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Vocational Skill Fluency Through Frequency Building
Abstract
Employment offers many important benefits yet the majority of adults with disabilities are not represented in the workforce suggesting more research is needed on evidence-based vocational training for adults with disabilities (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024). The evidence base for improving current vocational training practices can be expanded through more research on fluency-based instruction and precision teaching. Precision teaching has been demonstrated to improve skill repertoires in a number of academic settings but its application for vocational skill acquisition is still emerging. The present study evaluated precision teaching as a tool to teach employment skills and extended Cohen (2005). Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of precision teaching with frequency building on the acquisition of job skills for adults with disabilities and examine the effects of training component skills using frequency building at a simulated training site on composite skill performance at the job site requiring the vocational skill. The results suggest frequency building was successful at improving vocational component repertoires. Evaluations of fluency outcomes after aims were met found degradations in participants’ component performances. Finally, maximizing the effects component skill fluency has on related composite repertoires may require composite skills to be explicitly trained.
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Adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are disproportionately unemployed in comparison to adults without disabilities. In this umbrella review, we summarized the findings of 31 systematic reviews and meta-analyses of ASD vocational intervention research, encompassing 287 primary intervention studies. Most primary studies focused on strategies for teaching low-skill job tasks. In contrast, few primary studies examined interventions to improve more direct and meaningful measures of employment, such as job attainment, wages, hours worked, benefits, and job satisfaction. Over 60% of primary studies evaluated either behavioral or technology interventions, with a substantial overlap of primary studies between reviews. Few primary studies explored other approaches, including comprehensive support strategies, accommodations typically found in the workplace, and strategies for teaching job seeking. Intervention effects were generally positive; however, review study quality was variable and low for many reviews, constraining the interpretation of findings. Most reviews reported incomplete primary study participant demographic information, rendering it challenging to generalize findings outside of the reviews. Our results highlight the need for a greater focus on outcome measures indicative of actual employment, the evaluation of a greater variety of interventions, including accommodations typically found in the workplace, and the need to assess comprehensive support. Low review quality underscores the need for improved methodological rigor in reviews of vocational intervention research.
Three adolescents with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities who attended a clinical setting participated in this study. The effects of repeated times practice for component skills on the emission frequency of composite daily living skills such as wearing a shirt, shoes, fastening buttons, and using an iPad were investigated. We practiced the Big 6 + 6 integrated with component skills involving legs and feet and the "swipe" movement. We used five simple time-series designs to measure the intervention's effects. The findings show that participants increased the frequency with which they emitted composite skills. They have become less reliant on their caregivers' care and have gained more independence at home and in the community.
Precision teaching (PT) has a long history in the fields of behavior analysis and education. As the system of PT has evolved and grown, many developments and discoveries have been made. The current article briefly reviews the history of PT and presents a synthesized definition derived from the unique legacy of the system. The article includes (a) an updated definition of PT, (b) a concept analysis of PT, and (c) a set of synthesized steps that comprise PT. The goal of the current article is to present a succinct summary of the current state of PT for readers from all backgrounds, with examples that encompass the entirety of the applications of PT.
Many students struggle with mathematics, in Norway a pressing concern is the decline in proficiency in high school, and the increased number in need of special education. Assessments of proficiency levels are traditionally done through norm- and criterion-referenced achievement tests, who will rarely detect students struggling or identify effective interventions. In a systematic replication of Lin and Kubina authors examined the relationship between component and composite frequency and accuracy; systematic variations were inclusion of multiple grade levels (5–9), assessing association between composite skills and component skills, and a second screening identifying natural levels and gain. Findings show that component frequency is associated with composite frequency and as such support the findings from Lin and Kubina, and also support the notion that basic skills are prerequisites of more complex skills. Natural level was overall below US students, as was natural gain.
A positive and expected by-product of a well-programmed instructional sequence is an escalation of learning, where skills are acquired more quickly as teaching goes on. Despite the importance of this effect in behavior analysis and education, techniques for detecting and analyzing it are rarely observed in practice settings. A behavioral approach to this phenomenon is rooted in the term agility, which has persisted in the precision-teaching community as a description of desirable acquisition patterns. Precision teachers have long carried forward a loose definition of agility as “celerating celerations.” Although this definition might succeed in generally orienting practitioners toward the goal of helping people acquire new skills more quickly, its lack of technical specificity has hindered efforts to fully integrate such analyses into practice. In this article, the authors define agility and distinguish it from other concepts common to education and behavior analysis. Further, a tutorial for quantifying and analyzing agility using frequency, celeration, and bounce multipliers is presented in detail. Finally, the practical implications afforded by analyses of agility are delineated.
