Teaching Emergency Phone Numbers, Essay Example

Teaching Emergency Phone Numbers to Youth with Developmental Disabilities, Ozen, A. (2008)

The article presents a study on teaching emergency phone numbers to youths with developmental disabilities.  It utilizes the effects of antecedent prompt and testing procedure (APTP) on this subject.  Three students with mental retardation were utilized in order to perform the study.

The study was conducted with a total of nine emergency numbers being taught.  A full probe condition was used, consisting of three consecutive full probe sessions.  There was one daily probe session conducted each day for thirty minutes after the training session each day.  For all experimental sessions, nine trials for all emergency numbers were conducted using a four second response interval.

Results demonstrated favorable results.  From the results, Ozen believes that APTP was effective in teaching the phone numbers to the students.  A total of 290 minutes of training time was needed for all three sets for all students.  Probe errors accounted for 25 of 147 trials during the probe sessions.

Ozen’s findings were linked to the favorable literature on the subject.  Previous literature found APTP to be favorable in teaching discrete skills to individuals that have developmental disabilities.  Thus, Ozen believes his findings enhance literature on APTP.  He also recognizes that the data supports the maintaining and generalizing of the acquired skills in respect to APTP.  Finally, Ozen points to social validity findings being positive.  Other than in one study, this had not been examined previously.  Overall Ozen believes the findings of the study point to the efficiency and effectiveness of APTP.

References

Bailey, B. & Betts, P. (2009). Culture and Special Education. International Journal of Special Education, 24 (3), 78-84.

Huang, A. X. & Wheeler, J. J. (2006). Effective Interventions for Individuals with High-Functioning Autism. International Journal of Special Education, 21 (3), 165-175.

Ozen, A. (2008). Teaching Emergency Phone Numbers to Youth with Developmental Disabilities. International Journal of Special Education, 23 (2), 85-95.