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-: Hello, and welcome to our webinar on errorless teaching.
My name is Ashley Meyer, and I am the Western Region
Coordinator for the Nebraska ASD Network.
-: I'm Jessica Broderick, and I am a speech-language
pathologist with certification in assistive technology.
I am also a member of the Western Region autism team.
-: We are excited to talk with you
about how you can use errorless teaching procedures
to systematically increase skill acquisition
and decrease problem behaviors.
-: After viewing this webinar, our hope is
that you will be able to select skills
to target using errorless teaching procedures.
And with that, you will know the steps
involved in teaching errorlessly.
-: This may be a refresher for you,
or this may be the first time that you've looked into this.
The techniques in errorless teaching are
based on applied behavior analysis.
Applied behavior analysis, or ABA, is the process
of systematically applying interventions
based upon the principles of learning theory
to improve socially significant behaviors
to a meaningful degree and to demonstrate
that the interventions employed are responsible
for that improvement in the behavior.
ABA is an evidence-based practice,
and errorless teaching is one technique within
that evidence base that has been proven
to be valuable for teaching new skills.
-: Before we can use errorless teaching procedures
to teach new skills, we need to make sure
the learning environment is setup for students success.
We start with very low effort responses,
things that are easy for the student to do correctly,
and then gradually fade into more difficult demands.
We also want to mix tasks that they already have mastered
with new skills that we are teaching.
This keeps it fun and successful for the student,
reducing the chance that there will be problem behaviors.
The skills listed here are ones that are important
to teach prior to using errorless teaching for new skills.
We can increase our instructional control
by focusing on teachable moments
and the students motivation at the time.
We can incorporate the students interest into tasks
to increase motivation as well.
-: We've taught those pre-learning skills
that were listed on the previous slide.
We've taken all of the steps to be ready
to teach using errorless teaching.
Now we need to know the answers to these questions.
What is errorless teaching?
Why should we use errorless teaching?
What skills can be taught using errorless teaching?
How do we balance target or new skills
with mastered or learned skills?
What is errorless teaching procedure?
And how do we correct errors?
The rest of our presentation we'll look
at answering each of these questions.
-: So what exactly is errorless teaching?
It's an instructional method, a way of teaching
that involves prompting the correct response
at the beginning of the teaching sequence,
and then fading out those prompts for independence.
Errorless teaching is an evidence-based practice
that has been used effectively with students
that have learning difficulties and/or problem behaviors.
It helps students learn new skills faster
and in a positive way because it lends itself
to higher rates of reinforcement for the student.
It's fast paced and the teacher varies the types
of skills they're having the student do.
This helps keep learning fun and engaging.
There are four steps in the errorless teaching sequence.
Prompt, transfer, distract, and check.
We will go further into each of these in just a minute.
These steps and the order of these steps are important
so we have reminders for you on the next few slides.
-: One of the best aspects of errorless teaching
is that it can be used to teach a wide range of skills.
These could be from daily living skills to language
and communication to motor skills and more.
There are two types of skills that
are covered in errorless teaching,
those that the student knows how to do,
and we will refer to those as knowns or mastered skills.
And when new skills that we are teaching the student,
those will be referred to as new or target skills.
Known skills are easy for the student,
and we want them to be successful,
so we teach with a ratio of about
80% known to about 20% target skills.
You may be able to do fewer knowns and more target skills
with some students and with others you may need
to have a higher amount of those known or easy skills
in order to keep it successful and fun.
-: So let's talked about those four steps
in the errorless teaching procedure.
Prompt, transfer, distract, check.
Errorless teaching aims at keeping students successful
by minimizing any chance of errors.
This is done by prompting the correct
answer from the very beginning.
Each trial is started with a prompt
that is intrusive enough to allow the student
to get the correct response without over prompting.
The prompt is there to have the student get the correct
response with the least amount of help necessary to do that.
With some students you may need to do multiple
prompted opportunities in a row,
so it could actually look more like
prompt, prompt, prompt, transfer, distract, check.
The multiple opportunities of them being prompted
to do the correct response will build momentum
for them to be more independent on
the following steps in the sequence.
The transfer trial follows the prompted trial or trials.
In this step, we are fading the prompts.
Some students may have all prompts
removed on the transfer trial,
while others may need to have prompts slowly faded.
The four steps in this teaching sequence
are done quickly in one sitting.
