J. Behav. Thu. & Exp. Psychiut. Vol. 13, No. 4, pp, 347.351, 1982. Printed in Great Britain.

OOOS-7916/82/040347-05 $03.00/O c 1982 Pergamon Press Ltd.

TEACHING AN AUTISTIC CHILD PEDESTRIAN SKILLS

MONIKA STEINBORN and TERRY J. KNAPP

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Summary-An autistic child was taught pedestrian skills in a classroom by use of a model of the streets and the intersection she most often frequented. She manipulated a doll and verbalized what the doll was doing to get to the designated location. After mastering the pedestrian skills on the model, video recordings familiarized her with traffic at local intersections. She successfully generalized the pedestrian skills to the natural environment.

In recent years researchers have investigated the usefulness of behavioral training packages which incorporate the process of task analysis in teaching pedestrian skills (Page, Iwata and Neef, 1976; Neef, Iwata and Page, 1978; Vogelsberg, 1979; Yeaton and Bailey, 1978; Matson, 1980). It is important to teach pedes- trian skills to disturbed or retarded children because such skills make available a wider range of experiences and reinforcers, i.e. movies, stores, playgrounds, etc. Unlike normal children who acquire the rudiments of pedes- trian skills with minimal difficulty, emotionally disturbed or retarded children need to learn many of these abilities through specialized forms of instruction.

Yeaton and Bailey (1978) taught pedestrian safety skills to 24 normal children (kinder- garten-third grade) using an instructional package in the natural environment. Page, Iwata and Neef (1976) taught five retarded males pedestrian skills in a classroom using a model built to simulate city traffic conditions. The subjects manipulated a doll through the intersections and verbalized what the doll was doing. As soon as a subject learned a pedestrian skill on the model, he was allowed the oppor- tunity to practice it in the natural environment. Matson (1980) replicated and extended the

Page, Iwata and Neef (1976) study with mentally retarded institutionalized adults. Ten subjects received training only in the classroom and with a model which approximated that of Page, Iwata and Neef (1976); ten subjects received initial instruction in the classroom with life-sized traffic sign props, subsequently utilizing a mock-up of an intersection on the hospital grounds; and ten subjects were in a no- treatment control group. After training, all 30 subjects were exposed to a city intersection, and results indicated that those who had utilized the life-sized traffic sign props and the mock intersection were most successful in crossing streets, followed by the subjects who had received training on the model. The control subjects showed no improvement. Vogelsberg (1979) taught four severely handicapped stu- dents pedestrian skills in the natural environ- ment, two of them were finally able to cross streets independently and two required less assistance than they needed before the training.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the value of a behavioral training program similar to that of Page, Iwata and Neef (1976) to teach pedestrian skills to an autistic subject. Such training packages have been successfully used to teach pedestrian skills to various populations but not to autistic

This study was based upon a thesis submitted by the senior author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M.A. degree in psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Reprints may be obtained from Monika Steinborn, now at the Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 30303. Terry .I. Knapp is at the Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89154.

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348 MONIKA STEINBORN and TERRY .I. KNAPP

subjects. Further, the behavioral training package utilized in this study is novel since it does not rely on the subject’s knowledge of colors to teach behaviors associated with the stoplights. The training procedures differ from those of Page, Iwata and Neef (1976) in that all the requisite pedestrian skills were first taught as an entire chain in the classroom, without ac- companying in vivo training in order to obtain in viva generalization.

Subject

METHOD

J., a lo-yr-old, well-developed Caucasian girl who turned 11 during the project, was diagnosed as autistic at the age of six. Before implementation of a pedestrian skills program, she was oblivious to traffic and traffic lights but would respond to tugs of the hand or commands such as “Let’s go!“. She was not verbally able to identify colors, which precluded teaching her the meaning of the red, yellow and green stoplights. She could, however, recognize and name the stoplight itself. J. had some familiarity with crossing streets as she had been “walked across” before; on these occasions she would walk within the lines of the crosswalk.

Settings and apparatus Classroom model. Training on the model and with video

recordings was done in a special education classroom. A model, 1.97 x 1.23 m, simulating an intersection near where she lived, was constructed on a piece of pressboard. Streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and grass were indicated with colored regions. Cardboard replicas of familiar build- ings, including a 7-11 store, were placed on the model. (Such convenience stores held many reinforcers, and were used as a goal both on the model and in the natural environ- ment.) Plastic toy cars and trucks were used which could be easily moved by hand to simulate traffic. A 22 cm stoplight with a single 3.2 X 5.5 cm panel of lights was placed on each of the four corners of the intersection and was controlled by a set of switches attached to a battery. Two 15.5 cm female dolls made of hard rubber which could be manipulated by the subject and the experimenter were used to demonstrate correct pedestrian behaviors. Both the experimenter and the subject had their own dolls whose hair matched the experimenter’s and the subject’s respectively.

