Megan Troy

Application Activity 5.1

1. In one paragraph, describe how you might use one of the maintenance
strategies to teach the skill. Why did you select the strategy and why
should it work?
a. In order to teach Bob the skill of being able to communicate through
the PECS system, I would use the maintenance strategy of prompt
fading. In the beginning when Bob does not know how to use the
PECS system, we will have to use multiple prompts in order to show
him what he needs to do. We would have to train him to the task of
being able to communicate through the PECS system by using
incidental teaching to arrange the environment in a way he has to
communicate to get something he wants or needs. We will start out
by modeling the response of using the PECS system to get an object
or activity. When we can tell Bob wants something on the PECS
system but is having difficulty communicating, we will prompt him
to use the PECS system. As he becomes more familiar with the
system, we will fade the prompts by moving from verbal and
physical prompts to gestural and positional prompts. Eventually, we
will fade all prompting and have Bob communicate via the PECS
system independently. By gradually decreasing the amount of
prompting we use, Bob will be able to learn how to perform the skill
on his own. He will have had a lot of practice using the PECS system

for communication and will more likely maintain this skill over time.
We will be able to see whether or not Bob is maintaining the skill by
conducting formative assessments on his usage of the PECS system
for his everyday wants and needs.
2. In the second paragraph, describe how you might use one of the
generalization strategies to plan for generalization of the skill. Why did
you select the strategy and why should it work?
a. In order to help Bob generalize this skill of using the PECS system to
communicate, I will teach the skill loosely by changing up the
stimuli in the environment and the aspects of instruction. Different
teachers will help model this skill and be available for him to use the
PECS system with. He will also use the PECS system in different
settings around the school. For instance, he will need to use the
visual for the bathroom when he is in the classroom, at an elective,
in the cafeteria, etc. When teaching the skill, I will make sure to vary
the stimuli in the room, so he does not associate doing the skill
solely with a specific stimulus. This will help Bob generalize the skill,
because he will be able to use it in multiple situations with different
stimuli. He will be able to generalize the skill to different
environments and with different people.