What Is The Task Explanation, Model, Cue, Feedback And Reinforcement?

Task explanation, model, cue, feedback, reinforcement

The teaching technique used in intervention is behavior modification, it is known that people learn because they are rewarded by others or their environment Albert Bandura (1977). People’s actions are shaped by input from others, including feedback and reinforcement. Behavior modification takes place through three step process, antecedent (task explanation, model, cue) is provided, response is then elicited and a consequence (feedback, reinforcement) occurs immediately.

Task Explanation

The clinical session started by the therapist telling the child to “Listen carefully what to do, doing it wrongly will result in no reward” and asked the child to “Name the components of the vending machine”. This task explanation is considered as

Cues may be

(a) auditory such as verbal expressions that may include stress, pitch, quality, intonation, and duration markers;

(b) visual such as gesture, posture, or facial expression; and

(c) tactile-kinesthetic such as touch to the speech mechanisms.

Cueing was used by the therapist when it was the child’s turn to practice the targeted response - “First, take the money. Then, press the button. Finally, get the coke”. The therapist said ‘Start from here” ( 由呢度開始) to cue the child to start from the starting point. Cueing is an aid to promote correct responses (Nicolosi et al., 2004).

Other than just verbally cueing the child, the therapist also used gesture. The therapist pointed at the slips of paper when the child is practicing the targeted response. which indicates to the child the sequence of actions. The above two cueing could not achieve the aim of promoting target responses since the child said “Finally” when she should be saying “First”. This indicates that the child still could not learn the usage of the sequencing words “First”, “Then”, “Finally” and thus the cueing skills were not effective.