The Lovaas Reading/Writing Program

1
The Lovaas Reading/Writing Program

• Presented by Ray Cepeda, BCaBA
• Founder and Director, ABAskills, LLC
• www.abaskills.com
• April 23, 2014
• The Young Child Expo
• The New Yorker Hotel
• NY, NY

2
Brief Overview of Stimulus Equivalence

• Sidman, M. (1971)
• Reading and auditory-visual equivalences. Journal
  of Speech and Hearing Research, 14, 5-13

3
Definition of Stimulus Equivalence

• Stimulus equivalence is a phenomena in which
  functional relations among stimuli emerge without
  direct training when a human is taught a series
  of interrelated conditional discriminations.
  (Sidman Tailby, 1982)

4
Example

• If a child can learn to match A to B and A to C,
• without additional training the child should be
• able to
• Match B to A
• Match C to A
• Match C to B
• Match B to C

5
Three Components

• Reflexivity
• Match a stimulus to itself
• 2. Symmetry
• Match B to A and C to A
• 3. Transitivity
• Match B to C and C to B
• (Griffee and Dougher, 2002)

6

• The stimuli involved in the conditional
  discrimination become, in this context,
  functionally substitutable for each other.
  Therefore, they are said to be equivalent
• (Sidman, 1971 Sidman Tailby, 1982)

7
Sidman (1971)

• A young retarded man was asked to select pictures
  (B) in response to their spoken names (A)
• (A-B)
• 2. He was then taught to select the pictures
  corresponding written names (C) in response to
  their spoken names (A)
• (A-C)

8
Sidman (1971)

• Without further training the subject could then
• Match the written names (C) to the
• pictures (B)
• (B-C)
• 2. Match the pictures (B) to the written
• names (C)
• (C-B)

9
Sidman (1971)

• 3. Name the pictures (B-A)
• 4. Read the printed words (C-A)

10
Clarification

• Select a picture in response to its spoken name
  
• SD Instructor presents the learner with a field
  of three pictures and says, Give mecup.
• R The learner selects the picture of the cup.
• 2. Select pictures written names in response to
  the spoken name
• SD Instructor presents the learner with a field
  of three written words and says, Give mecup.
• R The learner select the word card cup.

11

• Now (without being taught)the learner should
• Match the word card to the picture
• Match the picture to the word card
• Expressively label the picture
• Read the word card

12
What is it?

• A visual system of teaching that closely
  parallels the sequence of vocal language
  programs outlined in
• Teaching Developmentally
  Delayed Children the Me Book
• By O. Ivar Lovaas (1981)

13
Who was it developed for?
14
Why Introduce the Reading/Writing Program?

• - Learner has good matching skills.
• - Learner has had minimal or no success in the
  receptive and/or expressive language programs
  during the first 2-6 months of treatment.
• - Learner is non-vocal.
• - Learner is vocal and has difficulty acquiring
  specific concepts but has history of responding
  well to textual cues.

15
Quick Review of Terms
16
The Reading Writing Board
17
The Reading Writing Board
(A)
18
Relationships Between Reading/Writing Programs
and Vocal Language Programs

19
Teaching Receptive Language

• Vocal Language Programming
• SD (Instruction).
• R Learner performs requested action.
• Example
• SD Instructor presents the learner with a number
  of pictures in the field and says, Touch the
  cat.
• R The learner extends an index finger and
  touches the requested picture.

20
Teaching Receptive Language

• Reading/Writing Programming
• SD Instructor places the word Get (or touch)
  and the picture of the target response on the SD
  strip and then points to the word and then the
  picture.
• R The learner selects the correct word from the
  choice strips and places it on the response
  strip.

21
Teaching Receptive Language

• Example

Get

car
cat
cup
22
Teaching Expressive Language

• Vocal Language Programming
• SD Instructor presents learner with a picture of
  an item and says, What is it?
• R The learner states the name of the item.

23
Teaching Expressive Language

• Reading/Writing Programming
• SD Instructor places the word cards What is
• it ? or What is it ? with a picture
  on the SD strip. The instructor then points to
  each word and then the picture.
• R The learner selects the correct word from the
  choice strips and places it on the response
  strip.

24
Example
What
is
it
?
book
bus
car
cat
tractor
25
Data Collection

• It is recommended that trial by trial data
  should be collected during discrimination
  training.
• 1. This form of data collection requires every
  single response to be scored while the child and
  instructor are working. Data collection would
  occur during the inter-trial interval.
• 2. May provide the information needed to
  determine if a child is demonstrating consistent
  discrimination errors between two or more items.
  Most efficient way to determine if discrimination
  errors are being remediated.

