Annual Activity Report 2010

Dissemination of Methods for Delivering Efficient, Cost-Effective, Evidence-Based Behavioral Technology

7. Behavioral Technology Delivery Systems.

One of the main gols of this Institute is the development of cost-effective solutions for demands for ample dissemination of evidence-based procedures to teach symbolic repertoires. Procedures, instructions and/or materials for professionals (teachers, psychologists, speech-pathologists, parents) are also very important to assure the intended dissemination and should be considered along with the development of teaching procedures for the target populations.

The specific research projects have focused on three major problems: difficulties in the acquisition of academic behaviors (reading, writing, and mathematics); difficulties owing to deafness (users of cochlear implants or other devices), that require habilitation/reabilitation of auditory function; and difficulties in the acquisition of basic relational abilities in persons with more severe disabilities (intellectual disability, autism).

Tecnologies for individualized teaching have been a fundamental solution for learning difficulties; however this approach was usually incompatible with the conditions in most schools, especially in the public schools. The development of technologies of information and communication (TICs) made possible to disseminate those programas. Previous work of this group developed several individualized and computerized teaching programs that proved effective under laboratory conditions. Procedures for computerized individualized teaching that showed validity and feasibility in small-scale tests in natural environments are now being transposed for large-scale use. One of the main developments at the Institute in 2009, with the cooperation of the researchers in computer sciences, was the development of the software Platform Gerenciador de Ensino Individualizado por Computador (GEIC, Manager of Computerized Individualized Teaching), with which we can face the challenges of dissemination, delivering instructional programs and procedures through the Internet and thus, reaching a large number of users of those programs. The research and development of this teaching techology has been continuously underway; at present more than 600 children (from 12 schools) have been working, thorough this plataform, with the reading program; results will be used to evaluate the feasibility and the effectiveness of this dissemination strategy are expected to be available for the next annual report. A User’s Manual for the Learning to read and spell in small steps program have been written and has been used in short courses with teachers; it is also available on the Institute’s site in the Internet and users are directed to read it for support.

In the near future, programs for teaching pré-mathematics and basic mathematics should be available using the same plataform; these programs are currently being evaluated experimentally, as part of the Translational Research Program.

Also under way is a research for evaluation of the effectiveness and transportability of instructional technology to promote symbolic function and auditory competencies in users of cochlear implants. With the same strategy used for the reading program, we are elaborating a systematic sequence of tasks to build a curriculum for listening comprehension and for the improvement of speech intelligibility. Under some circumstances (for example, for children beginning tor read in elementatary school), the reading program could be used in association with other teaching modules. The ultimate goal will be to implement a “virtual” laboratory for auditory reabilitation, through which teaching procedures will be readly acessed through the Internet, for application supervised by speech pathologists or by parents.

Sumarizing, across the two years of this project the Institute has been integrating behavioral sciences and other disciplines, especially computer sciences and audiology/speech pathology, in search for knowledge and solutions for human problems related to symbolic functioning and functional deficits. The efforts to validate the model of symbolic functioning (that sustains and directs the development of teaching technologies), based on rigorous experimental investigations, resulted in significant advances and evolved for studies with electrophysiological techniques, thus integrating the project in the field of neurosciences. The studies on animal models of precursors of symbolic functioning have produced interesting and instigating results. The Experimental School of Primates continues leading this research program with Cebus apella, but it is important to mention the extension of research to other species (dogs, bees, pigeons, and rats) and the involvement of other laboratories at USP and UFSCar. Basic, translational and applied research has been contributing to maximize the achievements of the medical area in restauring auditory sentivity (cochlear implants and other devices); with the sensitivity restored to some degree, a person then needs to learn to “listen”, that is, to comprehend what is heard. The conditions to improve and accelerate this process have been investigated and new software applicative was developed especially for this purpose. This work requires intense interactions among psychologists, speech pathologists and the computer sciences researchers. Basic, translational and applied research concerning the promotion of symbolic function in preverbal populations are underway, with several improvements in experimental preparations and positive results in reliably establishing several relevant behavioral repertoires in this population. A very important by-product of this work has been the increase in the amount of researchers and students, from almost all laboratories, involved with this research, thus increasing the pool of competent human resources in this field. Concerning academic behaviors, while the basic and translational projects continue sheding light on important basic behavioral process, the applied effort has reached a large number of students, involving schools, teachers, parents, and other community members.  This effort has been largely assumed by most laboratories of the Institute, with the important consequence of increasing the amount of qualified persons to continue this enterprise.