Attending using mands Versus or perhaps not DTT of attending

[Guest guest]

okay listies no flames this week, its been a rough one and I am only

offering an opinon and sharing my experience here

as with anything I ever say , because I am not a professional , this opinion

should be reviewed by your consultant before implementing / or not.

I have been on both sides of the fence.

We have used errorless learning since the beginning , which VB does, however

we used a more traditional approach using DTT without interspersing trials.

Currently we are hoping to change the approach with cooperation of our

current provider.

I have also had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Carbone and some of his kids on

the video at a conference.

Without a doubt one of the things , forgive me Vince, that was particularily

hard for me to swallow was that attending was not established prior to

teaching. Teaching began regardless of wether or not the child was looking

at the instructor, stimming ( to various or no degree).

Now here is my opinon and it is ONLY my opinion... the reason why I think it

is important to establish attending , child looking at teacher, while

working at the table is because at least with my son, Luke...you must almost

go overboard in controlled situations, because regardless when we are in the

" natural environment " ( playground/target store/ grocery store) there is a

TON of stuff going on around us. So my son tends to slip ( and I think

naturally so) or lessen eye contact with compounding external stimulus.

I think about grade one, where children are sitting in desks... ( well we

did but geez admittedly that was 100 years ago or so) those children follow

one teacher, the teacher may/ probably will not be sitting with the children

but directing the children from a standing position or perhaps sitting for

circle time, I think here it is critical that the child early on establish I

come , I look, I learn, I get ( faded to more natural reinforcement over

time e.g skittle home program to a star on paper school).

If the child fails to realize that eye contact is part of that structure,

again my opinion they may loose valuable input from the instructor or have a

more difficult time following instruction.

That is why I think it is okay to teach a child to respond to his /her name,

AND to expect eye contact in controlled situations.

HOWEVER....here is the other side of the fence....and something I have run

into recently....

Attending is SO much more then being able to respond to your name or looking

at someone.

Attending that will lead to successful social interactions requires the "

listener/ child " to attend to social cues.

If you think about it RARELY and definatley not with people who dont' know

you, does someone cue you up with your name that YOU are being spoken to.

If you have neurotypical children or know people who do , go and watch how

they speak to their children from a distance, from another room or if they

have something they want to give the child or vice versa.

Natural interactions have much more subtle cues.

So yes I completely agree with Dr. Carbone, ' if' a child does mand there is

almost ALWAYS attending on the part of the child because the child WANTS

something. But I am a stickler for my son to be looking at me when he gets

what he wants and when he says thanks/thank you.

However it sounds like what you are referring to is wanting to get a

response from your child when you want them to know you are speaking to

them.

I believe there may be a difference here. I may be interpreting your

question incorrectly though.

I recently posted as my son has trouble attending to very subtle social

cues.

here are things we have used /taught and things we are going to incorporate

to strenghten natural attending;

- using DTT call name in chair

- using DTT call name from distance

- using DTT call name from another room

- all of the above using hey/ everybody/ buddy/ etc... ( the goal was to

have him answer to casual cues)

- I have something for you ( initially making it very reinforcing ) cueing

to look

- want this..

etc etc

the idea recently received was to have two people or more fun puppets in a

VERY simple dialogue at first e.g

hi

hi hows it going

I feel sick

oh too bad

then ask the child how does one of the puppets feel

child " sick "

initially have the child do this under very controlled situations

then gradually have the child engadged in play near by

using diaglogues have the child answer a simple question to ensure at some

level he was paying attention to what was going on around him

- make loud noises if child looks reward him for noticing

I just feel if ALL you do is teach the child to respond to his name, you may

be setting them up for deer in the headlights as I like to call it.

I think it is more then okay to teach this though , again my opinion...I

mean we do need to know that if we are called we should respond, unless of

course its the IRS

hope this is helpful and again was politically correct

respectfully,

norrah whitney