TAGteach

TAGteach vs Clicker Training

2012-01-19T22:32:00.000-05:00

By Karen Pryor

Are you a TAGteacher? Add some clicker savvy to your tool kit.

Are you a clicker trainer? Add TAGteach know-how to your dealings with people.

What's the difference?

Clicker training is a name for marker-based training with animals. TAGteach is a name for marker-based training with people.

For the past eight years, these two branches of reinforcement technology have been maturing side by side. Both systems use reinforcement instead of correction. Both teach you to use clear and consistent cues, sharp observation, and excellent timing. Both break down behavior into small units, and reinforce one step at a time. Both teach new behavior in fast, brief, and intensive sessions—not in long repetitive drills.

The big difference is that dogs can't talk and people can.

Clicker trainers rely on the fundamental tools of operant conditioning, such as shaping, primary and secondary reinforcers, behavior chains, reinforcement schedules, and conditioned stimuli or cues.

TAGteachers can talk to their students. TAGteaching uses conditioned reinforcers as feedback. The information itself is reinforcing, so 'backup' reinforcers (food, money, etc.) are often not needed at all. TAGteach shows you, the teacher, how to control your own verbal behavior. We learn to deliver instructions, TAGpoints, and verbal reinforcers using minimal, specific, and consistent wording in a reinforcing way.

What more do we need?

What's been coming home for me lately is that we need each other more than we knew. Clicker trainers are sometimes baffled by how to get cooperation from human beings, yet every animal we train has people attached: owners, shelter staff, zookeepers, veterinarians. We also have co-workers, supervisors, and recalcitrant offspring, just like the rest of the world. Clicker trainers really benefit when they learn more about TAGteaching.

TAGteachers could use some clicker input, too. What exactly we TAG folks need to know depends on what we are teaching. For example, musicians receive huge benefits from skilled use of back-chaining, but don't need complicated reinforcement schedules. Working with people on the autism spectrum involves capturing, building duration, and using variable schedules to extend new skills into real-life situations. Sports coaches need to learn more about shaping—how to break down behavior into separate elements, to focus on just one element at a time, and to sequence those elements effectively.
Where can we learn more?

I'm finding that groundbreakers in new areas of application do especially well if they have both a TAGteach exposure and a good clicker exposure. And guess what? Now there's an easier way to get that.

Learn TAGteach

TAGteach International offers an online course for independent TAGteach learning.

The course has been upgraded and newly designed, and it's easy and fun. An online mentor is available for questions and help. The course is designed to take about four weeks of your spare time.

Learn clicker training

Last month Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) launched a Dog Trainer Foundations course, an online course for learning clicker training independently. This course is also easy and fun. There's an online teacher, and a bulletin board for help from other students. The Dog Trainer Foundations course is designed to take about eight weeks of your spare time.
Start the New Year with a new adventure

Are you a TAGteacher? Add some clicker savvy to your tool kit.

Are you a clicker trainer? Add TAGteach know-how to your dealings with people.

Want more?

Become a KPA Certified Training Partner with the professional-level Dog Trainer Program. Become a certified TAGteacher with the TAGteach International certification program.

TAGteach Glossary of Terms

2012-01-18T17:35:00.001-05:00

Applied Behavior Analysis

The field of science from which TAGteach and otherreinforcement-based teaching and training technologies have been developed.

Behavior

Physical activity in general; or a specific movement or group of relatedmovements (‘a behavior’).

Conditioned Reinforcer

Any stimulus that has acquired positive reinforcing propertiesthrough association with other reinforcers such as food, praise orsuccess. [The tagger is a conditionedreinforcer -providing a positive stimulus that occurs simultaneously with adesired act or response.]

Focus fatigue

Mental fatigue that occurs when a tagsession is too long for a particular learner.

Focus Funnel

A technique used in planning and teaching. Beginning with a broad lesson, information isreduced into more concrete directions and then reduced again to a precise tagpoint. (Also see reverse focus funnel)

Incompatible behavior

Short for differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior(DRI). Eliminate a designated behavior by strengthening other behaviors thatare incompatible with it.

Operant Conditioning

Any procedure by which a behavior becomes more or less likely tooccur, depending on its consequences. [In TAGteach, the consequences are alwayspositive and desired responses become more likely to occur.]

