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Voice of Umeed

VOL.11 OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2015

CONTACT US

Umeed Welfare Foundation OW-18, Malibu Towne, Sector – 47, Gurgaon- 120018; HARYANA

9999987226, 9540102376, 9999998896

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About Umeed

Umeed Welfare Foundation is a registered society that provides services for children

and young adults with developmental difficulties. The philosophy behind its work is

based on the application of well established teaching methodologies and therapies.

The Centre has “Structured Environment” that provides a calming as well as

motivating learning with acceptance, fun and meaning.

Umeed Foundation provides quality intervention for the children while also promoting increased societal

awareness and sensitivity towards their needs. Voice of Umeed is a place where people can share and express

their different opinions

MESSAGE

We look forward to our reader’s participation, and if you have any information or experience to share…we

welcome it…

Please send the same at the above given address or email it at – umeedcenter@gmail.com

Website : www.umeedwelfarefoundation.org EDITORIAL BOARD

Editors: Sangeeta Rathi, Shikha Bhardwaj

Co– Editor: Manisha Maheshwari

Design Editor: Manisha Maheshwari

Cover page

By : Ritik Duggal

Class : SAACAR

In this Issue...

Echolalia...Contd. ........................... Pg 3 Token Economy...Contd. ...............Pg 7 Picture Gallery……………………...Pg 14

How you can help us……………..Pg 15

Membership Form………………...Pg 16

mailto:umeedcenter@gmail.comhttp://www.umeedwelfarefoundation.org/

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ECHOLALIA - REPETITIVE SPEECH

Cont………. THE CUES-PAUSE-POINT METHOD FOR OVERCOMING ECHOLALIA

(based on McMorrow & Foxx, 1986)

1. Select 10 questions from each of three content areas

a. Identification - (e.g., "What is your name? Where do you

live?);

b. Interaction - (e.g., "How are you? What kind of music do you

like?");

c. Factual - (e.g., "What state do you live in? What baseball

team plays in Atlanta?").

Make sure these are questions that may be commonly asked

but you are sure the person does not know the answer to. You

should have 30 questions.

2. Baseline

Ask each of the questions, record the answers, and score

the person's answers using the following categories:

echolalia (when one or more of the words in the question

were repeated even if other verbalizations follow);

incorrect (when the response contains an irrelevant word

even if the correct response was also given); or correct

(when the answer is appropriate to the question or matches the trained response).

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3. Training

Training step 1: Teach the person to verbally label word cards or picture cards that will be used to prompt the

correct answer to the questions. For example, for the question "What is your name?, prepare a card with the

written name of the person. For the question "What baseball team plays in Atlanta?, prepare a card with the

word "Braves" written on it or a picture of the "Braves" logo. Accomplish the training by showing the card,

asking the person "What does this say?" while pointing or tapping the card, prompting a response, providing

verbal feedback (either "yes!" or "try again"), saying the correct word if the person does not say it and

prompting the person to repeat it, and giving verbal praise and a reinforcer (e.g., sip of soda, piece of candy,

etc.) for each correct response. Continue training each set of 10 cards until the person correctly identifies each

card or picture when the trainer simply points to them, for three consecutive trials.

Training step 2: Make sure you are in a quiet place with no distractions. Sit across the table from the person.

Have the ten cards that correspond to the ten questions that you will ask (placed in the order you will ask the

questions) on the table in front of you. Hold up your right index finger at eye level midway between you and

the person to indicate that you want silence (this is the "pause" prompt). Say, "I am going to ask you some

questions and I want you to answer them as best you can." If the person says anything or tries to talk during

the instructions, while the question is asked, or for one second following the question, say, "Shh!" and hold

your finger out more prominently.