Adults with autism spectrum disorder are underrepresented in the workforce. This review examined single case design research investigating vocational interventions for this population. Reporting of generalization and social validity data was also assessed. Eighteen studies met inclusion criteria. They were categorized as Behavioral Skills Training, video-based instruction, or self-management procedures. Only Behavioral Skills Training meets replication standards to be considered effective and evidence-based for this population. Video-based instruction and self-management procedures are emerging with few studies completed and variable effects. Social validity was underreported and limited in focus. Future research should include considering error correction procedures and feedback in video-based instruction, trialing self-management procedures, and greater attention to social validity.
Precision teaching emerged from O.R. Lindsley's pristine application of Skinner's natural science of behavior, with a focus on response rate measurement and free operant procedures. When applied with human learners in instructional settings, these first principles led to a series of developments framed in this paper as four kinds of ceilings that constrain or limit performance. Measurement-defined ceilings are the limits imposed on measurement sensitivity by use of percent correct and absence/presence methods of evaluation that lack standard units of measurement and ignore the time dimension. Removing measurement-ceilings by using time-based measures leads to discovery of limitations imposed by procedures or materials that limit the pace at which behavior can occur, referred to in this article as procedure-imposed (or teacher-imposed) ceilings. By changing materials and procedures to allow more self-paced, unconstrained behavior, teachers encountered limits on the pace at which learners could perform, below those count per minute levels shown by people judged to be competent in the particular behavior being measured. These deficit-imposed ceilings were remediated by identifying and building the frequencies of behavior components that must be combined and applied in more complex repertoires. Finally, the history of precision teaching has been, to a large degree, a search for behavior components which, if accelerated, could enable learners to break through what have been called handicap-imposed ceilings to achieve competent levels of count per minute performance. This article suggests a shift in the discussion among applied behavior analysts about precision teaching and fluency-based instruction from a focus on specific instructional procedures and recipes to the issue of measurement sensitivity and adherence to the underlying characteristics of Skinner's natural science, including response-rate measurement and free operant procedures.
Fluency is a metaphor for flowing, effortless, well-practiced, and accurate performance. Current practice in fluency building involves increasing the frequency of free-operant performances. Free-operant performance is defined as continuous responding in the presence of discriminative stimuli that are either varied or not varied from response to response. Free-operant performance is also distinguished from discrete-trial performance. Frequency-building procedures are also described, including defining the learning channel and stimulus control topography of a component performance (called a pinpoint), selecting an appropriate timing period, and displaying stimuli so that no performance ceilings occur. During frequency building, frequencies of pinpoints are continuously charted on standard celeration charts. Frequencies are increased to empirically derived performance standards, or aims, that predict retention, endurance, stability, application, and adduction of performance. Frequency is also described as a dimension of performance, not simply its measurement. Frequency building is described as possibly facilitating contingency adduction.
Behavioral fluency is that combination of accuracy plus speed of responding that enables competent individuals to function efficiently and effectively in their natural environments. Evolving from the methodology of free-operant conditioning, the practice of precision teaching set the stage for discoveries about relations between behavior frequency and specific outcomes, notably retention and maintenance of performance, endurance or resistance to distraction, and application or transfer of training. The use of frequency aims in instructional programming by Haughton and his associates led to formulation of empirically determined performance frequency ranges that define fluency. Use of fluency-based instructional methods has led to unprecedented gains in educational cost effectiveness, and has the potential for significantly improving education and training in general. This article traces the development of concepts, procedures, and findings associated with fluency and discusses their implications for instructional design and practice. It invites further controlled research and experimental analyses of phenomena that may be significant in the future evolution of educational technology and in the analysis of complex behavior.
Interventions aimed at teaching composite dressing skills assess individuals’ current abilities and improve their performance at more independent and fluent levels. The current case study aims to report on the improvements observed when specific component motor skills are targeted for improved performance using frequency building techniques. We extend previous research by including the measure of escape-maintained behaviors during task completion. Similar to those of previous research, the results of this study reveal a significant increase in speed and accuracy across all targeted composite skills and a reduction in escape-maintained behaviors.
1)
A direct assessment of composite skills can be used to identify key component skills for intervention.
2)
The frequency building of component motor skills can effectively improve accuracy in completing daily living tasks.
