title: Sequencing instructional tasks. A comparison of contingent and noncontingent interspersal of preferred academic tasks.
abstract: This study compared two strategies for increasing accurate responding on a low-preference academic task by interspersing presentations of a preferred academic task. Five children attending a preschool program for children with delayed language development participated in this study. Preferred and nonpreferred tasks were identified through a multiple-stimulus, free-operant preference assessment. Contingent access to a preferred academic task was associated with improved response accuracy when compared to noncontingent access to that activity for 3 students. For 1 student, noncontingent access to the preferred activity led to improved response accuracy, and 1 student's analysis suggested the importance of procedural variety. The implications of these findings for use of preference assessments to devise instructional sequences that improve student responding are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Louisiana State University, USA.
authors.forename: George H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Noell
authors.forename: Ernest L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Whitmarsh
authors.forename: Amanda M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: VanDerHeyden
authors.forename: Susan L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Gatti
authors.forename: Natalie J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Slider
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*