Superb Skill Acquisition Basics
What are the two main components of skill acquisition assessment?
Assessing skills
Assessing preferences for reinforcers to use in skill acquisition programming
Should curriculum assessments be the only source of information for planning skill acquisition programming? Explain why.
No!
- Some skills may not be relevant
- Some skills may not be included in an assessment (but can be observed)
- Some skills may be reported as not occurring, but are noted as important to the family
True or False: highly preferred reinforcers will always be reinforcing.
False - MO's can affect the reinforcing value of any reinforcer, even very preferred ones!
Interviewing someone about their preferences is considered which type of assessment?
Indirect
Why is understanding developmental milestones helpful?
To understand what we can reasonably expect someone to be able to learn at different points in their life
How can curriculum assessments be conducted?
Through direct observation (natural observation or direct testing) or indirect assessment (asking someone who knows the learner well)
Why should categories of reinforcers (e.g., edible, social, tangible) be assessed separately?
To avoid trying to compare very different types of reinforcers
If you are specifically including different items in a free-operant preference assessment, you are conducting which kind of free-operant assessment?
Contrived
Avery is your learner, and their parents have specific goals in mind for skills related to mealtimes that are different from how you typically think about mealtime behaviour. What should you do?
Understand that from a cultural perspective, your thought around socially significant mealtime behaviours likely differs from theirs - ask questions, learn about the behaviours, and follow their lead.
Which assessments are generally catered towards younger individuals? (3)
Early Start Denver Model (ESDM)
VB-MAPP
ABLLS-R
What is the difference between a preferred item and a reinforcer?
A reinforcer will increase the future likelihood of the behaviour it follows, leading to skill acquisition - preferred items may not have this effect.
If someone has a difficult time discriminating between more than 2 items, what are some good preference assessment options for that learner?
Free operant
Single-stimulus
Paired-stimulus
Behaviour reduction assessment asks (blank) questions, whereas skill acquisition assessment asks (blank) questions.
Behaviour reduction assessment asks why questions, whereas skill acquisition assessment asks what questions.
Why is this behaviour happening? (reduction)
What does my learner know how to do and what do they need to learn? (acquisition)
What is unique about the VB-MAPP assessment in comparison to others?
The VB-MAPP includes protocols that can help evaluate barriers to learning and transition-related skills to new, lesser-restrictive environments.
Reinforcement relates to a process that takes place _______ following a behaviour.
Immediately
Michelle is conducting a preference assessment and is recording selection data to sum the total number of times an item was selected. Which type of preference assessment is she using?
Paired-stimulus OR multiple stimulus with replacement
Skill acquisition assessment may involve looking to assess:
a) Behaviours that don't currently happen
b) Behaviours that currently happen, but not to a significant degree
c) Both
c) Both
How does the EFL assessment categorize skills?
Must-have
Should-have
Good-to-have
Nice-to-have
Do we identify reinforcement, or reinforcers, in preference assessments?
Reinforcers
Assuming a learner can tolerate their favourite items being removed from an array of options, and can make choices when presented with more than 2 options, what would the best preference assessment be for this learner for clear hierarchal information?
Multiple stimulus without replacement