Fluency timer serial#

A correct response was defined as an occasion when the student said the term out loud as it was listed on the back of a SAFMEDS card. The dependent variables were the number of correct and incorrect responses the student emitted during a 1- minute timing. One 60-card set of SAFMEDS related to key ABA terms taken from the glossary of Cooper, Heron and Heward (2014) was used for this project, as well as a smart phone timer, a data sheet, and a Daily per Minute SCC. The participant spoke and wrote English fluently as a second-language learner. The participant was a female student in an undergraduate course in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in a university in Saudi Arabia.

The current research study was a replication of Stockwell and Eshleman (2010) with the aim of establishing a fluent verbal repertoire with academic terminology in an undergraduate student. SAFMEDS has been employed to increase fluent performance with a variety of topics, in different settings with different individuals (e.g., Beverly, Hughes, & Hastings, 2009 Casey, McLaughlin, & Everson, 2003 Greene, McTiernan & Holloway, 2018 Hunter, Beverley, Parkinson, & Hughes, 2016 Kelly, 2012 Mannion & Griffin, 2018). To reliably predict these five outcomes, students need to reach predetermined, empirically-tested performance standards (Fabrizio & Moors, 2003 Johnson et al., 2013). Focusing on fluent performance is one of the foundation principles of precision teaching and should result in improved outcomes such as increased maintenance, endurance, stability, application and generativity (Johnson & Street, 2013 McTiernan, Holloway, Healy & Hogan, 2016 McTiernan, Holloway, Leonard & Healy, 2018).

SAFMEDS is a strategy that increases fluency, a measure of both the speed and accuracy of student responses (Binder, 1996: Johnson & Layng, 1992).

Fluency timer serial#

For example, a computerized version of SAFMEDS could be used (Fox & Ghezzi, 2003 Tucci Learning Solution, Inc., n.d.) SAFMEDS should be completed at least once every day and the deck of cards should be shuffled prior to beginning the timing to avoid serial learning (Meindl, Ivy, Miller, Neef & Williamson, 2013). Teachers can tailor this procedure to suit the needs of their students. The student then engages in various strategies for additional practice/instruction (before and/or after the charted timings). It is recommended that the Standard Celeration Chart (SCC) be used as it “has no equal in education” as a tool to effectively measure and assess behavior and make data-driven decisions (Kubina & Yurich, 2012, p. Once the timer signals the end of the counting period, the student counts the number of responses in both piles of cards.īoth correct and incorrect performance is charted for review and instructional changes are made. The student then turns the card over and checks the answer for immediate feedback and places the card into the “correct” or “not yet/incorrect” pile. When using SAFMEDS, the student holds the entire deck of cards, starts the timer (typically for 1-minute), “sees” the front of the card silently and “says” the response out loud (Kelly, 2017). For example, the neuroscientific definition, “Brain’s ability to change and adapt throughout life” could be written in blue on the front of one card, and the corresponding term “Neuroplasticity” could be written in black on the back.

National University of Ireland Galway, Irelandĭuring Say-All-Fast-Minute-Every-Day-Shuffled (SAFMEDS), information to be learned is displayed on both sides of a stack of cards. Emirates College for Advanced Education, United Arab Emirates