiveness. With the aim of determining effective procedures used in the field of ASD, experimental studies published in this field have been analyzed and the results of research compilation studies have been published (National Autism Center [NAC], 2009; Wong et al., 2013).One of the procedures that has been proven in terms of its effectiveness through various studies, and identified to be evidence-based in research compilation study reports, is prompting (Odom, Collet-Klingenberg, Rogers, & Hatton, 2010; Wong et al., 2013). The CTD and SP are listed among the effective procedures that are frequently used in teaching various skills to the individuals with ASD and developmental disabilities with the aim of presenting them prompts in a systematic way.The CTD is a teaching procedure that consists of two phases, which are 0-second delay trials and constant delay trials. In the first phase of this teaching procedure, there are sessions where 0-second delay trials are performed. In these sessions, a target stimulus and controlling prompt are presented simultaneously. Following the 0-second delay procedure that is performed as many times as planned, the controlling prompt is presented upon waiting for a certain period following the target stimulus. A delay period is presented in order to provide the child with the opportunity to respond to the target stimuli independently (Browder & Snell, 2000; Kurt, 2009; Tekin-Iftar, Kurt, & Cetin, 2011). There are two types of time delay teaching procedures: constant time delay (CTD) and progressive time delay (PTD). In the constant time delay procedure, a constant time period (i.e. 4 seconds) of wait is allowed for the individual to respond after the target stimulus is presented. In the progressive time delay procedure, the delay period is progressively increased. For instance, a 2 second time delay is allowed at the beginning after the target stimulus is presented, which is followed by 4 and 6 seconds of delay periods, respectively, in order to present the prompt (Kurt, 2102a; Tekin, 1999; Wolery, Bailey, & Sugai, 1988).There are various studies that have indicated the effectiveness of the CTD procedure in teaching the individuals from various age and disability groups including individuals with autism. …

Peer Modeling of Academic and Social Behaviors during Small-Group Direct Instruction

The authors describe an intervention for 3 preschoolers with disabilities who had low peer-related social competence. The intervention taught academic skills tailored to the need of each target student in small groups (triads) with two typically developing peers, using a progressive time delay procedure. Prior to instruction and separate from the students with disabilities, typical peers learned to provide reinforcers for correct responses, and to say “thank you” when a group mate shared. The authors assessed the acquisition of sharing and thanking behaviors during instructional sessions by the preschoolers with disabilities and generalization of these social behaviors to contexts similar to classroom activities for all participants. Results were (a) all participants learned targeted academic behaviors; (b) all participants learned some academic behaviors taught to their peers; (c) participants without disabilities modeled sharing with high fidelity but modeled thanking with lower fidelity; (d) all participants with disabilities shared and less frequently said “thank you” during instructional sessions (although they were never prompted to do so); and (e) participants with and without disabilities shared in art and picnic activities and said “thank you” to a lesser extent, although they were not prompted to share or thank in these contexts.

Using Activity Schedules on the iPod touch to Teach Leisure Skills to Children with Autism

Although activity schedules are often presented to learners in book form, this format may be cumbersome and socially stigmatizing to a child with autism. Conversely, presenting an activity schedule on an iPod touch may provide a more socially acceptable format, in that it would be more discreet and allow for easy portability, especially if supports, such as prompts and an adult’s presence, are eventually removed. The present study investigated whether an iPod touch could be used to effectively teach activity schedule following involving independent leisure activities to four children with autism. Manual prompts, progressive time-delay procedures, and reinforcement were also used. Prompts were faded using a progressive time-delay procedure, and experimenter proximity to the participants was faded until she was no longer present. A multiple-probe-across-participants design was used. Prior to intervention, none of the participants followed the schedule and they rarely engaged in on-task behavior. Following intervention, all participants learned to independently follow leisure activity schedules presented on the iPod touch and increased their on-task behavior. In addition, these skills generalized to novel settings and novel schedules, and maintained over time. Social validity measures suggested that the participants preferred to follow activity schedules using the iPod touch. Community members also rated the use of the device as more typical of age-related peers and more socially acceptable in the community. The implications of incorporating technology to increase independence in children with autism are discussed.

Progressive Time Delay Procedure for Teaching Motor Skills to Adults with Severe Mental Retardation

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the progressive time delay (PTD) procedure on teaching gross motor skills to adult males with severe mental retardation. A multiple probe design across three skills and replicated across 4 participants was utilized. Results indicated that a PTD procedure with a 0 to 5 s delay was effective in teaching 4 participants three gross motor skills (tee-ball batting, softball pitching, croquet striking) over a period of 13 weeks. Data on effectiveness were analyzed in terms of the number of instructional sessions (M = 9.58), the number of trials (M = 105.41), the number of min (M = 84.66), and the number of performing errors to criterion (M = 4.08%). A maintenance level (M = 96.87%) was also determined across 4 participants and three skills on the 1st, 4th, 14th, and 24th sessions after terminating the PTD instruction.

A Comparison of Least-to-Most Prompts and Progressive Time Delay on the Disruptive Behavior of Students with Autism

We compared the effects of two instructional strategies on the frequency of errors and episodes of disruptive behavior of 4 students with autism. In Phase I, easy and difficult tasks were presented to determine whether the tasks were associated with differential rates of disruptive behavior. Phase II compared the effects of a least-to-most prompting procedure (LTM) to a progressive time delay procedure (PTD) on errors and disruptive behavior when difficult tasks were presented. Observers sequentially recorded instructor instructions, response prompts, prompts for appropriate sitting, and feedback statements; and student disruptive, correct, error, and no responses during 1:1 sessions. Results showed PTD produced fewer errors than LTM for all 4 students, and lower rates of disruptive behavior for 2 students. When PTD was implemented as the final phase with 2 of the students, rates of disruptive behavior associated with the task previously taught with LTM immediately decreased. Conditional probability statements indicated that disruptive behavior occurred infrequently with all 4 students when effective response prompts were used.

