The Effect of Varying Teacher Presentation Rates on Responding During Discrete Trial Training for Two Children With Autism

Abstract

Recent research has emphasized the importance of manipulating antecedent variables to reduce interfering behaviors when teaching persons with autism. Few studies have focused on the effects of the rate of teacher-presented instructional demands as an independent variable. In this study, an alternating treatment design was used to evaluate the effects of varied rates of teacher-presented demands (1 s, 5 s, 10 s) on the occurrence of problem behavior, opportunities to respond, responses emitted, accuracy of responding, and magnitude and rate of reinforcement for two children with autism. Results indicated that fast presentation rate (1 s) resulted in lower rates of problem behavior, higher frequencies of instructional demands, higher frequencies of participant responding, and greater magnitudes and rates of reinforcement. Differential effects on accuracy of responding across conditions were not observed. Implications for manipulating the rate of teacher-presented instructional demands as an antecedent variable to reduce problem behavior are discussed.