Research Studies - Case Study

Authors:

Beth Wyman and Gary Stobbe (ASTAR Clinic, Seattle, WA)

Publication:

Presented at the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) Conference

Date:

2006

Research Questions:

Does TeachTown: Basics seem to help a student who has not made progress after several years of Discrete Trial Training?

Participants:

1 child; 7 year old male; adopted from Romania at age 1 year 9 months; functionally non-verbal; ASD diagnosis with static encephalopathy and “institutional autism”

Design:

Case Study

Procedure:

Baseline: 2 years of Discrete Trial Training (1:1 therapist) with inconsistent progress and no changes on The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS)(Partington, 2006) assessment over 2 years

Used the TeachTown: Basics software program and mastered over 200 lessons in 9 months

Results:

Child showed progress on ABLLS after using TeachTown: Basics program

Conclusion:

For this particular child, TeachTown: Basics seemed to have a big impact on his performance. This generalized to his 1:1 Discrete Trial sessions, after using TeachTown: Basics, he was able to work for up to 20-minute sessions (compared to 3-5 minute sessions prior to TeachTown: Basics) and his data became more consistent across staff with 65-100% correct across programs (compared to 20-90% correct across programs prior to TeachTown: Basics).

Funding:

This research was supported in part by a Department of Education SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research) grant number R305S040161.

TeachTown received the 2007 National Tibbett’s Award for this project.