Home-training model. Another smaller model, 57 X 66 cm, was given to the parents so that they could provide supplemental training in the home. The “stoplights” were painted in their respective positions-one on each side.

Classroom video recordings. Color video recordings were made of four local traffic intersections. They were recorded from the vantage of a pedestrian near the curb. These were intended to teach the subject under what conditions it was not safe to cross on the green light (cars are moving into the crosswalk) prior to in vivo generalization testing.*

City intersections. The intersections chosen for teaching the in vivo pedestrian skills were both close to where the subject lived in a residential/business section. A fence surrounding a park on one corner of the intersection allowed for teach- ing and testing of pedestrian skills before in vivo exposure. The traffic at this intersection flowed at 35 m.p.h. and was particularly light during morning hours and heavier later during the day. The second intersection led to a 7-11 store.

Training A behavioral training program was used to teach J. the

pedestrian skills.? It details the individual skills and steps, defines correct vs incorrect classroom and outside be- haviors, and determines criteria for mastery of the indi- vidual skills.

Rather than teach .I. to name the colors of the stoplight, we taught her to say “stop” and make the doll “stamp” once to represent the intention of stopping when the red and yellow lights were lit, and to say “look left, front, right” while turning the doll’s head left, front, right when the green light was lit. She was also taught to say “look left, front, right” and manipulate the doll in the same manner when crossing the street.

The final chain of verbalizations and behaviors was as follows:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6.

7. 8.

“1 am walking the doll to the intersection.” “1 am stopping.” “I am looking at the stoplight.” “That light is lit.” “1 am stopping” or “stop” or “look left, front, right.” (on the green light condition) “I am crossing the street.” (when crossing the street) “Look left, front, right.” (after crossing the street) “1 am stepping on the curb.”

In general, the teaching of the pedestrian skills consisted of first teaching J. to demonstrate the correct pedestrian behaviors on the model while describing the doll manipula- tions, then teaching her to make correct pedestrian judg- ments while watching video recordings, and finally in exposure to actual streets with both parents present. The parents also worked with the child at home on the smaller model.

J. received pennies and praise in the classroom model and outside for behaving appropriately, giving correct responses, and staying on task. On days where she earned the pennies in the classroom model she took them home to her parents to spend at a 7-11 store. When she worked in the street environment, she was able to spend the pennies immediately upon crossing the streets and arriving at the store.

Procedure Baseline data were obtained prior to any training on both

the natural setting and the classroom model by counting the subject’s correct responses to the following behavioral checklist. This checklist subsequently was used to assess the skill-learning taught in the training procedures.

(1) Walking to the intersection and stopping. (2) Attending to the proper stoplight.

*We are grateful to Hewitt B. Clark Ph.D. of Children’s Behavioral Services, Las Vegas, who suggested the use of video

recordings. TA copy of the behavioral training package may be obtained from the senior author.

TEACHING AN AUTISTIC CHILD PEDESTRIAN SKILLS 349

(3)

(4)

(5) (6)

Pointing to the light which is lit and indicating the appropriate behavior (stop if yellow, stop if red, look left, front, right if green). Beginning immediately to cross the street on the green light condition. Looking left, front, right while crossing. Walking all the way across the street, within the crosswalk and stepping on the curb.

The reliability of J.‘s responses after mastery on both the classroom model and in the street setting was assessed on separate occasions by having the parents employ the check- list concurrently with the experimenter.

The design consisted of an initial in vivo baseline condi- tion, the administration of the behavioral training package in the classrooom, and in vivo assessment following training. Sessions on the model were conducted four times per week with a varying number of trials per day. In vivo sessions were weekly .

RESULTS

On two occasions J.‘s parents made indepen- dent observations and charted her performance during the classroom model and in the in vivo phase following subject mastery. They collab- orated with one another and were in 100% agreement with data collected by the experi-

menter. The reason for such high agreement is probably that the checklist measured gross behaviors and the subject consistently per- formed these behaviors correctly.

Figure 1 displays the percentage of correct responses per trial for baseline and training ses- sions. An inspection reveals that acquisition of pedestrian skills on the model was rapid throughout the training procedure. On her thirty-first trial to cross the street on the model (starting with only a chain of three behaviors and working up to the chain of six behaviors), she correctly executed the entire sequence. On the forty-fifth trial, she reached mastery (four correct in a row). The variability during the early portion of the total chain sequence (trials 34-43) may be related to facial saliva smearing which appeared in association with stress in J.‘s living environment. After the sixty-first trial to cross the street on the model, she performed 30 times correctly in succession.

During video recording playback, J. was able

I 90

Fig. 1. Percentage of correct responses by trials of crossing the street on the model.

350 MONIKA STEINBORN and TERRY J. KNAPP

Trials

Fig. 2. Percentage of correct responses by trials of in vivo street-crossing.

to verbalize the correct pedestrian behaviors associated with each stoplight color. For con- ditions of moving traffic, no reliable data could be gathered because- the traffic stoplight con- ditions changed before questions could be asked concerning them.

