Date of Defense

4-25-2015

Date of Graduation

5-2015

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Richard Malott

Second Advisor

Brian MacNeill

Abstract

Learning how to spontaneously mand, or request without prompting, can be difficult for children diagnosed with developmental disabilities. Previous research has shown that the implementation of a time-delay procedure aids in increasing spontaneous mands with these children (Charlop, Shreibman, & Thibodeau, 1985). The goal of this study was to increase vocal mands in children with developmental disabilities with a time-delay procedure by training their undergraduate tutors, using Behavioral Skills Training (BST), how to implement the procedure in naturally occurring opportunities. The study used a multiple baseline across participants design. The intervention used in this study can help children with developmental disabilities to spontaneous mand for objects when motivation for the object is present. It can also contribute to classroom curriculum as tutors can integrate naturalistic teaching procedures into their classroom as opposed to always using discrete trial training. The results of this study show that both tutors increased their use of the time-delay procedure and both children increased spontaneous manding in comparison to baseline. It is believed that these results were a product of proper training of the tutors and the high treatment integrity of the tutors as they implemented the time-delay procedure. In conclusion, this study was successful in increasing the number of opportunities the tutors used the time-delay and the number of spontaneous mands made by developmentally disabled children.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

Additional Files
Thesis Presentation.pdf (768 kB)
Defense Presentation
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