So for example, if you wanted to use errorless teaching
to teach the new skill of matching identical numbers
in an array of three, you would start by giving the
instruction, then prompt the correct answer immediately,
then fade the prompt when you give the
instruction again for the transfer step.
We'll talk later about what to do if the student
does make an error, but our goal is to have them do
the skill correctly right from the beginning with no errors.
-: The third step in the errorless
teaching sequence is the distract step.
Distracters used after the student has independently gotten
the correct answer in the transfer trial.
Distracters are not known or mastered skills.
Things that are fast and easy for the learner to do.
We can think of this step as wiping the slate clean.
It's something different from
the skill that we are targeting.
When first starting out, you may only do one quick
distracter after the transfer step.
With some learners you may be
able to do multiple distracters.
So for example, my student knows how to answer
a quick question like, what day is today?
Or who is wearing a blue shirt?
I would use those as distracters.
We want to vary our distracters, so it's important
to have a list of skills the student knows how
to do to choose from, so we aren't boring
the student by having them do the
same kinds of tasks again and again.
The last step in the four step errorless
teaching sequence is the check trial.
This step is used to see if the student can
still independently give the correct response
after they have been distracted briefly.
This step is completely independent,
so there are no prompts.
This is where the student should receive reinforcement
if they get the correct response because it's
showing the greatest amount of independence.
-: We have video from the PaTTAN website that we're
going to show you now to kind of walk you
through these steps of errorless teaching.
-: In this segment we're going to be talking
about errorless teaching procedures.
-: What is it, peanut butter.
-: Peanut butter.
-: What is it?
-: Peanut butter.
-: Tell me an animal in the house.
-: Cat. -: It is a cat.
What's this?
What is this?
-: Peanut butter.
-: Awesome.
-: We use errorless teaching procedures
with all items that are being taught.
The errorless teaching procedure
in intensive teaching has four steps.
Prompt, transfer, distract and check.
-: What am I doing, knocking.
-: Knocking.
-: What am I doing?
-: Knocking.
-: Clap your hands.
What is it?
-: Frog.
-: What am I doing?
-: Knocking.
-: Errorless teaching starts with an immediate prompt.
-: Something that drinks milk is a?
-: Cat.
-: Something that drinks milk is a?
-: Cat.
-: What I'm going to be demonstrating is
using the errorless teaching procedure
to teach a tact target spoon using an accord prompt.
What is it, spoon.
-: Spoon.
-: What is it?
-: Spoon.
-: Say happy day.
-: Happy day.
-: Do this.
What's this one?
-: Present.
-: And what's this?
-: Spoon.
-: Excellent.
The prompt trial ensures that the
student will respond correctly.
I asked her what is it?
And said spoon, and that is what
controlled her response at the moment.
What is it, spoon. -: Spoon.
-: What is it, heart.
-: Heart.
-: What is it?
-: Heart.
-: The transfer trial allows us to then to respond
with a faded prompt or with no prompt.
-: One thing that says meow is a?
-: Cat.
-: Something that says meow is a?
-: Cat.
-: Say table top.
-: Table top.
-: Do this.
(clapping)
Something that says meow is a?
-: Cat.
-: The transfer trial eliminates the prompt,
in this case, I'm taking away the accord prompt.
What is it?
Blonde Woman: Spoon.
-: Do this.
-: Distracter trials are used in order to give the student
the opportunity to respond to some easy trials.
-: Do this.
What is it?
-: Slide.
-: Punish the toothbrush.
-: The distracter trials, as their name describes,
are used to just to put in some distracters
of easy skills the student already has acquired.
In this case, I already know that the items
in these two piles are things that
are easy for Debbie to respond to.
-: Do this.
What's this one?
-: Present.
-: Touch the flowers.
Something that drinks milk is a?
-: Cat. -: Nice listening.
-: And then finally we use the check trial
to ensure that the student will be able
to respond after some distracted trials.
In other words, to see if the student
remembers what the response is.
-: Something that says meow is a?
-: Cat.
-: Something that says meow is a?
-: Cat.
-: Do this. (clapping)
Show me crying.
(imitates crying)
Something that says meow is a?
-: Cat.
-: The check trial allows us to assess if the student
is able to remember the response of the item taught
after the distracters have been presented.
What is it?
-: Spoon.
-: Excellent.
Using errorless teaching procedures will help
increase student rate of responding,
increase the pace of instruction, reduce problem behavior,
and increase rate of acquisition for students.
-: [Website Narrator] For more information
visit the PaTTAN websie.
