Behavioral Technology for Instructional Readiness
William Dube

Funded by NICHD, R41 HD039999 and R42 HD039999
Partnering Small Business: Praxis, Inc.

This STTR project is developing a computer software product for computer-managed evaluation and instruction with children who have severe mental retardation, autism, and other intellectual disabilities. The product will be targeted primarily to those students who lack the behavioral prerequisites to participate in computer-assisted instruction or other forms of instruction with similar behavioral prerequisites (e.g., "discrete-trial" instruction). Well-developed and extensively researched laboratory methods and software will be adapted for use by parents, teachers, and other helping professionals. These methods include procedures for evaluating potential positive reinforcers, establishing consequences that provide feedback during instruction, verifying that those consequences are in fact effective as positive reinforcers, and shaping appropriate responses (e.g., pointing to indicate a selection). The resulting product will be one component of an integrated special-education software suite, StartLearning.