Icon ExchangeTHE BASICS – PHASES 2–5

Table of Phases

Phase 1: The Exchange Phase 2: Distance and

Persistance Phase 3: Discrimination Phase 4: Adding the Sentence

Strip Phase 5: Tacting

Phase 2

Subphases 2-2GDistance and Persistance

Distance & Persistence

Everyone of us has seen the little kid in the grocery store tugging on their parent’s pant leg repeating, “I want candy! I want candy! I want candy!”

We’ve also seen the tattletale at the park who’ll run across the entire playground just to tell mommy that brother climbed up the slide…

The ultimate goal of subphases 2-2G is to have our kids learn to be a combination of:

A) The relentlessly persistent communicator from the supermarket and

B) The communicator from the park who is willing to travel in order to talk

Distance & Persistence

Distance = Measure of how long it takes to make a response

Persistence = Repeatedly engaging in behaviors in an attempt to get the tutor’s attention Use your best judgment for what you think a

persistent response is based on your child As in all phases of Icon Exchange, it is crucial to

have a reinforcer that the child is highly motivated for when teaching the child to mand persistently

Persistance

Persistence can be a necessary part of communication

Parents can’t devote their full attention to one child at all times Example: Dinner burning on the stove, phone ringing,

and two siblings running wildly around the kitchen. Little Sammie holds up his ‘bathroom’ icon to his busy

mother juggling the kids and dinner Now if he is tugging at her pant leg & jabbing her with

the icon, don’t you think she’s more apt to pay attention?

Distance

What if Sammie is struck by the urge to pee and his parents are not around? Like most children diagnosed with autism,

Sammie has to be taught to travel short distances in order to communicate

In addition to being persistent, subphases 2-2G also aim to teach this skill

Distance Training

Subphases 2A-2G gradually increase distance between child & tutor

Subphases 2D-2G increase distance from child to communication book

Book

Child Tutor

More Distance Training

Two tutors should be used whenever possible for all subphases of Phase 2

Students need to be able to discriminate “who’s got the goods”

If Communication Partner has the reinforcer, we want child to approach that tutor (not Prompter who does not have reinforcer)

Even More Distance Training

What if my child approaches the “wrong” tutor!? (prompter aka tutor without reinforcer) First, the prompter should ignore the student by turning

away and avoiding eye contact We want to allow the student to correct the mistake on

his/her own by walking to the correct tutor without prompts – if the student does this, we can still mark the trial correct

If the student still stays by the prompter, then the prompter should PHYSICALLY GUIDE child to “correct” tutor (communication partner aka tutor with reinforcer)

Homework Checkpoint #1

1. When we talk about “persistence” in communication, we mean:

a. Getting someone’s attention in order to communicate with them

b. Traveling short distances in order to communicate with someone

c. Both a & b are correct

2. In the “distance” training subphases of Icon Exchange, we are trying to:

a. Prepare the child to run a marathon race

b. Teach the child to travel short distances in order to communicate with someone

c. None of the above

3. If child approaches the “wrong” tutor during distance training, that tutor should:

a. First ignore and allow for “self-correction”, then physically guide the child to the “right” tutor

b. Point to the “right” tutor

c. Take the icon from the child & complete the trial

Phase 3

Subphases 3-3CDiscrimination

Goal of Subphases 3-3A

Child discriminates between icons of preferred & non-preferred items Number of icons used depends on subphase

If child chooses wrong (non-preferred) icon or does not interact with the item, use 4-step error correction Make sure you have a non-preferred item before

you start the trial

i.e. do an assessment for a preferred and a non-preferred

Non-Preferred Items

Assessing whether an item is non-preferred can be difficult

Be sure you have child’s attention when you present item

How to tell if item is non-preferred: Child pushes item away or drops item Child does not engage/play with item for at least

15 seconds Child does not attend to item at all

If you’re having trouble finding a non-preferred item, talk to your child’s support coordinator

Neutral Items

If child uses item functionally, item is neutral Example: Give child tissue & they wipe their

nose

Tissue is neutral because child used it appropriately

Do NOT use a neutral item as a reinforcer!

Goal of Subphases 3B-3C

For the child to discriminate between multiple preferred items

How do we do this? CORRESPONDENCE CHECKS!