Peer Tagging

Student-to-student tag configurations and activities.

Point of Success

A behavior to start or to repeat, for which the student isguaranteed a tag.

Positive Reinforcement

A procedure in which a behavior is paired with a desired stimulusor event that will increase the chance of the behavior happening again in thefuture.

Reverse Focus Funnel

Deliver the least amount of information necessary for successfirst (tag point). Once the behavior has been accomplished, and the learner ismore confident, additional information can be delivered. This is useful in situations where too muchinformation may overwhelm the learner and cause a loss of concentration.

Shaping

An operant learning procedure in which small increments of adesired response are reinforced. Byreinforcing some small response, and then selecting stronger or longeroccurrences, one can ‘shape’ or build a more elaborate behavior.

Stimulus

Something in the environment that can besensed - a sound, an object, a color, etc. A discriminative stimulus is somethingthe learner can perceive which indicates an action to be taken (for example ared light is a stimulus to step on the brake).

Marker

Something which "marks" oridentifies a desired action. Typically a TAGteach marker emits a brief, distinct, uniform stimulus usedto pinpoint movement as it is happening; a click from a ball point pen, a clicker, hand clap, a finger snap. SomeSmart phone applications provide appropriate marker tones.

Tag

As a verb it is the action of marking someone's correct behavior(as in “tag for each blink”). As a noun,it means the mark that is placed on a correct behavior (as in “You got 5 tagstoday!”). (see Marker)

Tag Phrasing

The wording used for preparing and delivering tag points (seeWOOF)

Tag Point

The specific aspect of a behavior that when/as performed willreceive the audible mark (tag). (see WOOF for tag point criteria)

Tag Triangle

The three components of the TAGteach process: Identify, Mark andReinforce.

TAGteach

TAGteach is a protocol that promotes positive interactions forincreased productivity and success. The acronym TAG stands for Teaching withAcoustical Guidance and refers to the audible marker, a key tool used in thesystem designed to highlight success. The TAGteach protocol also includes toolsto deliver information, reduce inefficient language, assess performance, createconfidence and deliver positive reinforcement.

Tagulator

A device made from beads that slide on a string that allows theteacher or learner to keep track of the number of tags they have earned orgiven.

Three try rule

If a learner fails to perform the designated tag point threetimes, the teacher creates and delivers a more achievable tag point. The three try rule is more of a guide than arule. Some learners want to work things out for themselves and will try severaltimes without getting discouraged. Others would rather take very small stepsforward and succeed nearly every time.

Value Added Tag Point

A single tag point in which more than one problem may beresolved. [e.g., The tag point “Put keysin pocket”, would keep the keys from being misplaced and from being locked in the car.)

WOOF

The acronym defining the four criteria for a tag point: What you want, One criterion, Observableand definable, Five words or less

(Some technical definitionsare adapted from Learning and Behavior. Third Edition, by Paul Chance, Ph. D. Brooks Cole, Pub. Pacific Grove, CA. 1994)

TAGteach Terms - The Official List

2012-01-13T18:25:00.000-05:00

Developing TAGteach required us to make up some new terms so as to give TAGteachers a way to discuss what we are doing and to allow us to communicate more effectively with our learners.

This is the first of a two-part blog post about the TAGteach lexicon. This first part simply lists the terms the way the terms should be used. The second part will include definitions of these terms and some additional terms used by TAGteachers.

TAG (as acronym for Teaching with Acoustical Guidance)
TAGteach
TAGteacher
TAGteaching
tag (as noun or verb)
tagger
tag triangle
tag point
tagulator
focus funnel
point of success
three try rule
WOOF

If you are writing an article for publication in print or online these terms should be followed with the TM (superscript) to show that they are trademarked terms. This only needs to be done the first time a term is used in the document.

From the Archives - High Jump Practice

2011-11-23T08:49:00.005-05:00

Here is a note from Joan to Theresa from Jun 9, 2003, describing the first group high jump practice:

Tried tagging with high jump yesterday. It was good. We used it during individual jumps when they raised their non-jumping knee to waist level during the take-off. They all did it correctly on the first turn - the coach was very impressed. Then we raised the bar 2 inches (still at a low height that they can all clear) and they fell apart. More than half of them forgot about the knee drive and then they improved after a couple of turns. Major mental component with high jump - the bar is very intimidating. All the kids have got the basic idea of throwing themselves backward over the bar - which is very impressive because it is not easy and they had only had one practice before this.

