Animated Step-by-Steps®

Monday, March 7, 2016

ASbyS Data Sheet (ABA)

I’ve been working as an embedded consultant within a school serving students on the Autism Spectrum. It has been a creative adventure … figuring out how to ‘marry’ Aided Language Stimulation (ALgS) principles with an Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) approach. At first it seemed like an ‘apples’ and ‘oranges’ dilemma, but we have managed to make a rewarding ‘fruit salad’!

Within this setting we are using Animated Step-by-Steps™ to address a literacy, language and AAC agenda. We are sucessfully building a variety of functional extension activities that use ABA principles. Each page/slide of an ASbyS resource has simple text that is ‘sprinkled’ with stars that signal the presence of animations/sound effects that support the text just read. You read a segment … then perform a click to trigger an animation and continue until all the animations on a particular page have been animated. If you are using a Regular ASbyS (non symbol-supported), you will hear a chime when the page is fully completed. With a Symbol-Supported ASbyS, the corresponding picture symbols will appear as a group, AFTER all the page animations have been completed. This strategy is designed to avoid ‘stealing attention’ from the upfront literacy focus. Once the symbols appear, they are available for ALgS, allowing you to discuss the page further, this time using the symbols to support this discussion.

As ASbyS are highly structured and very predictable, they do lend themselves well to monitoring many of the joint attention goals typically addressed by the ABA therapist. The fact that many students on the spectrum are enamored with technology seems to work to our advantage when using an ASbyS.

Here are just a few of the questions to be answered re: attention/ performance when using an ASbyS.

Is the student watching the screen while you are pointing to & reading the text?

If you are using a remote switch to trigger the animations, is the process independent or facilitator-assisted (offered at the appropriate time)?

Does the student interact appropriately with the remote switch? (gently pressing the switch, as opposed to slapping the switch forcefully to activate the animations). A prompt hierarchy may be necessary to promote correct switch use.

Is the student watching the subsequent triggered animation?

Does the student visually follow the Aided Language Stimulation that is provided to promote further discussion?

I’m sure there is more that can be documented, but this is our initial ‘good start’.

Here is our current data sheet ( a work in progress)

As you can see from the data sheet, you must document the name/initials of the Primary Facilitator, the Data Collector, and the name of the ASbyS that you are using. There is also an area to document whether you are using a remote switch and whether it is being used in an independent (constantly available) vs. a facilitator-assisted (offered) format. I do prefer to use a remote switch when using an ASbyS as it ensures consistency of response across the full spectrum of display formats that might be used as part of the student’s individual and group therapeutic plan (iPad Pro, TV monitor, interactive whiteboard).

Each row on the data sheet represents a page. Within a row there are boxes that represent each sequential animation on that page. Depending upon the page, you may or may not, use all the boxes in the row. In the above illustration there are four animations/sound effects on page 4. On the far right is a box (highlighted in blue) where you can document how well the student visually follows the Aided Language Stimulation that is being provided if you are using a symbol-supported version. When using an ALgS song, this often assumes the form of singing the song while pointing to the symbols (Note there is a song button in the upper left corner of the header). For other ASbyS, this provides a conversational moment to disuss interactively what the page revealed. Don’t forget … on the iPad you can use the pinch to zoom out feature to enlarge the symbols to promote greater attention.

Each ‘starred box’ reflects performance in three areas: 1. attention to text (documented in the area to the left of the star) … 2. interaction with remote switch (coded on the star) and … 3. attention to animation (documented in the area to the right of the star). We’ve tried to keep the coding very simple: ✔ (attends to the first ___ seconds) vs. ✗ (does not attend to the first ____ seconds). Obviously you can vary the number of upfront seconds required to qualify as a success.

At the end of the session we are able to document percentages, i.e., the number of successful trials divided by the total number of opportunities that were provided within this resource.

For example:

Attention to Text: 53/116 (46%)

Interaction with Switch: 100/116 appropriate (86%)

Attention to Animation: 103/116 (89%)

Attention to ALgS: 84/116 (72%)

Stay tuned for a future post commenting on functional extension activities that support both an ABA and AAC agenda.

…’til the next post … (new posts every Monday)

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Augmentative Communication Consultant

Speech-Language Pathologist

Special Educator

Monday, February 29, 2016

Home on the Bus Song to Personalize

I recently posted the Home on the Bus Animated Step-by-Step Song on the Teachers Pay Teachers site. http://bit.ly/HomeOnTheBus This is a great song for reaching closure at the end of the school day and in the younger grades it has the advantage of gradually ‘releasing’ students to gather their belongings and receive personalized assistance in getting dressed for the bus trip home. Typically there is a classroom assistant assigned the task of overseeing the ‘released students’, while the primary facilitator continues to lead the remaining students in singing the Home on the Bus song on the interactive whiteboard (or large monitor).

Although Home on the Bus is available in three formats (Regular, SymbolStix and PCS), only the regular version is available to followers as a free resource for a limited time only. The conversion process is relatively straight forward. So if you’ve been tempted to ‘try your hand’ at personalizing an ASbyS for your class … this is an easy place to start.

The Home on the Bus Song (sung to the tune of Goodnight Louise) allows the class to sing goodbye to every student in the class before they head home on the bus. No worries if you don't know that tune. There is a song button that provides the song in a child's voice.

Here's how the activity works. Click on the photo of a child, e.g. Randy, on the launch page. You will hear a click and the PowerPoint will link directly to a 'Randy page'. When you are finished singing to Randy, he is ‘released’ to go gather his gear, while you click on the multifaceted star (upper left corner of the pink header) to navigate back to the launch page where you can ‘surprise’ the ‘next’ student with a chance to be the singing center of attention.

Here are the Steps for Personalizing the Home on the Bus Song

First, you will need to replace the illustrated child images (serving as place holders) on the ‘launch page’ with the photo faces of students in your class.

Right click (control –click on the mac) on an illustrated face … a dialog box will appear … select Change Picture … then navigate to the folder where you have saved your class photo faces … select a photo face, e.g., Randy … the face will appear as a substituted image on the launch page. DO NOT delete anything; everything programmed in relation to the original image will transfer effortlessly to the new image if you simply use the change picture command.

Now let's customize the child-specific pages/slides.

Let’s start with the colored name text on the 'Randy Page'. Select one of the three colored text boxes … type in the new name, e.g., Randy. DO NOT delete the xxxxxxx placeholders (select, highlight and ‘type over’ the xxxx’s). Repeat this process for all three text boxes. When completed, the name Randy should be visible in triplicate on the ‘Randy page’.

Now let’s bring in Randy’s photo. The procedure is identical to the process used to substitute photos on the launch page. Right click on the illustrated face image … select the command Change picture … navigate to your Student Photo Face folder … highlight the Randy file (.png), then select insert. Presto! Randy’s face appears where the illustrated face previously existed and all the actions/animations associated with the previous image have now been transferred to Randy’s photo … no need to re-program animations.

Just in case it’s still not clear … here is a small video that further illustrates the process of personalizing the Home on the Bus Song. http://bit.ly/HomeOnBusVideo

Enjoy using your personalized ASbyS.

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