26
Data Collection

• 3. Data is calculated as a percent correct at the
  end of every session and then graphed.
• 4. May be more sensitive to more subtle increases
  or decreases in correct responding, incorrect
  responding and non-responding.

27
Data Collection

• 5. Trial-by-trial data can be employed as an
  excellent training tool for new instructors
  these data would allow the new instructor as well
  as their supervisor to review the instructors
  teaching procedures.
• 6. Can be compared to video tapes of a
  learners therapy session for measure of
  reliability.

28
Data Collection

• 7. Can accurately track the rate of
  acquisition from day to day.
• 8. Supervisors know exactly how many trials per
  response or program are practiced over time.
• 9. May be time consuming if instructor is not
  fluent at collecting these data and therefore may
  interfere with the pace of instruction.

29
(No Transcript)
30
Getting Started Matching LettersDiscrimination
Training First Two Responses
31
SD1 R1 in Isolation
32
Matching Letters SD1 R1
a
a
33
Matching Letters SD1 R1
a
a
34
Matching Letters SD1 R1
a
a
35
SD1 R1 Increasing the Field
Size
36
SD1 R1 Increasing the Field Size
a

a

37
SD1 R1 Increasing the Field Size
a

a


38
SD1 R1 Increasing the Field Size
a



a

39
Matching Letters Increasing the Field Size

• - Continue to systematically increase the field
  size by one following each correct response.
• - Once the learner is responding correctly in a
  field size of 10-15 items (or the choice strips
  are full) for three consecutive trials, introduce
  the second target response.

40

• SD2 R2 in Isolation

41
Matching Letters SD2 R2
m
m
42
Matching Letters SD2 R2
m
m
43
Matching Letters SD2 R2
m
m
44

• SD2 R2 Increasing the
• Field Size

45
SD2 R2 Increasing the Field Size
m


m
46
SD2 R2 Increasing the Field Size
m

m


47
SD2 R2 Increasing the Field Size
m




m


48
The following notes are important! So pay
attention!!
49
Important Notes!

• Be sure to have the learner practice SD1 in large
  field sizes while SD2 is being practiced.
• If the percent correct for SD1 falls below 80
  independent/correct responding for two
  consecutive sessions, discontinue teaching SD2
  and re-teach SD1.
• Once SD1 has been demonstrated at 85-100
  independent/correct responding across two
  consecutive sessions, re-introduce SD2.

50
Next Phase of Discrimination

• Present SD2 R2
• in the presence of SD1 R1
• but ask for SD2 R2 only

51
Asking for SD2 in the Presence of SD1
m


m
a



52
Asking for SD2 in the Presence of SD1
m



a

m

53
Asking for SD2 in the Presence of SD1
m




m

a
54
Options for Teaching

• 1. Keep SD2 and SD1 in the same positions but
  switch the positions of the S?s.
• 2. Keep SD2 in the same position, but switch the
  positions of SD1 and the other S?s.
• 3. Keep all stimuli in the field in static
  positions except for SD2.

55
Next Phase of Discrimination

• Present SD1 R1
• in the presence of SD2 R2
• but ask for SD1 R1 only

56
Asking for SD1 in the Presence of SD2
a


m
a



57
Asking for SD1 in the Presence of SD2
a


a
m



58
Asking for SD1 in the Presence of SD2
a
a



m


59
Options for Teaching

• 1. Keep SD1 and SD2 in the same positions but
  switch the positions of the S?s.
• 2. Keep SD1 in the same position, but switch the
  positions of SD2 and the other S?s.
• 3. Keep all stimuli in the field in static
  positions except for SD1.

60
Random Rotation

• Randomly presenting SD1
• and SD2 but keeping all
• stimuli in static positions

61
Random Rotation
a


a
m




62
Random Rotation
a


a
m




63
Random Rotation
m


a
m




64
Random Rotation
a


a
m




65
Random Rotation
m


a
m




66
Random Rotation
m


a
m




67
Random Rotation
a


a
m




68
Random Rotation
m


a
m




69
The following notes are important! So pay
attention!!
70
Continuing with Random Rotation

• Some Suggestions
• 1. Once the learner has demonstrated
• quick and accurate responding with keeping all
  stimuli in static positions, keep the target
  responses in one place on the board but randomize
  the location of all distracters.

71
Continuing with Random Rotation

• Suggestion 2
• Once the learner is demonstrating quick and
  accurate responding with both targets in static
  positions and randomizing the other stimuli on
  the board, begin to place one of the target
  responses in any random position on the board as
  well.