3)
Addressing component motor skill deficits can reduce escape-maintained problem behaviors during daily living tasks.
4)
Mastery of daily living tasks involves completing tasks accurately, fluently, and in the absence of escape behaviors.
Background: Youth with disabilities who have at least one paid work experience during high school are more than twice as likely to be employed after high school. However, barriers exist that limit work opportunities for youth with disabilities and subsequent entry to work as part of their adult lives.
Objective: The study identified secondary education services that have been found to be scientifically valid and effective in improving transition to work of youth with disabilities.
Methods: A scoping review was conducted of secondary services provided to transition-age youth with disabilities associated with employment outcomes. The final full-text review consisted of 30 articles.
Findings: Findings describe five major themes related to secondary education services associated with employment. These themes are work experience, independence and autonomy, IEP and transition planning process, student characteristics, and medical restoration services.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that secondary education services are effective in improving the transition to work for transition-age youth with disabilities. Recommendations are made for educators, rehabilitation professionals, and school administrators to enhance the rates of youth with disabilities in finding and maintaining meaningful employment.
Due to the low employment rates of adults with autism spectrum disorder, it is important to identify efficient and effective methods to teach these individuals vocational skills. The purpose of the current literature review was to expand on the previous reviews, to identify all studies regardless of participant age that taught vocational skills. A
total of 50 articles containing 53 experiments were retained and included in the final review. The most commonly used interventions either alone or as part of packaged intervention included video modeling, behavioral skills training, feedback, and video prompting. Articles were coded according to various participant characteristics, settings, intervention methodologies and outcomes. Overall results and implications for future research are discussed.
The purpose of this study was (a) to use a precision-teaching (PT) framework to design, train, and evaluate a tap-dancing training sequence and (b) to evaluate fluency outcomes as a function of training tap dance components to optimal frequencies. The study trained a series of 8 tap-dancing steps to 4 novice dancers and evaluated the effects on untrained components and probes of retention, stability, endurance, and application. The study also included a control participant who only completed application probes. Weekly probes examining the facilitative effects of training on the untrained components revealed improvements for some untrained steps, but not all. Retention probes revealed little difference in frequencies from the last data point in training. Stability and endurance probes revealed marked increases in the frequency of corrects and decreases in the frequency of errors. The results of application probes showed improvements to some degree for experimental participants; however, the control participant also made gains in performance. This makes it difficult to draw conclusions regarding application. The study demonstrates how a PT framework may be useful to those interested in enhancing sports performance training. We discuss limitations and future directions.
A student's ability to spell affects literacy outcomes. Students profit from explicit spelling instruction but may also benefit from frequency building or systematic practice. The method of frequency building leads toward effortless performance or behavioral fluency. Reaching certain frequencies of behavior produces a critical learning outcome called application. The current study focused on the effects of building element spelling behaviors for at‐risk kindergartners and the subsequent application to a compound spelling skill. Visual and quantitative analysis suggest a clear experimental effect between the attainment of performance criterion for letter sounds, letter naming, and sequencing on students' spelling behavior. A discussion of the results precedes future research directions.
Effective vocational instruction is an essential aspect of preparing students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) for the world of work. We systematically reviewed research on instructional methods used to teach employment skills to secondary students with IDD. We identified 56 studies involving 766 participants with IDD. Four intervention approaches emphasized technology or some other instructional stimulus (i.e., self-management devices, video-based, audio-based, picture and tactile-based) and four focused on live instructors (i.e., direct instruction, augmentative and alternative communication, simulation, peer-delivered). Among the 21 instructional methods used within these approaches, performance feedback, device-assisted instruction, response prompting, and community-based instruction were the most common. We address the extent to which these intervention approaches were effective across students, instructional methods, settings, and outcomes, as well as offer recommendations for future research and practice.
The present study investigated the effects of a multicomponent intervention on the writing behavior of adolescents with writing difficulties. A single-case design consisting of a combination of multiple-probe design across participants and pre-post test was used. Four participants completed two intervention phases: (a) sentence instruction and frequency building to a performance criterion and (b) paragraph instruction. Results suggested a functional relation between sequential delivery of intervention and gains in accuracy and rate on sentence construction probes. Results provide tentative support that the intervention improved writing on descriptive paragraph probes.
