TAGteach and

Autism
Mary Lynch Barbera, RN, MSN, BCBA
Barbera Behavior Consulting
ABAI May 2010
www.marybarbera.com
www.verbalbehaviorapproach.com
My Background
 First-born son, Lucas, diagnosed with autism in 1999
 Founding President of ASA Berks County
 BCBA in 2003—Barbera Behavior Consulting
 PA Verbal Behavior Project for past 7 years
 PhD Candidate in Leadership at Alvernia University
 Author of The Verbal Behavior Approach: How to Teach
Children with Autism and Related Disorders
TAGteach
 Learned about TAGteach last spring.
 Read Behavior Analysis for Effective Teaching
(Vargas, 2009) and Reaching the Animal Mind
(Pryor, 2009)
 Took the TAGteach e-learning course last
summer (www.tagteach.com)
 Collaborated with Theresa McKeon over the
past year to increase the use of TAGteach to
help people with autism.
Need-to-Know Points about
TAGteach
 TAG stands for Teaching with Acoustical Guidance and it
evolved from Karen Pryor’s Clicker Training technology.
 TAGteach was first used with gymnasts by Theresa
McKeon (http://verbalbehaviorapproach.blogspot.com/)
 In recent years there has been a growing interest in the
use of TAGteach to improve the skills of children and
adults with autism and related disorders.
TAGteach

 TAGteach is a completely positive approach which

uses ABA principles of shaping and conditioned
reinforcement.
 With TAGteach there is no error correction procedure
and no nagging, reprimands or punishment. If the
student does not have success after 3 attempts, the
TAG teacher adds a prompt or returns to the point of
success.
TAGteach and Autism
 I have successfully used TAGteach with
children with autism to improve:
 Articulation
 Handwriting
 Individual
responding
 Group responding
 Tasks (such as shoe tying) with multiple steps
Shoe Tying
 Inpreparation for this presentation, I designed an AB
multiple probe design shoe tying study with my son,
Lucas serving as the single subject participant.
 Lucas
 Almost 14 years old
 Moderate to severe autism
 Can dress himself and almost Independent with showering
 Shoe tying was never attempted in the past (Special
Olympics swimming—coach told him to tie his bathing
suit)
Designing the Study
 Reviewed current shoe tying TAGteach videos
with NT children available on-line.
 Realized Lucas would need more visual and
hand-over-hand prompts in addition to TAG.
 Developed 10- step task analysis based on my
recent experience teaching another client to tie
his shoes.
Ten Steps
1. Cross red over yellow
2. Yellow into red
3. Pull strings tight
4. Yellow into bow
5. Tape to tape
6. Wrap red around (pick up at tape mark)
7. Red through thumb hole
8. Grab red with right
9. Grab yellow with left
10. Pull both bows
TAG was conditioned
 TAG was easily conditioned with edible
reinforcement months prior to the study

 Theresa recommended having Lucas TAG me.

While it did not work with TAGGING me with
shoe tying, Lucas was able to accurately TAG
for one finger up (versus two or three fingers up)
verifying that Lucas understood what the TAG
meant.
Shoe Tying Video
Graph

Shoe Tying

100
% of Steps Acquired

80

60 Baseline
40 Intervention

20

0
11

13
15

17
19

21
1

3
5

7
9

Sessions
Findings/Discussion
 Lucas enjoyed the TAG sessions and learned to tie
shoes with white laces in approximately 1 ½ hours of
total instruction (working now tying shoes on his feet)
 Children with autism may need visual, imitative, and/or
physical prompts in addition to TAG.
 It may not be important to fade prompts until the whole
skill is fluent
 More data is needed on the use of TAGteach with
children at various points on the autism spectrum with a
variety of skills
References
 Barbera & Rasmussen (2007). The verbal behavior approach:
How to teach children with autism and related disorders.
London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
 Cooper, Heron, & Heward (2007). Applied behavior analysis
(2nd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merill/Prentice Hall.
 Pryor, K. (2009). Reaching the animal mind: Clicker training
and what it teaches us about all animals. New York: Scribner.
 Vargas, J. (2009). Behavior analysis for effective teaching. New
York: Routledge.
Thank you!
 Questions/Comments?
 Contact:
 www.marybarbera.com
 www.vbapproach.com