72
Continuing with Random Rotation

• Suggestion 3
• Once the learner has demonstrated accurate
  responding with one of the target responses and
  the distracters in any random position on the
  board, include the second target response. Now
  most if not all stimuli on the board should be
  shifting just about every trial.

73
Acheiving Mastery of the First Two Responses

• - Once the learner is demonstrating 90-100
  independent/correct responding across at least
  two teachers during two consecutive sessions, the
  first two responses are mastered.
• - Be sure to adjust mastery criteria to the child
  you are working with!

74
Introducing the Third Target Response
75
ERRORS
76
When to use No

• 1. In the UCLA model it is recommended that an
  informational No or extinction is employed when
  a child responds incorrectly.
• 2. Using two consecutive Nos prior to
  delivering a prompt should be primarily confined
  to points in the discrimination training
  procedure when the child will be offered
  opportunities to change and adapt his/her
  behavior in response to corrective feedback
  (i.e., the absence of reinforcement). In other
  words, we are saying to the child, try again.

77
When to use No

• 3. During the teaching of new responses, the
  correct procedure to employ following an
  incorrect response (according to the UCLA model)
  is to employ the least intrusive prompt that will
  facilitate the response. The goal at the early
  stages of discrimination training is to introduce
  the item and make the child successful, not to
  teach them to adapt to corrective feedback.
• 4. There is not a procedure called the no-no
  prompt in the UCLA model this evolved due to a
  somewhat altered understanding of the correct
  manner in which this kind of feedback would be
  employed.

78
Advantages of Using No as Corrective Feedback

• 1. Teaches the child to adapt and change his or
  her behavior in response to the absence of
  reinforcement. In other words, it offers the
  child an opportunity to try something
  different.
• 2. The ability to adapt and change your behavior
  in response to the absence of reinforcement is a
  skill required in incidental learning situations
  (i.e., real life).
• 3. No is a naturally occurring consequence in
  every persons life.

79
Advantages of Using No as Corrective Feedback

• 4. Strong contrast between when response is
  incorrect vs. correct may make social praise more
  reinforcing.
• 5. May reduce dependency on prompts.

80
Disadvantages of Using No as Corrective Feedback

• 1. Child may demonstrate problem behavior in
  response to its presentation.
• 2. Child may have a period of responding
  incorrectly on purpose in order to hear No.
• (NOTE This same kind of behavior may be
  demonstrated by typically developing children
  when they do or say things incorrectly in order
  to get a reaction from their parent, teachers
  etc. so is it REALLY a disadvantage?)
• 3. Therapists may default to employing No too
  often which may result in problem behavior due to
  excessive failure.

81
What About

• Consistent Errors!!

82
Expanded Trials
What is that?
83
Expanded Trials
Why, its the systematic increasing of the number
of distracters between presentation of the target
response in order to increase the childs memory
for the target responsesilly!
84
Expanded Trials

• ? This procedure is used to promote retention of
  information across time by systematically
  increasing the length of time across which the
  child must retain the information.
• ? It is particularly helpful if a child is not
  able to move past block trials or has difficulty
  learning to discriminate between items.
• ? This procedure may also be used if the child
  has difficulty retaining newly acquired items
  across sessions or days when placed in random
  rotation.

85
Expanded Trials

• Program Receptive Instructions
• New Target clap
• Step 1 Present the target response. Prompt as
  needed so the child experiences immediate
  success.
• Step 2 Fade prompts until the child is
  responding independently.
• Step 3 Begin Expanded Trials.

86
Expanded Trials

• Here is an abbreviated example of how expanded
  trials may look over several sittings
• Target item Clap
• Sitting 1 Sitting
  2 Sitting 3
• Clap Clap
  Clap
• Wave Stomp
  Stand-up
• Clap Knock
  Kick
• Jump Clap
  Wave
• Clap Kick
  Clap
• Kick Stand-up Knock
• Clap Point Point
• Jump Clap kick
• Point wave
• Clap Clap

87
Expanded Trials

• Guidelines
• 1. If the child responds incorrectly to one of
  the distracter responses, do not begin prompting
  this response. Instead, continue with the
  expansion of the target response. Review the
  incorrect response later during the session.
• 2. If the target response is incorrect at any
  point during expansion, return to the previous
  level of success (i.e., number of distracters
  where the child experienced success).
• 3. Work to extend the procedure across the day,
  working with time intervals rather than the
  number of interceding trials.

88
Collapsing Trials

• Q What is that?
• A A procedure that can be employed when a child
  is demonstrating consistent discrimination errors
  between two or more target responses.