The purposes of this study are (a) to explore how people with disabilities (PWD) experience differences in their quality of life (QOL) over the course of their lives, (b) to examine the effect of employment on QOL, and (c) to investigate the impact of age on overall QOL for PWD both inter- and intra-individually. To address these aims, this study used the data set for the Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled (PSED) collected by the Korean Employment Agency for the Disabled (KEAD). The target populations of the study were 5,092 registered persons with disability. No longitudinal approach to examine the impact of employment and age on QOL for individuals with disabilities has been considered in the previous literature. Thus, multilevel modeling was used to examine the relationship between employment, age, and QOL for PWD. Results of this study indicated that employment status and age were significant predictors of QOL among PWD. These findings call attention for the need to consider the impact of employment and age on QOL of PWD both inter- and intra-individually.
Multiple-baseline and probe procedures are combined into a “multiple-probe” technique. The technique is designed to provide a thorough analysis of the relationship between an independent variable and the acquisition of a successive-approximation or chain sequence. It provides answers to the following questions: (1) What is the initial level of performance on each step in the training sequence? (2) What happens if sequential opportunities to perform each next step in the sequence are provided before training on that step? (3) What happens when training is applied? (4) What happens to the performance of remaining steps in the sequence as criterion is reached in the course of training each prior step? The technique features: (1) one initial probe of each step in the training sequence, (2) an additional probe of every step after criterion is reached on any training step, and (3) a series of “true” baseline sessions conducted just before the introduction of the independent variable to each training step. Intermittent probes also provide an alternative to continuous baseline measurement, when such measurement during extended multiple baselines (1) may prove reactive, (2) is impractical, and/or (3) a strong a priori assumption of stability can be made.
Traditionally, discrimination has been understood as an active process, and a technology of its procedures has been developed and practiced extensively. Generalization, by contrast, has been considered the natural result of failing to practice a discrimination technology adequately, and thus has remained a passive concept almost devoid of a technology. But, generalization is equally deserving of an active conceptualization and technology. This review summarizes the structure of the generalization literature and its implicit embryonic technology, categorizing studies designed to assess or program generalization according to nine general headings: Train and Hope; Sequential Modification; Introduce to Natural Maintaining Contingencies; Train Sufficient Exemplars; Train Loosely; Use Indiscriminable Contingencies; Program Common Stimuli; Mediate Generalization; and Train “To Generalize”.
Background:
Individuals with disabilities are a health disparity population with high rates of risk factors, lower overall health status, and greater health care costs. The interacting effect of employment, health and disability has not been reported in the research.
Objective:
This study examined the relationship of employment to health and quality of life among people with disabilities.
Methods:
Self-reported survey data and secondary claims data analyses of 810 Kansans ages 18-64 with disabilities who were dually-eligible for Medicare and Medicaid; 49% were employed, with 94% working less than 40 hours per week. Statistical analyses included ANOVA for differences between the employed and unemployed groups' health status, risk scores, and disease burdens; chi-square analyses for differences in prevalence of health risk behaviors and differences in quality of life by employment status; and logistic regression with health status measures to determine factors associated with higher than average physical and mental health status.
Results:
Findings indicated participants with any level of paid employment had significantly lower rates of smoking and better quality of life; self-reported health status was significantly higher, while per person per month Medicaid expenditures were less. Employment, even at low levels, was associated with better health and health behaviors as well as lower costs. Participants reported being discouraged from working by medical professionals and federal disability policies.
Conclusions:
Although cause-effect cannot be established from this study, findings strongly support changes to provider practices and federal disability policy to support employment at all levels for people with disabilities.
Research suggests component skill performance has a strong positive relationship with composite skill performance. This study examined the association between accuracy and fluency for the component-composite relationship within multiplication. One hundred and fifty-seven fifth-graders did one-minute assessments for single-digit, and multi-digit multiplication problems. The results demonstrated the students achieved high levels of accuracy but low levels of fluency. Strong correlations between the component-composite skill fluency suggest that fluent component skills may have a significant role in composite skill performance. Moderate/low correlations between component and composite skill accuracy indicate that more than one skill component may contribute to composite skill acquisition.
We evaluated the benefits of training work skills in a simulated situation to adults with autism by examining their performance at a job site. In the first study, simulation training on new work tasks included the same materials and job coach from the job setting (i.e., a common stimuli approach to promote generalization). In the second study, each participant received training on new work tasks using materials that were different from those in the job setting. In both studies, simulation training was accompanied by improvement in each participant's subsequent job performance. Results are discussed regarding the importance of using research-based procedures in supported work versus practices that are currently popular but not necessarily based on research. Working guidelines are offered for using simulation training to promote more success in supported work among adults with disabilities on the severe end of the autism spectrum.
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