Ask the first question and move your right index finger from the "pause" prompt position to point to the

correct response card (which will be the answer to the question asked) so that your finger touches it about two

seconds after asking the question. If the person does not immediately say the correct word, prompt by

pointing or saying, "What does this say?", as necessary. Cover the card with your right hand while

acknowledging the person's correct response with a smile or head nod. Raise your left index finger to eye level

(the "pause" prompt position), ask the same question again, and move the left index finger to point to the

back of the right hand (still covering the card). Prompt the correct answer as before even though the card will

remain covered. Reinforce each correct answer with verbal praise and a reinforcer (e.g., sip of soda, piece of

candy, etc.). Continue in this manner so that each of the ten questions in this content area are asked and at

later sessions cover the ten questions from each of the other two content areas. Continue training on the 30

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questions until the person is correctly answering each question with only the point prompt for three

consecutive training sessions.

Training Step 3: Using no cards or prompts, ask each of the 10 questions in three different training sessions.

Use the "pause" prompt while the question is being asked and then move your hand back to the table and

wait for the person's response. Provide feedback and reinforcement as above.

Training Step 4: Fade the feedback and reinforcements by reducing the number of words you use to praise

the person and rewarding every other correct response. Eventually eliminate all feedback and reinforcements.

Once the person is answering your questions in a consistently correct and normal manner, have other

persons ask the same questions in random order to assure that the person has generalized his learning.

4. Maintenance:

Observe the person's response to asking other questions (not trained) and use the "pause" prompt if needed.

Ignore echoed responses, prompt the correct answer, and have him try again. McMorrow & Foxx (1986)

found that echolalic responses were dramatically reduced after their training program was used. Ideally, the

person has been taught that "I don't know" is an acceptable response and a wrong response will get more

results than an echoed response.

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THE ALTERNATED MODELING METHOD FOR OVERCOMING ECHOLALIA

(based on McMorrow & Foxx, 1986)

Modelling would appear to be an ideal training method to use with persons who are prone to echolalia.

McMorrow & Foxx (1986) used this very simple procedure to treat echolalia. It involves the same set up

procedure as the Cues-Pause-Point model above.

That is, select 10 questions from each of three content areas:

a. Identification - (e.g., "What is your name? Where do

you live?)

b. Interaction - (e.g., "How are you? What kind of music

do you like?")

c. Factual - (e.g., "What state do you live in? What baseball

team plays in Atlanta?").

Make sure these are questions that may be commonly asked but you are sure the person does not know the

answer to. You should have 30 questions. Then conduct a baseline: Ask each of the questions, record the

answers, and score the person's answers using the following categories: echolalia (when one or more of the

words in the question were repeated even if other verbalizations follow); incorrect (when the response

contains an irrelevant word even if the correct response was also given); or correct (when the answer is

appropriate to the question or matches the trained response).

Next select a model. The model should be someone who can answer the questions correctly. Set up the

training room as above with both the model and the person you are training seated across the table from you.

Begin with the model and ask the first question. Provide feedback and reinforcement for the correct answer.

Then look at the person and ask the same question and provide feedback and reinforcement for correct

responses.

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Continue until the ten questions for that content area are asked and then complete the other content area

questions at later training sessions. Once the person is answering correctly 100% of the time with the model

present, it is time to ask the questions of the person without the model. Keep track of the responses as in the

baseline and work toward 100% correctness. Fade the reinforcers and have other persons ask the questions to

assure generalization has occurred.

A GENERAL APPROACH TO RESPONDING TO ECHOLALIA

The Judevine Center for Autism recommends using the following procedure when a person with autism

engages in echolalia: Treatment for echolalia involves responding to the person literally. If the person echoes,

"Do you want juice?" (after you have asked the question), say: "No thank you. Follow this with: "I think you

want to tell me something though." Then use sign language or another prompt to get the person to say, "I

want some juice."

A good technique is to use a "starter sentence" like: "I want some ------," and let them fill in the blank (show

him the juice). Similarly, if you ask the person, "Do you want a cookie? Yes or no," and the person echoes your

last word ("no"), accept this response. Say, "You said 'no', that's okay, I will eat the cookie myself." If it looks

like the person does indeed want a cookie, say, "It looks like you changed your mind, if you want a cookie, say,

'yes'." Prompt for a "yes" and reinforce a correct response.