89
Collapsing Trials

• 1. Follows same rules as Expanded Trials
  regarding distracter trials.
• 2. Here is an abbreviated example of how
  Collapsing Trials may look over several sittings
• Discrimination Error in Receptive Object
  Labeling fork vs. spoon
• Sitting 1 Sitting 2
  Sitting 3 Sitting 4
• touch Fork touch spoon
  give me the spoon find the fork
• touch car Stomp feet
  Stand-up do this
• whats your name? a dog is an ....
  touch head touch airplane
• Jump Clap
  a cup is for find the
  spoon
• Clap Do this
  touch the fork.
• This is . give me the fork
  
  etc.
• Spoon

90
Collapsing Trials

• 3. Continue reducing the number of distracter
  trials until the two targets are back to back.
• 4. When there are discrimination errors, it is
  highly recommended that you collect trial by
  trial data.
• 5. Have a separate section in the logbook for
  discrimination errors. Do not let discrimination
  errors hold up the rest of the program.

91
Matching Printed Words
92
Matching Printed Words (SD1-R1)
(A)
93
Matching Printed Words (SD1-R1)
(B)
94
Matching Printed Words (SD2-R2)
(A)
95
Matching Printed Words (SD2-R2)
(C)
96
Matching Printed Words (Discrimination Training)
(A)
97
Matching Printed Words (Discrimination Training)
(B)
98
Matching Printed Words (Discrimination Training)
(C)
99
Early Reading Tasks
Identifying 2D Objects
100
Identifying 2D Objects (SD1-R1)
(A)
101
Identifying 2D Objects (SD1-R1)
(B)
102
Identifying 2D Objects (SD1-R1)
(C)
103
Identifying 2D Objects (SD2-R2)
(B)
104
Identifying 2D Objects (SD2-R2)
(C)
105
Identifying 2D Objects (Discrimination Training)
(B)
106
Identifying 2D Objects (Discrimination Training)
(C)
107
Early Writing Tasks
Labeling 2D Objects
108
Labeling 2D Objects (SD1-R1)
(A)
109
Labeling 2D Objects (SD1-R1)
(B)
110
Labeling 2D Objects (SD1-R1)
(C)
111
Labeling 2D Objects (SD2-R2)
(B)
112
Labeling 2D Objects (SD2-R2)
(C)
113
Labeling 2D Objects (Discrimination Training)
(A)
114
Labeling 2D Objects (Discrimination Training)
(B)
115
Labeling 2D Objects (Discrimination Training)
(C)
116
Reading
Responding to Printed Instructions
117
Early Reading (SD1-R1)
(B)
118
Early Reading (SD1-R1)
(C)
119
Early Reading (SD2-R2)
(E)
120
Early Reading (SD2-R2)
(F)
121
Early Reading (Discrimination Training)
(A)
122
Early Reading (Discrimination Training)
(B)
123
Early Reading (Discrimination Training)
(D)
124
Early Reading (Discrimination Training)
(E)
125
Early Reading (Discrimination Training)
(G)
126
Early Reading (Discrimination Training)
(H)
127
Reading
Responding to Printed Instructions
(Fading the Visual Prompt)
128
Early Reading (Fading the Visual Prompt)
(A)
129
Early Reading (Fading the Visual Prompt)
(B)
130
Early Reading (Fading the Visual Prompt)
(C)
131
Copying Words
132
Copying Words
(B)
133
Copying Words
(C)
134
Copying Words
(D)
135
Copying Words
(E)
136
Copying Words
(G)
137
Writing Object Labels
138
Writing Object Labels (SD1-R1)
(A)
139
Writing Object Labels (SD1-R1)
(C)
140
Writing Object Labels (SD2-R2)
(B)
141
Writing Object Labels (SD2-R2)
(C)
142
Writing Object Labels (Discrimination Training)
(A)
143
Writing Object Labels (Discrimination Training)
(B)
144
Writing Sentences
Labeling 2D Objects
145
Labeling 2D Objects
(A)
146
Labeling 2D Objects
(C)
147
Labeling 2D Objects
(D)
148
Early Abstract Writing
Observations (I See)
149
I See (SD1-R1)
(A)
150
I See (SD1-R1)
(B)
151
I See (SD1-R1)
(C)
152
I See (SD2-R2)
(C)
153
I See (Discrimination Training)
(C)
154
Early Abstract Writing
Requests (I Want)
155
I Want (No Choice)
(C)
156
I Want (No Choice)
(C)
157
I Want (Discrimination Training)
(B)
158
I Want (Discrimination Training)
(C)
159
Early Abstract Reading
Identifying 2D Colors
160
2D Colors (SD1-R1)
(C)
161
2D Colors (SD2-R2)
(C)
162
2D Colors (Discrimination Training)
(A)
163
2D Colors (Discrimination Training)
(B)
164
2D Colors (Discrimination Training)
(C)
165
Early Abstract Reading
Identifying 2D Size
166
2D Size (SD1-R1)
(B)
167
2D Size (SD1-R1)
(C)
168
2D Size (SD2-R2)
(B)
169
2D Size (SD2-R2)
(C)
170
2D Size (Discrimination Training)
(C)
171
2D Size (Discrimination Training)
(E)
172
2D Size (Discrimination Training)
(F)
173
Early Abstract Reading
Identifying 3D Size
174
3D Size (SD1-R1)
(B)
175
3D Size (SD1-R1)
(C)
176
3D Size (SD2-R2)
(B)
177
3D Size (SD2-R2)
(C)
178
3D Size (Discrimination Training)
(C)
179
3D Size (Discrimination Training)
(F)
180
3D Size (Discrimination Training)
(G)
181
3D Size (Discrimination Training)
(H)
182
Early Abstract Writing
Labeling 2D Colors
183
Labeling Colors (SD1-R1)
(B)
184
Labeling Colors (SD1-R1)
(C)
185
Labeling Colors (SD2-R2)
(B)
186
Labeling Colors (SD2-R2)
(C)
187
Labeling Colors (Discrimination Training)
(A)
188
Labeling Colors (Discrimination Training)
(B)
189
Labeling Colors (Discrimination Training)
(C)
190
Early Abstract Writing
Labeling 2D Size
191
2D Size (SD1-R1)
(C)
192
2D Size (SD2-R2)
(C)
193
2D Size (Discrimination Training)
(A)
194
2D Size (Discrimination Training)
(C)
195
Early Abstract Writing
Labeling 3D Size
196
3D Size (SD1-R1)
(A)
197
3D Size (SD2-R2)
(B)
198
Labeling 3D Size (Discrimination Training)
(C)
199
Writing Phrases
Color/Noun
200
Writing Phrases Color/Noun (SD1-R1)
(B)
201
Writing Phrases Color/Noun (SD1-R1)
(C)
202
Writing Phrases Color/Noun (SD2-R2)
(C)
203
Discrimination Training (SD1-R1 SD2-R2)
(C)
204
Discrimination Training (SD1-R1 SD2-R2)
(F)
205
Discrimination Training (SD1-R1, SD2-R2, SD3-R3)
(C)
206

