Establishing a Beginner Listener Repertoire via Non-Traditional

Discrimination Techniques

Melissa Evans M.S.

Megan Lewis B.A.Len Levin Ph.D.

Paul D. Coyne Ph.D.

Beginner Listening Repertoires

• Beginning Language Comprehension Objectives

• Performance of motor movements when presented with vocal discriminative stimulus• Identifying objects when presented with vocal

discriminative stimulus

Sound Discrimination

• “Bridging” tasks between visual and auditory discrimination (Ward and Yu, 2000)– Participants passed visual discrimination tasks, but

failed auditory discrimination tasks– “Bridging” tasks including delayed matching, non-

identical matching, auditory-visual matching involving object sounds, and auditory-visual involving speech and object sounds

Auditory Matching Steps

• Some children do not achieve basic listener literacy and require other prerequisites (Greer and Ross, 2008)– Visual tracking, sensory matching, auditory

matching may be required before child can respond as a listener without visual cues

Teaching Steps

1. Sound Discrimination– Two sets bells, maracas, sticks, drums– Teacher presents sound behind barrier, child chooses correct

object from field to match the sound.2. Sound and Word Discrimination– Add 1- step instructions with vocal Sd rotated with already

mastered sounds3. Word Discrimination Only– After mastering 3-4 word discrimination targets rotated with

sounds, take sounds out of the field.– Continue to add new targets using only vocal Sd

General Teaching Techniques

• Discrete Trial Teaching– New targets introduced in errorless• Zero-second time delay between Sd and prompt

– Prompts faded to least intrusive prompt, then allow for independent responding• Error correction procedure for incorrect response

– Mastery Criterion• Generally >80% three consecutive sessions or >90%

two consecutive sessions

Participants

• Between 2 and 3 years of age• Diagnosed or at risk for autism• Mastered basic 1-step imitation tasks (gross

motor, actions with objects)– Actions with objects included items later used for

sound and word discrimination programs• Mastered basic matching to sample tasks

(identical objects, identical pictures)

Sound Discrimination

Sound and Word Discrimination

Word Discrimination Only

Participant 1

• Introduced identification of objects– Unable to fade prompts after 13 trial days

• Introduced sound discrimination– Combined sound and word discrimination (1-step

instructions)– Overtime, took sounds discrimination targets out

of the field, continuing to add more targets– Successfully reintroduced identification of objects

Participant 1 Sound and Word Discrimination

1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 400

102030405060708090

100

Trial Days

Perc

ent C

orre

ct

1. sticks, maraca, bells 2. “roll car” RR mastered

sounds (field of 4)3. “bang blocks” RR (2

sound, 2 word in field)4. “tap drum” RR (2

sound, 2 word in field)5. “nest cups” RR (2

sound, 2 word in field)6. RR only word targets

(field of 4)

Participant 1 Current Progress

• 1-step Instructions– Mastered 7 1-step instructions

• Receptive Identification of Objects– Mastered Identification of 8 nouns

Participant 2

• Introduced identification of objects and 1-step instructions to perform actions with objects from an array.– Unable to fade prompts on both programs– 1-step instructions program replaced with sound

discrimination

Participant 2 Word Discrimination

1 2 3 4 5 60

102030405060708090

100

Trial Days

Perc

ent C

orre

ct

1. “tap tambourine,” “roll car,” “shake egg”

Participant 2 Sound Discrimination

1 2 3 4 5 6 70

102030405060708090

100

Trial Days

Perc

ent C

orre

t

1. sticks, bells, maraca, tambourine

Participant 2 Sound and Word Combination

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617180

102030405060708090

100

Trial Days

Perc

ent C

orre

ct

1. sticks, bells, maraca, tambourine, “pop beads” (field of 3)

2. “roll car” RR mastered (2 word, 2 sounds in field)

3. “bang blocks” RR mastered (2 word, 2 sounds in field)

Participant 2 Word Discrimination Only

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 230

102030405060708090

100

Trial Days

Perc

ent C

orre

ct

1. “pop beads,” “roll car,” “bang blocks” (field of 3)

2. “jump horse” RR mastered (field of 3)

3. “stamp playdoh” RR mastered (field of 4)

4. “raise arms” RR mastered (field of 3)

Participant 2

• Identification of Objects– Unable to fade prompts until mastery of “bridge”

from sound discrimination to word discrimination– When re-introduced, mastered 14 nouns (objects

and pictures), before exiting program• Mastered 6 1-step instructions before exiting

program• Mastered identification of 5 body parts before

exiting program

Participant 3

• Introduced sound discrimination targets before any other language comprehension skills– Mastered 4 targets

• Opened word discrimination targets without “bridge” from sound discrimination– Unable to fade prompts

Participant 3 Sound Discrimination

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

102030405060708090

100

Trial Days

Perc

ent C

orre

ct

1. sticks, bells, maraca (field of 3)

2. sticks, bells, maraca, tambourine (field of 4)

Participant 3 Initial Word Discrimination Without Bridge

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 240

102030405060708090

100

Trial Days

Perc

ent C

orre

ct

Participant 3 Sound and Word Combination

1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 37 41 45 49 53 570

102030405060708090

100

Trial Days

Perc

ent C

orre

ct

1. sticks, bells, maraca, tambourine, “pop beads” (F3)

2. “roll car” RR 2 sound, 2 word

3. “bang blocks RR 2 sound, 2 word

4. “brush hair” RR 2 sound, 2 word

5. “tap drum” RR 2 sound, 2 word

Participant 3 Word Discrimination Only

1 2 3 40

102030405060708090

100

Trial Days

Perc

ent C

orre

ct

1. “pop bead,” “roll car,” “bang blocks,” “brush hair,” “tap drum” RR field of 3

Participant 3

• Mastered 8 1-step receptive instructions before exiting

• Mastered identification of 11 nouns before exiting (objects and pictures)

Discussion

• “Bridging” between mastered discrimination tasks and novel tasks may be required for some students

• Similar applications can be used for other skills– “Bridge” from visual matching to identification of

objects– “Bridge” from matching objects to matching

pictures