Next practice we will work on having them straighten out the knee that they bent. Now that they are into the idea of bending the knee they keep it bent all the way through the jump and this causes their backs to roll rather than arch. We will tag them for straightening the non-jumping leg after the inital knee drive and hopefully this will cause them to be in laid out position as they go over the bar. Then we can work on the arch.

There are about 16 kids and only 2 half hour practices left before the meet. Even with tagging there is is not nearly enough time to develop all the aspects of the skill. According to what I have read on the internet, 90% of high jump technique is in the curved run and take-off. The athlete is supposed to run a curve for the last 5 strides that is part of a perfect circle (radius to be determined for each individual on the basis of stride length), while leaning into the circle so that at the takeoff the athlete is leaning away from the bar. The translation of power from the curved approach to the vertical jump is supposed to result in the spin in the axis perpendicular to the bar that results in the body going over the bar backwards without specific effort put into the spin. Try explaining this to an 8 year old! I think we will have to use cones to delineate the approach, since most of them (except Jennifer and a couple of the older boys) want to run straight rather than a curve. The coach put up one cone (there were no others available) for them to run around and many of them ignored it and went on the wrong side. The coach was very nice and patient with them.

As always there are quite a few gymnasts on the team and they were very happy to see me with a clicker! I definitely notice that, like dogs, kids become "clicker wise" and learn faster than naive kids. Some of the kids have now been tagged for gymnastics, volleyball, long jump and high jump and these kids catch on much faster than the others. Of course the gymnasts have super body awareness and coachability, so this is probably also a major factor.

Here is a video showing the final tagging protocol we used for high jump:

Basic Principles Article #11 - The Point of Success

2011-11-05T14:53:00.000-04:00

By Joan Orr, M.Sc.

What is the Point of Success?

The point of success is something the learner can already do and where he is guaranteed to earn a tag. For example a kindergarten student can certainly pick up a pencil with her writing hand. The first tag point in teaching letter formation could be “pencil in writing hand”. Starting with the point of success ensures success on the first try and provides a rewarding introduction to the lesson and to the method of TAGteach if this is the first experience with it. The point of success will gradually change as the learner gains competency. The point of success is a place to return to if the learner is having trouble with more difficult tag points.

Finding the Point of Success

In some cases the point of success is obvious. For example “stand still” or “hands folded on desk” are things that it is reasonable to expect that most learners are able to do at least for a moment or two. If you are a coach or teacher that has been working already with your learners you probably have a good idea of what each learner can easily do. With new learners or a new task, you need to evaluate their current status with the skill or behavior you are trying to teach. Ask them to attempt the skill and just observe without comment. Find something they are already doing correctly or something that is very easily accomplished and make this the first tag point. For example in teaching a learner to play the piano the point of success may be to sit at the keyboard with middle C and belly button lined up.

Sometimes the point of success is more difficult to find. If you are teaching a complex skill and the learner seems to be doing many parts of it incorrectly or is missing a key aspect, finding a point of success may be more of a challenge. For example, you are teaching an athlete to high jump using the Fosbury flop method. This requires the back to be arched while clearing the bar, but the athlete is going over in more of a sitting position without the proper arch. Where is the point of success when the main component, the arch, is nowhere to be seen? In this case in order to find a point of success, you need to make the task easier. Have the athlete lie on his stomach and push up with his hands while his hips remain on the ground. In this position it is easy for him to achieve the tag point “arch back”. He could also achieve this position lying on his back on the crash mat with either his upper or his lower body hanging over the edge of the mat. Isolating an element from the skill in this manner allows the athlete to experience the feeling of the position and have it be solidified by hearing the tag without having to try to do all the other complex parts of the skill. After a few repetitions of “arch back” isolated from the skill, move on to putting this back into the skill. To ensure the best chance of success, give the athlete as few other components to think about as possible. Remove the bar and ask him to jump from a standstill backwards onto the crash mat with the tag point “arch back”. This removes many other variables and gives him the opportunity to put all his focus into the one key element. You can gradually add one step then two steps, then the full run and finally replace the bar. If the athlete begins having trouble, go back to the most recent point of success and build up again from there. Start each new session with a point of success identified from the previous session.

