Primes, contingent attention, and training: effects on a child's motor behavior.
Brief natural-environment training plus fading praise builds lasting gross-motor play that stays strong with just occasional hints or smiles.
01Research in Context
What this study did
One child learned to play ball, climb, and ride a bike. The team worked in parks and yards, not a clinic.
First they showed the moves. Then they praised every good try. Later they only praised now and then. They kept score with an ABAB chart.
What they found
Play skills shot up fast. When praise stopped, skills dipped. When praise came back, skills rose again.
After the climb, quick hints or a smile kept the child going. Gains stuck around in new places and new games.
How this fits with other research
Roberts et al. (1987) ran the same play-praise plan with adults who have profound ID. Skills lasted a full year, showing the trick works across ages.
Arntzen et al. (2003) swapped praise for peer buddies and still got solid play gains. The change tells us the trainer, not the toy, drives the boost.
Covey et al. (2021) moved the work into classrooms. They taught classmates to lead play. Kids with severe disabilities kept high play rates for 13 weeks. The 1975 primes-plus-attention seed grew into a peer-mediation forest.
Why it matters
You can grow big motor play without fancy gear. Train in the real setting, dish out praise thick at first, then thin it to a sprinkle. Use a quick word or look to keep the fun alive later. This same arc works for kids, teens, or adults, in parks, homes, or classes. Start in the natural spot, fade your voice, and let the learner keep the game going.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The use of primes, contingent attention, and training sessions to assess a child's engagement and skill in six large motor activities was examined using a combination reversal and multiple-baseline design. Assessment was based on four levels: proximity to equipment, touching equipment, unskilled participation, and skilled participation. Before training, priming (suggestion to the child) was more effective than contingent attention for increasing the subject's engagement (but not skill) in five activities and for increasing skilled participation in one activity. Training of four activities in the natural environment effectively increased the subject's skill level in five activities. Thus, training appeared to generalize to one of these five activities in this setting and also to skillfully executed stair climbing in an adjoining setting. After training, primes and contingent attention were sufficient to maintain both the subject's skill level and engagement in all activities. Postchecks in the same setting the following semester with different teachers revealed only slight increases in participation, as compared to previous baselines, but all participation was at the skilled level. Social interaction, which was not experimentally manipulated, did not systematically vary in relation to changes in experimental conditions.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1975 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1975.8-399