Figure 2 displays the subject’s generalization of pedestrian skills to in vivo street crossing. On the second trial following training she reached a 100% level of accuracy. Up to the fourteenth trial, she averaged at a 91% level of accuracy and 100% correct throughout follow-up of 2 months duration during which was assessed once biweekly.

J. ‘s behavior

DISCUSSION

The results of this study suggest that pedestrian skills can be taught to an autistic child using a behavioral training program and a classroom-based model of a traffic environ- ment, and that these skills may be generalized

to the natural environment with minimal training. There are conceivably different problems in training autistic vs retarded children.

Yeaton and Bailey’s (1978) instructional package relied heavily on the trainer’s verbal description of behaviors. J. and other autistic children might have been confused by excessive verbal material. Thus, in the present study J. was taught to demonstrate appropriate pedes- trian behaviors and verbalize, using brief phrases, what she was doing. The task of brief verbalization probably facilitated appropriate motor behaviors and also helped the experi- menter to understand which of her behaviors were intentional as opposed to incidental.

Page, Iwata and Neef (1976) found it effec- tive to teach a single skill on the model and then directly follow that by an opportunity to demonstrate it in the natural environment. The present study taught the whole chain of behaviors on the model before exposing J. to actual street crossing. Where policy prevents

TEACHING AN AUTISTIC CHILD PEDESTRIAN SKILLS 351

use of the Page, Iwata and Neef procedure, it is reassuring to have some evidence that other methods work as effectively.

Unlike the present study, Page, Iwata and Neef taught the “walk/don’t walk” signal to their retarded subjects. In the present study, this signal was ignored because the early return to the flashing “don’t walk” feature might be confusing to an autistic child rigidly adhering to a chain of behaviors.

Another possible confusion is that some signals use the word “wait” instead of “don’t walk.” If the “walk/don’t walk/wait” com- ponent had been added to the present study, the experimenter would have probably had to translate the “don’t walk/wait” feature to “Stop” anyway to convey the required

behavior. Thus with autistic subjects simplifi- cations of this sort may be necessary.

Matson (1980) noted that his mentally retarded subjects frequently had difficultly in seeing the relevance of the moving figure of the model to their own performance in the in vivo environment. Presumably generalization of the doll’s behaviors to the subject’s behaviors must be programmed for some subjects. J. readily exhibited motor behaviors similar to the doll manipulations on the model.

Not only was J. able to understand the similarities of working with the model and crossing streets in vivo, she was able to modify and improve the pedestrian skills chain without intervention. This modification of procedures by the subject(s) has not been noted in previous studies. Her switching from the phrase “I am walking the doll to the intersection” to “I am walking to the intersection”, shows an ability to discriminate between situations and settings as well as an understanding for the phrases.

One of the considerations for having elec- trically lighted stoplights in the present study was to aid J. in learning to attend to just one of them. Classroom props of stoplights typically appear to have all lights lit, as none of the lights go “dark”. In four years of using such props she had not learned the behaviors appropriate to the stoplights. Future researchers may wish

to examine the utility of an electrical stoplight with a smaller, less detailed model.

Although after learning pedestrian skills on a classroom-based model, most subjects could probably benefit from direct in vivo exposure, it is possible that some researchers might want to include an intermediary step of converting the classroom to a “mock” intersection. Generalization of pedestrian behaviors from manipulating a doll on a small model to exhibit- ing the subject’s pedestrian behaviors on a life- sized “mock” intersection has not been done. This procedure might be recommended for subjects who have learned the pedestrian be- haviors on the small model but are not ready for the in vivo environment in terms of their safety, or where school district policies require students to be on school grounds.

In the interest of cost/efficiency, the video components of the present study could possibly be eliminated without compromising the results. The effort and cost of making such recordings seem hardly worth their contributing value. The subject would probably have gener- alized from the model to the in vivo environ- ment without the aid of the traffic video recordings. If video recordings should ever prove useful, it may be through the use of a slow motion mode.

REFERENCE NOTES

Vogelsberg R. T. (1980) Teaching severely handicapped students independent pedestrian skills in the natural environment: Social validation, acquisition, generaliza- tion and maintenance (Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois, 1980). Dissertation Abstracts International, 40, 4536A.

REFERENCES

Matson J. L. (1980) A controlled group study of pedes- trian-skill training for the mentally retarded, Behav. Res. Ther. 18, 99-106.

Neef N. A., Iwata B. A. and Page T. J. (1978) Public trans- portation training: In vivo versus classroom instruction, J. Appl. Behav. Anal. 11, 331-344.

Page T. J., Iwata B. A. and Neef N. A. (1976) Teaching pedestrian skills to retarded persons: Generalization from the classroom to the natural environment, J. Appl. Behav. Anal. 9, 433-444.

Yeaton W. H. and Bailey J. S. (1978) Teaching pedestrian skills to young children: An analysis and I-yr follow-up. J. Appl. Behav. Anal. 11, 315-329.