EMBEDDING EXTRA STIMULI IN THE TASK DIRECTION: EFFECTS ON LEARNING OF STUDENTS WITH MODERATE MENTAL RETARDATION

This investigation examined the acquisition of target and nontarget stimuli by 4 students with moderate mental retardation. Students were taught to name photographs of foods (target stimuli) using a progressive time delay procedure. In addition, the grocery departments where foods could be found in a local supermarket (nontarget stimuli) were presented as part of the discriminative stimulus. A multiple probe design across photographs and replicated across students was used to assess experimental control of both target and nontarget stimuli. The results indicated that (a) progressive time delay was effective in teaching 12 target photographs to 3 students and 6 photographs to 1 student, (b) presentation of the nontarget grocery department as part of the discriminative stimulus was effective in increasing the percentages of correct responding to these stimuli across all students, and (c) some generalization in the percentage of correct responding to the target and nontarget stimuli occurred in the natural supermarket setting.

Teaching Generalized Reading of Product Warning labels to Adolescents With mental Disabilities Through the Use of Key Words

Key words from product warning labels were taught to four adolescents with moderate mental disabilities using flash cards and a progressive time-delay procedure. Instrnction was conducted in dyads to facilitate observational learning. To enhance generalization, students were presented with nontargeted or incidental information during the feedback statement that included visual and auditory exposure to key word definitions and contextual examples. Students mastered the reading of target key words in a relatively short amount of time with minimal errors. In addition, they demonstrated some observational and incidental learning. How- ever, generalization probe data collected with actual products across settings revealed the need for more instruction using strategies that facilitate generalization before students have a skill that can be considered functional.

Comparison of Progressive Time Delay and Transition-Based Teaching with Preschoolers Who Have Developmental Delays

A progressive time delay procedure in one-to-one instructional sessions using massed-trial presentation was compared to transition-based teaching that involved distributed trials presented during transitions from one activity to another. Four preschool children with developmental delays were taught to read words and name letters/numerals and to produce manual signs for photographs. The classroom teacher conducted one daily massed-trial session with each student using progressive time delay for a set of behaviors, and provided an equal number of distributed trials at transition times to each student with a transition-based teaching procedure for another set of behaviors. The procedures were compared on the number of children meeting criterion (effectiveness) and on the number of trials and errors to criterion and the percentage of errors to criterion (efficiency). The parallel treatments design was used to evaluate the two instructional strategies. The results indicated that (a) both procedures were implemented reliably, (b) both procedures were effective in establishing criterion level performance, and (c) no substantial differences existed on the efficiency measures, although the number and percentage of errors were slightly higher for 3 of the 4 children with the transition-based teaching procedure. Implications for practice and future research are described.

Embedding instruction in art activities to teach preschoolers with disabilities to imitate their peers

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of embedding a procedure called progressive time delay (a direct teaching strategy) in art activities to teach preschoolers with disabilities to imitate their peers. Three children (one with autism, one with developmental delays and visual impairments, and one with severe language disabilities with autistic features) participated in the study. Five requests to imitate their peers were embedded into each daily art activity for each child and their responses were recorded. A multiple probe design across subjects was used to evaluate the procedures. The findings indicated that embedding the progressive time delay procedure into art activities produced high levels of imitation of the novel responses of their peers in a nearly errorless fashion. In addition, the levels of peer imitation increased in a generalization (transfer) activity (i.e., fine motor area) after instruction was used in the art activities. The results are discussed in terms of delivering instruction during ongoing preschool activities in classrooms enrolling both children with and without disabilities.

The Role of Small Group Instruction in Facilitating Observational and Incidental Learning

The present investigation examined the effectiveness of teaching sight-word reading in a small-group instructional arrangement to two groups of elementary-aged students with mild mental retardation. A multiple probe design across word sets was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the progressive time delay procedure and students’ acquisition of other students’ words (observational learning). In addition, students were assessed on their spelling of all sight words as well as their acquisition of word definitions although neither was taught directly (incidental learning). Results showed that (a) the delay procedure was effective in teaching all students their target words in near-errorless fashion, (b) all students learned other student’s words through observation, and (c) all students learned some incidental information by providing practice in spelling and by placing word definitions in feedback statements. Issues pertinent to small group instruction are discussed.

Comparison of Predictable and Unpredictable Trial Sequences during Small-Group Instruction

The use of predictable (round robin) and unpredictable (random) trial sequences during small-group instruction was evaluated in three experiments in teaching word and abbreviation identification to four students with learning disabilities; a fifth student participated in part of Experiment I before moving to another school. In Experiment I, a progressive time-delay procedure was used to teach word reading in a small group, and the effects of a single-trial, predictable sequence was compared to a single-trial, unpredictable sequence. In Experiment II, a progressive time-delay procedure also was used to teach abbreviation identification in a small group, and the effects of a multiple-trial, predictable sequence was compared to a multiple-trial, unpredictable sequence. In Experiment III, a model-test procedure was used in a small group, and the effects of the multiple-trial, predictable sequence was compared to the single-trial, unpredictable sequence. An adapted alternating-treatments design was used in all experiments. Results indicate that the progressive time-delay procedure was reliably implemented and was effective in establishing criterion-level responding by all group members. Students also learned words taught to other students through observation. In Experiment I, the two trial sequences did not differ substantially, and in Experiment II mixed effects were found. With the model-test procedure in Experiment III, two students initially produced higher levels of correct responding in the multiple-trial, predictable sequence; however, no substantial differences were found in observational learning. Across all investigations, no consistent effects of the trial presentation methods were noted.