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Token Economy Cont……..

Money is a type of Token. The world economy where people go to work, do their job to earn money and then

spend this money for things they want or need is pretty much identical to a classroom token economy. The

money you earn from employment itself isn’t really what you want – it is a means to an end. What you really

want is what you buy with your money because getting money means you get desired items and activities (e.g.

car, house, jewellery, food).

For a classroom token economy, a child will go to school, complete academic tasks to earn tokens and then

spend these tokens for back-up reinforcers. Again, the tokens aren’t really what the child wants. Just like our

money, the tokens are a means to an end – getting tokens means getting things the child wants (e.g. 5

minutes playing a computer game, a break from work, chocolate, sweets).

COMPARING THE WORLD ECONOMY TO A CLASSROOM TOKEN ECONOMY.

What can be used as tokens?

The term “token” suggests something physical that you can hold in your hand. Some token economies do use

physical objects such as poker chips, printed cards with smiley faces, fake money or even marbles.

However, not all tokens are like this, some might just use a tick on a sheet of paper, a hole punched in a card

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or a stamp put onto a card (Foxx, 1998). These “non-physical” tokens are sometimes called “points”

(Miltenberger, 2008).

In Kazdin and Bootzin’s (1972, p. 343-344) review of token economies, they cite Ayllon and Azrin (1968)

regarding a number of advantages in using tangible items for tokens. These include:

The number of tokens can bear a simple quantitative relation to the amount of reinforcement.

The tokens are portable and can be in the subject's possession even when he is in a situation far

removed from that in which the tokens were earned.

No maximum exists in the number of tokens a subject may possess.

Tokens can be used directly to operate devices for the automatic delivery of rein forcers.

Tokens are durable and can be continuously present during the delay.

The physical characteristics of the tokens can be easily standardized.

The tokens can be made fairly indestructible so they will not deteriorate during the delay.

The tokens can be made unique and non duplicable so that the experimenter can be assured that

they are received only in the authorized manner.

In addition, tokens provide a visible record of improvement. This may facilitate social reinforcement

from staff members, as well as self-reinforcement.

Advantages of a Token Economy

According to Kazdin and Bootzin (1972, p. 343) the use of tokens as a method of delivering reinforcement

through the child exchanging them for back-up reinforcers has a number of advantages. For example, they:

Bridge the delay between the target response and back-up reinforcement.

Permit the reinforcement of a response at any time.

May be used to maintain performance over extended periods of time when the back-up reinforcer

cannot be parcelled out.

Allow sequences of responses to be reinforced without interruption.

Maintain their reinforcing properties because of their relative independence of deprivation states.

Are less subject to satiation effects.

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Provide the same reinforcement for individuals who have different preferences in back-up

reinforcers.

May take on greater incentive value than a single primary reinforcer.

Additionally, Miltenberger (2008) highlights how:

Positive reinforcement, via the tokens, can be provided immediately after the target behaviour occurs.

A token economy is structured therefore there will be consistency with how positive reinforcement is

delivered for target behaviours.

A child’s future planning skills can be developed because different amounts of tokens need to be

earned for different types of backup reinforcers and the tokens must be kept until enough has been

earned.

Things to Consider with a Token Economy

If an economy is being implemented at a large scale, across a group of individuals and settings, it may be

time consuming and take a lot of effort to organise and train staff to correctly implement it.

Depending on the preferred backup reinforcers, it may be costly to purchase them.

It’s pertinent to check that ‘the expected benefits (improvement in behaviour) justify the time, effort

and cost of conducting the programme.

Seven Components of a Token Economy

Miltenberger lists seven components that need to be defined when implementing a token economy. These are

The desirable target behaviours to be strengthened.

The tokens to be used as conditioned reinforcers.

The backup reinforcers to be exchanged for tokens.

A reinforcement schedule for token delivery.

How many tokens are needed to be exchanged for the backup reinforcers.

A time and place for exchanging tokens for backup reinforcers.