Example: Child gives tutor ‘cookie’ icon We want to make sure that child actually wants a cookie

so we hold out the cookie and another preferred item Do NOT label item during correspondence check!!! If child takes the cookie, they really wanted the

cookie If they take the other preferred item (instead of

the cookie), then they aren’t discriminating between preferred icons

Use 4-step error correction in this instance

Homework Checkpoint #2

4. Name 2 things a child could do during a preference assessment that would indicate an item is non-preferred?

5. True or False: If you give your child a sock during a preference assessment and they put it on their foot, then sock is a non-preferred item?

6. True or False: If child uses an item functionally during a preference assessment (wipes nose with tissue), it is okay to use this item as a reinforcer?

7. True or False: You should label the item during the correspondence check?

Something New…

For subphases 3-3C, if your child responds:CORRECTLY

Reinforce just as you normally would & move on to the next trial!

INCORRECTLYRun 4-Step Error Correction

4-Step Error Correction

Use 4-Step Error Correction when child makes incorrect response – i.e. if child chooses wrong icon or does not interact with the item he/she manded for

4-Step takes the place of the prompt hierarchy 4 Step Error Correction consists of up to 3

complete cycles of:

1. Model

2. Practice

3. Distract

4. Repeat

More About 4-Step

Your child’s response (correct/incorrect) in the initial trial determines whether you: Reinforce the child’s behavior &

move on to the next initial trial (correct response) OR

Go through the 4-step error correction (incorrect response)

Taking Data on 4-Step

4-step error correction is NOT part of the initial trial

You should mark a “–” on your data sheet for the initial trial only

Do not take data on any response during the 4-Step Error Correction process

Step 1 Model

After your child makes an incorrect response and you put the icon that he/she gave you back on the book, you start 4-Step

Step 1 = POINT to the correct icon with a gestural prompt (aka the “model”)

Homework Checkpoint #3

8. True or False: The child’s response in the ‘initial’ trial determines whether you reinforce their behavior & move on to the next trial, or go through 4-step error correction?

9. True or False: If you have to use 4-step error correction, it means your child got the initial trial wrong?

Step 2 Practice

Step 2 = Allow the child to make another exchange after gesturing to the correct icon

Make sure he/she gives you the correct icon for this step

You can BLOCK an incorrect response by covering the wrong icon so that the child can only pick the correct icon

If the child responds incorrectly by trying to give you the wrong icon again, go through the prompt hierarchy Partially, then full physically prompt the child to give

you the correct icon After the correct exchange, show the icon and label it

while holding the item that corresponds to it

More About Step 2

DO NOT PROVIDE CHILD WITH REINFORCER AFTER HE/SHE MAKES CORRECT EXCHANGE, EVEN THOUGH IT IS A CORRECT RESPONSE

They already got the trial wrong… this is just PRACTICE

Step 3 Distract

Now you need to briefly distract the child before moving on to step 4

Step 3 = Flip over the communication book so it is face down, and do an easy ELO

Step 4 Repeat

Step 4 = Allow student to respond independently (without prompts) & receive the reinforcer

If child responds correctly, give reinforcer! If child responds incorrectly, go through 4

step error correction again 4 step error correction cycle can be

repeated up to a total of 3 times if necessary

If you get to the third cycle (the final cycle for the correction), you should remove all icons except for the correct one so that the child cannot make an incorrect response

One More Note about 4-Step

If you do 3 consecutive initial trials in Phase 3 of Icon Exchange & have to go through 3 full cycles of 4 step error correction each time, STOP THE PROCEDURE & GET IT CODED!

It is important that we do not punish manding with icons if the child is having trouble one day

Homework Checkpoint #4

10. How many times can you complete the full cycle of 4-step error correction in 1 trial (if necessary)?

4-Step in Pictures

Phase 4

Subphases 4-4CAdding the Sentence Strip

Subphases 4-4C

Child will use “I want” icon & sentence strip for first time in Phase 4

We use backward chaining to teach using a “sentence” to request items Subphase 4 ONLY: “I Want” icon is already on strip

Subphases 4A-4C: the “I Want” icon should be on the right-hand Velcro strip on the book so that the child has to bring it down with the reinforcer icon

Prompt the student to point to the “I Want” icon and then the reinforcer icon while labelling them BEFORE reinforcing a correct response

Phase 5

Subphases 5-5CTacting

Subphases 5-5C

DO NOT START PHASE 5 WITHOUT MARGARET OR DANA’S APPROVAL!

Not all children proceed to these subphases These subphases teach the child ‘tacting’

(labeling items) All phases before Phase 5 taught ‘manding’

(requesting items) Child will use “I see” icon instead of “I

want” Hold up non-preferred/neutral items for

child to identify

Thank you for paying careful

attention to the Basics of Icon

Exchange!