J Appl Behav Anal. 1980 Fall;13(3):443-59.
A self-instructional package for increasing attending behavior in educable
mentally retarded children.
Burgio LD, Whitman TL, Johnson MR.
The purpose of this study was to develop a self-instructional package that would
aid highly distractible children in increasing their attending behavior in a
training and two generalization (a one-to-one and a classroom) situations. Three
untrained subjects were monitored for general comparison and social validation
purposes. One of these control subjects was distractible and the other two
(criterion comparison) were evaluated as not having attentional problems. A
multiple baseline design was employed in which training was sequentially
introduced across subjects. During training, the experimental subjects were
taught through self-instruction to focus their attention and to cope with two
tasks, math and printing. After learning the self-instructions the subjects were
systematically and sequentially exposed to photo-slides of distracting
situations, to audio-distractors composed of noisy lunchroom verbal peer
interactions, and to in vivo distractors provided by kindergarten children
playing with wooden blocks in the training setting. The entire training procedure
was handled in a game-like context to maintain subject interest and to facilitate
generalization. The results suggested that the training package produced direct
and generalized changes in self-instructional behavior. In addition, a decreae in
off-task behavior occurred during math, printing, and also during a phonics
program in the one-to-one and classroom situations. However, reliable changes in
academic task performance were not observed. Finally, no systematic changes on
any of the dependent measures occurred for the three untrained subjects.
PMCID: PMC1308149
PMID: 7430005 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]