-: So errorless teaching is a great way
to reduce the chances of student error,
but there are times when errors do happen.
So we need to be prepared for those.
There are three types of errors.
Students can simply give an incorrect response,
they can give no response or one that is too delayed,
or they can scroll, which looks like guessing,
giving chained responses that contain incorrect responses.
When a student makes any one of these types of errors,
we use the error correction procedure.
This looks almost identical to the
four step errorless teaching procedure,
except we add an end step at the beginning of the process
to make it a five step error correction procedure.
To end, we simply move away any task materials,
look away from the student without saying
anything for about two seconds.
This separates the error from the teaching sequence.
After the end step, we go right back into
the four step errorless teaching procedure.
This time however, we may need to do more intrusive
prompts, repeated prompts, or transfer trials,
or use fewer distracters to make sure
they don't make another error,
and we have the chance to reinforce them
for the independent response on the check trial.
Here's another video from the PaTTAn website,
showing you more about the error correction procedure.
-: In this segment, we will be discussing
error correction procedures.
-: What do you see?
Bike. -: Bike.
-: What do you see?
-: Bike. -: Bike.
Do this.
What color? -: Red.
-: What do you see?
-: Bike. -: Bike.
-: Sometimes students will make errors,
inadvertent errors that we don't expect.
When these errors do occur, we need to be able
to correct them as quickly as possible.
-: Find the stove.
-: Stove.
Where's the stove?
Find the fork.
Good job, where's the stove?
-: The error correction procedure
involves a sequence of five trials.
And error occurs, and that is followed by
re-presentation of the stimulus with a prompt,
transfer, distract, check procedure.
In other words, the procedure looks almost identical
to your errorless teaching procedure,
except that here, an error has occurred and we need
to re-present our instruction with a prompt.
-: What is it?
-: Duck.
-: What is it, chicken.
-: Chicken.
-: What is it?
-: Chicken.
-: Do this.
Do this.
What is it?
-: Chicken.
-: This is my? -: Nose.
-: What's this?
-: Cheeseburger.
-: Clap your hands.
Clap your hands.
Say, lives in a zoo.
-: Lives in a zoo.
-: What are these?
-: Bagels.
-: Clap your hands.
Great job.
Clap your hands was a skill that was supposed
to be an easy for Debbie, however,
she made an inadvertent error.
I then move back to re-present my instruction.
We want to make sure we re-present
that instruction before going through the
prompt, transfer, distract, or check trials.
The reason why that's so important is
because we want to avoid chaining an error
response with the actual response.
We want it to be clear that the only behavior
that should happen when I say,
clap your hands is her clapping her hands.
Clap your hands.
What's this?
-: Shirt.
-: What are these?
-: Bagels.
-: Clap your hands.
Excellent.
Using error correction procedures
avoid student frustration and keeps
students from practicing errors.
-: [Website Narrator] For more information,
visit the PaTTAN website.
-: So some take away points from what we've talked about
are that errorless teaching can be used
to teach a wide range of skills across nearly any age group.
Reducing the chance of errors occurring also reduces
the chance of problem behaviors occurring.
Keeping learning fun and successful for students.
Errorless teaching begins with prompting the learner
to use a prompt that ensures the student will get
the correct response without over prompting
so that prompts can be faded quickly for independence.
As with everything in special education,
we want to make sure that target skills
and teaching procedures are individualized
and meaningful for the student.
The four step errorless teaching procedure
is prompt, transfer, distract, check.
If an error occurs, we add that fifth step
in our error correction procedure
of end, prompt, transfer, distract, check.
Probe data is taken one time a day on each target skill
to monitor progress and then each skill gets taught
using errorless teaching multiple times a day.
-: The Nebraska ASD Network has a few different versions
of trainings that use errorless teaching,
and many of you have likely attended at least one of these.
If you're interested in viewing upcoming training
opportunities throughout the state
of Nebraska, please visit the events calender at
events.unl.edu/asdnetwork.
These workshops listed are based on trainings out of PaTTan,
the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network.
PaTTAN has wonderful videos and information
on errorless teaching on their website at pattan.net.
-: So we hope this information is helpful to you
as you move forward in this area.
-: Remember you can go to Nebraska ASD Network website
at www.unl.edu/asdnetwork.
If you need to find contact information
for your regional ASD network coordinator to ask questions
about any of the material covered in this presentation,
or to see what other resources and training
are available through the network.
-: Thank you for joining us today.
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