Effects of Jargon on Parent Implementation of Discrete Trial Teaching

Abstract

Applied behavior analysis professionals have valuable expertise to share with parents of individuals with disabilities. Unfortunately, professionals also tend to talk like professionals, which means they use technical terminology that may be detrimental to productive relationships with stakeholders. Several studies have documented that laypersons can react adversely when hearing technical terms (e.g., Critchfield et al. (2017), in Behav Anal Pract 10(2), 97–106; Rolider & Axelrod (2005), in Heward, Heron, Neef, Peterson, Sainato, Cartedge,…Dardig (Eds.), Focus on behavior analysis in education: Achievement, challenges, and opportunities (pp. 283–294), Pearson Education), suggesting that such terms could disrupt the dissemination of behavioral expertise from professional to stakeholder. The present study evaluated the effect of technical terms embedded into parent training. Seventeen parents of individuals with disabilities were taught to implement discrete trial teaching via individualized instructions containing high or low percentages of jargon. Jargon was individually determined for each participant based on a pre-evaluation. Parents who encountered more jargon benefitted significantly less from the training, and social validity data suggested that jargon damaged the professional-stakeholder relationship in several ways. These findings support the idea that technical terminology has a deleterious effect on the dissemination of evidence-based practices. We suggest some directions for future research to better explore such effects and to identify methods for diminishing the adverse impacts of jargon.

Appendices

Appendix 1

List of Technical Terms and Their Definitions Included in the Pre-Evaluation

Term	Definition
Acquisition	Learning to perform a new skill
Antecedent	What is happening in the environment immediately before a specific behavior
Behavior	The actions of living things that can be counted
Competing behavior	A person’s actions that interfere with that person learning a specific behavior
Consequence	What happens in the environment immediately after a specific behavior that may or may not have an effect on the future likelihood of that behavior
Contingent	Describes an object, activity, or privilege (can be a reward or punishment) that is provided only when the behavior is performed and is not provided when the behavior is not performed
Contingency	An “if/then” statement that describes the cause and effect relationship between a specific behavior and what will follow that behavior
Continuous reinforcement	The presentation of a reward after a specific behavior every single time that the behavior is performed. The presentation of the reward immediately after the behavior, makes it more likely that the person will engage in the behavior again
Data	Information gathered about a person’s actions that guides decision-making
Differential reinforcement	A specific action is taught by rewarding the person after the action is performed. The action is not rewarded when it is not performed
Discrete trial	An opportunity for a person to engage in a specific action and receive a specified reward based on performing the action. This is used to teach new skills as the reward is only provided when the specific action is performed
Discrimination	Knowing when to and when not to perform an action based on what is happening in the environment
Distractors	Teaching materials that are presented to provide alternate, incorrect choices for a student
Echoic	Imitating a sound, word, or phrase
Emit	Performance of behavior that is under voluntary control and that is influenced by events that have followed the behavior in the past
Errorless Learning	Using instructions and hints to ensure correct performance of skills and to avoid mistakes
Fading	Systematically removing hints that are no longer needed
Field	An array of items presented in a person’s view
FP	Complete physical assistance with an action
Frequency	How often an action is performed
FV	Complete vocal assistance with an action
Gesture	Using pointing or another physical movement to assist with an action (e.g., point to the correct response for a multiple-choice question)
Incompatible behavior	Engaging in one action that does not allow the possibility of another action to occur at the same time
Interresponse time	The amount of time between teaching opportunities
Latency	How long it takes for someone to perform an action after an instruction
Least to most prompting	A teaching strategy in which the instructor uses smaller hints to help a person perform the correct behavior unless larger hints are needed
Mastery criteria	Conditions under which we can say a person has learned a skill
Model	A demonstration of a behavior that serves as a cue for a person to imitate
Most to least prompting	A teaching strategy in which the instructor uses large hints to ensure a person performs a skill correctly and then removes those hints over time
Motivating operation	A change in the environment that influences what a person wants and what the person will do to get it
Multiple exemplars	Using many different teaching materials to teach one concept
Positive reinforcement	Providing something desirable immediately after a person engages in a specific action. Since this makes the learner’s life better, it increases the likelihood the person will perform the action again
PP	Incomplete physical assistance with an action (e.g., support a hand movement from the wrist or elbow)
Prompt	Extra cues or hints that help a person know what to do in a particular situation, make the correct response, and avoid making mistakes
PV	Incomplete vocal assistance with an action (e.g., provide the initial sound of a word)
Reinforcer	A pleasant object, activity, or condition that when presented immediately after an action increases the likelihood of that action being performed in the future
Response	What a person does in reaction to a specific instruction or cue
SD	An instruction that lets a person know a specific action will be rewarded, and therefore increases the likelihood the person will perform the action following that instruction
Stimulus	A cue or change in the environment
Target behavior	The actions selected for intervention
Trial	An opportunity that includes a cue or instruction, a performance of a skill in response to the instruction, and an environmental change (e.g., reward) based on the skill performance
Task interspersal	Mixing easy or familiar instructions with hard or new instructions
Variable ratio	The presentation of a reward after a specified number of actions. The number of actions required to earn a reward varies around an average number
Vocal	Saying a word aloud

Appendix 2

Steps of Discrete Trial Teaching

1. $^{a}$Space character (␣) indicate compound words