Claire Frazier's Shaping Essay

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Shaping is key to Claire Frazier’s success in being able to mand. As defined in our text, Cooper, Heron, and Heward (1987), shaping is the use of differential reinforcement that promotes gradual changes in a response. If she were unable to say a specific word, shaping would be beneficial so she can properly pronounce it. For example, if Claire were unable to say, “toy”, shaping would allow her to approximate each sound in the word. We would start off by teaching her to say the “t” sound and then the “oy” sound. Both of which would be an approximation to the end goal. Afterwards, we would teach her to say both sounds together to properly pronounce, “toy.” Each word would be done on a case-by-case basis in reference to the need of shaping. Shaping will not be necessary to say certain words such as, “no”, seeing as how she is already able to pronounce it correctly. …show more content…

The one syllable words is an approximation to the end goal which would be talking in complete sentences. As mentioned earlier, each word would be determined on case-by-case basis. For this specific target behavior, any type of chaining would not be needed at this point. Cooper et al. (1987) states that chaining involves several different behaviors that are all linked together to create one terminal behavior. In reference to frequency, we would use it to measure the level of Claire’s master criterion. Cooper et al. (1987) says that frequency is a count within a given time period. If she is able to independently say a specific word, we would mark it as independent. Frequency is beneficial in Claire’s case because we don’t want to move on to two syllable words until she has the one syllable words mastered. In order to have one syllable words mastered, Claire has to independently pronounce one syllable words across all settings and people for 80% of all

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