207
References

• Special thanks to Nina Lovaas for use of
  components of her presentation!
• References
•  
• Eikeseth, S., Smith, T. (1992). The Development
  of Functional
• And Equivalence Classes in High Functioning
  Autistic Children
• The Role of Naming. Journal of the Experimental
  Analysis of
• Behavior, 58, 123-133
•  
• Griffee, K., Dougher, M.J., (2002). Contextual
  Control of Stimulus
• Generalization and Stimulus Equivalence in
  Hierarchical Categorization.
• Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
  78, 433-447
•  
• Lovaas, 0. I. (1977). The autistic child
  Language development
• through behavior modification. New York
  Irvington
• Publishers.
•  

208

• Lovaas, 0. I. (1981). Teaching developmentally
  disabled
• children The ME book. Baltimore University Park
• Press.
•  
• Lovaas, 0. I., Koegel, R. L., Schreibman, L.
  (1979).
• Stimulus overselectivity in autism A review of
  research.
• Psychological Bulletin, 86, 1236-1254.
•  
• Lovaas, 0. I., Smith, T. (1988). Intensive
  behavioral
• treatment with young autistic children. In B. B.
  Lahey
• A. E. Kazdin (Eds.), Advances in clinical child
  psychology
• (Vol. 11). New York Plenum Press.
• Lovaas, 0. I., Smith, T. (1989). A
  comprehensive
• behavioral theory of autistic children Paradigm
  for
• research and treatment. Journal of Behavior
  Therapy
• and Experimental Psychiatry, 20, 17-29.
• Lovaas, N.W. Lovaas, E. (1999). The Reading and
  Writing Program

209

• Sidman, M. (1971). Reading and auditory-visual
  equivalences.
• Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 14, 5
• 13.
•  
• Sidman, M. (1989). Functional classes and
  equivalence
• relations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis
  of Behavior,
• 52, 261274.
•  
• Sidman, M., Kirk, B., Willson-Morris, M.
  (1985). Six member
• stimulus classes generated by conditional
  discrimination
• procedures. Journal of the Experimental
• Analysis of Behavior, 43, 2142.
•  
• Sidman, M., Tailby, W. (1982). Conditional
  discrimination
• versus matching to sample An expansion of
• the testing paradigm. Journal of the Experimental
  Analysis
• of Behavior, 37, 522.
•