In some cases, a response cost component, in which the undesirable target behaviours to be

eliminated are identified, together with the rate of token loss for each instance of these behaviours.

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Miltenberger's seven components of a token economy.

One-to-One Token Economy Example

Tarbox, Ghezzi and Wilson (2006) investigated the use of token economies in an effort to increase the eye

contact of a 5 year old boy called Adam who was diagnosed with autism. We’re going to go through one of the

economies used in the Tarbox et al study and use Miltenberger’s (2008) seven components to describe it.

Target Behaviour: Attending to his tutor before the delivery of an instruction; with “attending” defined as

making eye contact with the tutor for at least 3 seconds.

Tokens to be used: Laminated “star stickers” placed on a “token board”.

Backup Reinforcers: A 90 second break from academic tasks where he could play with preferred toys of his

choice.

Reinforcement Schedule: Adam received 1 token every single time he engaged in the target behaviour (made

eye contact for 3 seconds).

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Rate of Token Exchange for Reinforcers: A total of 10 tokens were required before Adam could earn a backup

reinforcer.

Time and Place to Exchange Tokens for Backup Reinforcers: This was done immediately after 10 tokens had

been earned. It was completed at the classroom desk.

Response Cost: They did not use a response cost.

Response Cost

Cooper, Heron and Heward (2007) make it clear that a response cost ‘should be saved for those major

undesirable behaviours that call attention to themselves and need to be suppressed quickly. The teacher’s or

parent’s primary attention should always be focused on positive behaviour to reinforce; response cost should

be a last resort and should be combined with other procedures to build adaptive behaviours’ (p. 370).

A response cost is a penalty or fine where tokens are taken away from the child for breaking rules or

engaging in inappropriate behaviours. Much like breaking a law such as driving over the speed limit and

being fined money for it by the police.

It’s important that children are aware of the rules before any response cost would be used so it’s crystal clear

what is a rule and what is a broken rule. Additionally, a response cost should never be used if a child does not

already have tokens. Never put a child in “token debt” (Cooper et al. 2007).

A Token Economy is Conditioned Reinforcement

The token economy is a form of “conditioned reinforcement” or “secondary reinforcement” (Malott & Trojan-

Suarez, 2006). This is because the tokens are not naturally occurring reinforcers. Naturally occurring

reinforcers like food or water would be classed as “unconditioned reinforcers” or “primary reinforcers”

because they do not need to be paired with anything.

The money you earn by going to work is a form of conditioned reinforcement because the money itself is not

naturally reinforcing. It is the fact that you can use this money to get desired items and activities like a house,

food, cars or holidays.

To expand a little more, imagine you go to work and get given some plastic tokens at the end of the day. It’s

unlikely that you’re going to be in any way happy about this. However, if you were told that those tokens

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could be traded in for an extra day off work, all of a sudden those tokens will become something that you’re

going to want to get more of (well for most people anyway).

In this case, the tokens become conditioned reinforcers because they have now been “paired” with the ability

to get a day off work. In other words, getting tokens leads to getting a day off work while no tokens means no

day off.

In the case of school children, the tokens serve as a way of gaining access to preferred items and activities –

therefore, getting tokens leads to getting activities and no tokens means no activities.

Conditioned versus "Generalised" Conditioned

In the example about trading tokens for a day off work, if the tokens could only be traded for a day off then

these tokens would be termed “conditioned reinforcers”. If the tokens could be traded for various different

desired items and not just one specific thing then they would be termed “generalised conditioned

reinforcers”. The distinction here is about whether the tokens can be traded for only one item/privilege

(conditioned reinforcers) or numerous items/privileges (generalised conditioned reinforcers). The money

earned through employment is a form of generalised conditioned reinforcement because you can buy any

number of things with it. Tokens used within educational settings are typically “generalised conditioned

reinforcers” as well, because they can be traded for a number of different items and activities. This is not

always the case though. Sometimes a programme may be implemented where a specific type of token (e.g. red

stars) can only be traded for specific activities/items (e.g. a special trip at the end of a school week).

