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The Effects of Hand-Over-Hand and a Dot-to-Dot Tracing Procedure on Teaching an Autistic Student to Write his Name

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Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of hand-over-hand and dot-to-dot tracing procedure to teach a 14-year-old student with autism to write his first name. The participant began the study unable to write any letters in his name. Instead, he used a name stamp when his name needed to be applied to a document in school. When asked to write a letter or word, the student would simply draw a vertical or horizontal line. A multiple baseline and reversal design was used to evaluate hand-over-hand and dot-to-dot tracing. The results indicated the participant increased his ability to write the letters in his first name “T,” “y,” and “e,” from 60% to 100 %. The study was cost effective since it required only small amounts of additional time to complete, and should be easily replicable in other classroom settings.

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Correspondence to T. F. McLaughlin.

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This research was completed in partial fulfillment for the Masters of Education in Special Education at Gonzaga University. The researcher would like to thank the participant and his parents for their cooperation, support, and enthusiasm for learning. Also, the researcher would like to extend her gratitude toward the cooperating teachers for their assistance and guidance throughout this study.

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Batchelder, A., McLaughlin, T.F., Weber, K.P. et al. The Effects of Hand-Over-Hand and a Dot-to-Dot Tracing Procedure on Teaching an Autistic Student to Write his Name. J Dev Phys Disabil 21, 131–138 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-009-9131-2

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