- age 5 years at the beginning of the study
- He had delayed language but able to put together short, grammatically correct sentences
- in his cognitive tests, he scored below his age level 
- “Screaming words out of context, laughing out of context, lying and rolling on the floor, knocking papers off his desk or work area, and running out of the classroom” at a rate of two behaviors per minute 
- He is aggressive to his sibling at home
- He constantly asked to go to the bathroom in order to avoid doing the class activities 


Priming and ASD study student 1 information

- Age 15 years at the beginning of the study
- “He could speak in full grammatically correct sentences to express his needs and desires, could read simple stories, and was able to write short sentences”
- He was a talented musician and played in the jazz band 
- During class, he would hum loudly, make inappropriate statements, leave the class without asking, and imagine that he was playing a trumpet (out loud) during lessons


Priming and ASD study student 2 information

- Both were collected in inclusive settings
- Priming sessions for student 1 occurred at night in his home 
- Priming sessions for student 2 occurred during a free period in the school day
- Data for student 1 was collected during his desk time (academic data) and during activity time 
- Data for student 2 was collected during his writing class 

Priming and ASD study setting

- Occurred daily
- Student 1 received interventions from his parents and student 2 received interventions from a school staff member
- Every day they had to pick up task materials-the parent/teacher was blind to the condition of each day
- Priming sessions-”the task to be presented in class the following day was targeted”
- Non priming sessions-an assignment was given that is unrelated to the next day
- The duration of the priming period was at the discretion of the parent/teacher but they lasted around approximately 1 hour a day
- The general class teachers gave researchers assignments that would be shown the next day in class-they provided either that specific assignment or another assignment (controlled for difficulty) for the priming session
- The primer was asked just to familiarize the student with the material “in a relaxed, nondemanding manner”
- When being given the intervention, it didn’t matter if the child fully grasped the material


Priming and ASD study intervention

Conducted on two students on the autism spectrum-they were exhibiting problem behaviors in the classroom that were interfering with the teacher’s instruction

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

This study examined the impact of priming on improving students with ASD's academic achievements and general classroom behaviors

Priming as a Method of Coordinating Educational Services for Students With Autism

Koegel, L. K., Koegel, R. L., Frea, W., & Green-Hopkins, I. (2003). Priming as a method of coordinating educational services for students with autism. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2003/019)

Priming as a method of coordinating educational services for students with autism.

- Numerous studies have analyzed antecedent influences on austic children’s behaviors (they manipulate antecedent variables)
- Even though the manipulation of antecedent variables has shown to be really effective, its use is not that common 
- Research has analyzed the impact of antecedents directly before a behavior and antecedents hours before (like before the school day which ultimately impacts the behavior for the rest of the day)
- It is important to coordinate services so that there is consistency → improvement in both behavior and academic achievement 
- There is some evidence that a correlation exists between time spent on academics outside of the classroom and academic performance
- Studies analyzing  homework and children with disabilities have found that parent involvement is very important-they help them develop better attitudes towards homework and academics in general


Priming and ASD study introduction

- There is a need to create solutions and techniques to help eradicate disruptive behaviors 
- “Thus, the purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of a program involving previewing or “priming” classroom assignments either at home or during special education services before they were presented in class on academic responding and problem behavior.”


Priming and ASD study motivation

Priming and ASD study method

- Disruptive behavior and academic responding 
- To obtain the data, they observed the child for 10 seconds and then data were collected the data for 5 seconds 
- Data was collected for 10-15 minutes during the time that was primed 
- Appropriate behavior-data collectors marked a (+) if the child only displayed appropriate behaviors during the 10 second interval and a (-) if the child exhibited any problem behavior 
- Academic responding-datta collectors marked a (+) if the child showed only adequate academic responding and a (-) if they showed inappropriate academic responding 
- Appropriate academic responding is when the student was engaging in the activity in an appropriate manner 


Priming and ASD study dependent measures

- Student 1-when there were priming sessions, there were increases in academic responding and a decrease in problem behavior 
- Student 1-in classes where there was no priming, there was appropriate behavior 35% of the time but in classes with priming, there was appropriate behavior about 83% of the time 
- Student 1-classes where there was no priming, there was correct academic responding 30% of the time but when there was priming, there was correct academic responding 70% of the time 
- Student 2-the amount of appropriate behavior in non priming situation was 49% but in priming classes, there was 95% appropriate behavior 
- Student 2-in non priming classes, correct academic responding was about 67% but when there was priming, it occurred 98% of the time 


Priming and ASD study results 

- The findings support the idea that antecedent modifications are helpful in reducing problem behaviors for children with ASD 
- This is important because it shows that children on the spectrum can be included in mainstream settings 
- The priming sessions were effective because they were low-demand (high demand often leads to avoidance behavior)
- The priming sessions were also effective because they involved reinforcement in more than one way-since there is a lot of reinforcement involved, the student doesn’t need to look to be reinforced outside of the academic task at hand-reinforcement encourages them to use the skills they learn again in another context 
- Priming might increase self-esteem because students will feel like they can do it 

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