References

Ayllon, T. & Azrin, N. (1968). The Token Economy: A Motivational System for Therapy and

Rehabilitation. New York: Appleton Century Crofts.

Cooper, J., Heron, T., & Heward, W. (2007). Applied Behaviour Analysis. New Jersey: Pearson

Education.

Foxx, R. (1998). A comprehensive treatment program for inpatient adolescents. Behavioural

Interventions, 13, 67-77. DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-078X(199802)13:1

Hackenberg, T. (2009). Token Reinforcement: A Review and Analysis. Journal of the Experimental

Analysis of Behaviour, 91, 257-286. DOI: 10.1901.jeab.2009.91-257

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How you can help us!!!

Umeed Welfare Foundation is a registered society that provides services for children and young

adults with developmental difficulties. The philosophy behind its work is based on the application of well established

teaching methodologies and therapies. At Umeed, we provide quality intervention for the children while also

promoting increased societal awareness and sensitivity towards their needs.

The services at Umeed caters to special needs children from all over India and all

sections of the society irrespective of caste, creed, race, religion and language in

general and that of the floating population in particular. Children from

economically deprived sections of society are provided services free of cost. To

facilitate Umeed to persist and expand its programmes of special education,

therapeutic interventions and vocational training for the special needs it is

humbly requested to kindly donate generously for the noble cause.

Donation from any source will make it possible for us to provide better facilities

and better care for the students and families we serve and will enable us to achieve more of our long-range objectives.

i ) Raise funds for the centre

ii) Provide donations, by cash or by cheque.

iii) Build general awareness

iv) Go through the wish list and see if you can provide anything

LCD television – new or old (in working condition)

CCTV machine

Loom machine for weaving

Big microwave for bakery unit

Any kind of furniture – old or new

Music system

DVD player

Desktop or laptop - new or old (in working condition)

Stationary :- A4 size paper (new or one side used), cobra files and

box folders, glaze papers, handmade papers, markers, white

board markers, sketch pens, crayons, fevicol jars, glue sticks, poster colours, chart papers, glitter pens, plastic

containers, empty shoe boxes and cartons

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Membership to Umeed Welfare Foundation

To receive ‘Voice of Umeed’ please complete the application

below, cut or photocopy, and return it to us as soon as possible.

Membership Details

Parents: Parents – member: Rs 200/-

Full Member – Annual: Rs 500/- ,Overseas Member : $ 35

Professionals: Professionals Member – Rs 250/-

Full Member – Annual: Rs 800/-

Overseas Member : $ 45

Members receive copies of Voice of Umeed and information on all

upcoming events and activities.

Full Members are in addition, entitled to concessionary rates for

Umeed events and workshops.

Name _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Address ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________ Pin _________________________________________

Phone/ Email ________________________________________________________________________________________________

I am a: (tick all that apply)

□ Parent □ Relative □ Professional: Name of

Org._________________________________________ □ Other

If you are a parent of a person with autism, please answer:

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Date of birth DD___________________________ MM___________________________ YR_______________________

Diagnosis (if known) __________________________________________________________________________________

I wish to become a member of Umeed and enclose:

□ Rs 200/- □ Rs 500/- □Rs 250/- □Rs 800/-

(DD Only) Draft No:__________________ Dated On___________________________

Bank ________________________________________________

Amount in words ______________________________________________________________________________________

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Amount in words _____________________________________________________________________________________

Mail demand draft payable to: Umeed Welfare Foundation

OW- 18, Malibu Towne, Gurgaon - 120018

BOOK POST

If undelivered please return to:

The Editor, Voice of Umeed

OW – 18, Malibu Towne, Gurgaon – 120018

Published on behalf of

Umeed Welfare Foundation

OW – 18, Malibu Towne, Gurgaon, Haryana – 120018

Ph: 9999987226 / 9540102376, 9999998896

Email: umeedcenter@gmail.com

Website: http://www.umeedwelfarefoundation.org

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