Developing fluency and endurance in a child diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Hit a clear speed goal and the child with ADHD keeps both the pace and the staying-on-task without extra tricks.
01Research in Context
What this study did
One young learners boy with ADHD practiced math facts every day.
The team set a speed goal: 80 correct answers in 2 minutes.
They used an ABAB reversal design to test if hitting that goal mattered.
What they found
When the boy reached 80 facts in 2 minutes, two things stuck.
He kept the same fast pace even when practice stopped.
He also stayed-kept working for the full 10-minute probe without breaks.
How this fits with other research
Rasing et al. (1992) got similar big gains using response-cost instead of speed drills.
Both studies used reversal designs and saw sharp jumps in on-task time.
Pilowsky et al. (1998) seems to clash—they saw ADHD kids give up under partial pay.
The difference is the pay rule: T used thin, unpredictable rewards.
C used a clear, rich payoff the moment the child hit the fluency mark.
Cullinan et al. (2001) adds that ADHD kids can learn to wait 24 hours for big rewards.
Together, the papers say: rich, clear pay rules beat thin, fuzzy ones for ADHD learners.
Why it matters
Set a rate goal and do not stop practice until the child hits it. Once the speed is there, the staying-power comes for free. You can then fade extra supports and the work still holds.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We examined the effect of a teaching method on skill fluency and on-task endurance of a 9-year-old boy who had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. An academic task that occurred at low fluency during 10-min baseline sessions was taught to fluency. When responding was not yet fluent, brief reversals to baseline showed that the learner's rate of responding decreased and that he did not spend entire sessions on task. However, once a fluency goal had been reached, responding remained fluent and he remained on task in the third reversal condition.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2001 · doi:10.1901/jaba.2001.34-345