Here is a video that illustrates this example. In this case we were able to isolate the point of success by having the athlete jump backwards from a standstill. We need to return to this point of success several times during the course of the training session.

We invite you to join the TAGteacher discussion group at www.tagteach.com to meet others who are implementing TAGteach in various disciplines and to see the list of upcoming TAGteach seminars.

2011-08-08T14:32:00.005-04:00

NEW TAGTEACH SEMINARS!

You Asked For it – You Got It!

Fresno, California and Toronto, Canada have TAGteach Certification Seminars!

Give yourself and your learners the TAGteach Edge

*Increase success - in less time

*Create positive communication

*Eliminate nagging

Spots are limited and will fill fast so register early.

Fresno, California, November 9-10, 2011.

http://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=998925

Early Bird registration ends September 20, 2011.

Toronto, Canada, November 26-27, 2011.

http://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=996110

Early Bird registration ends October 1, 2011.

Other seminar sites:

Fredericksburg, VA (9/24-25/2011)

Solothurn, Switzerland (10/22-23/2011)

Verona, Italy (10/29-30/2011)

San Diego, CA (11/12-13/2011)

Upcoming TAGteach Seminars

2011-07-14T20:56:00.001-04:00

Register now for an open TAGteach Certification Seminar or contact Theresa at t@tagteach.com to schedule a personalized seminar for your group.

Register at http://www.tagteach.com/events or call 704-995-9237 for more details.

If you can't make it to a live seminar, you can take our online course from the comfort of home at your own pace.

Denver, April 2011

Upcoming Seminars

Fredericksburg VA (9/24-25/2011)

Solothurn, Switzerland (10/22-23/2011)

Verona Italy (10/29-30/2011)

San Diego CA (12/12-13/2011)

Recent comment we have received about TAGteach...

TAGteach Goes Corporate Training! Glenn Hughes (Dir. of Learning Architecture, KLA-Tencor) presented his case studies at the TAGteach seminar at KLA. Incredible results. "TAGteach works so well, I can't do anymore baselines-It would be unfair to my students".

Fix It! With the Focus Funnel

2011-07-14T20:32:00.000-04:00

By Theresa McKeon

A late night comedy show recently aired a skit with a character so frustrated by unresolved economic problems that he was reduced to repeating a single phrase. “Fix it…just fix it…fix it, fix it, fix it!”

In the gym, coaches experience this frustration when athletes, despite repeated directions and feedback, fail to correct particular parts of a skill. This frustration can turn into nagging and then escalate into yelling and punishment. So the question is, if a learner is physically and mentally capable of recognizing the directions to fix a task, what is keeping them from doing so?

One possibility is an insufficient connection to the information delivered by the coach. The coach says “When you are doing a handstand, push up tall all the way through your arms and legs and keep your feet pointed”. The athlete performs the handstand but distractions keep her from remembering to point her feet. What are these distractions? For the most part, it doesn’t matter. There will always be distractions. The solution is to strengthen the line of focus between the coach’s directions and the athlete’s performance of them.

Strengthen that Connection with a Focus Funnel

Research is debunking the "multitasking" myth and data suggest that there is reduced efficiency associated with trying to learn more than one thing at at time. Although multiple tasks can be combined once learned, it is merely an exercise in frustration for coach and athlete to expect an athlete to learn more than one thing at a time. To avoid multitasking in your coaching, start with the academic portion of the lesson and put it through a funnel to provide crystal clear directions and a single point of focus. To use the funnel approach, start with the broad explanation of the lesson, reduce this to a clear instruction and reduce it further to a single point of focus for the athlete’s particular turn. A point of focus declares “fix this one particular thing”. We can further encourage a connection by providing a distinct call to attention for the athlete, a phrase that shouts, “Listen up, the really, really important information is coming now!”

For Example

Lesson Description: “To get a powerful tumbling pass, you need a powerful hurdle. Having clean lines in the hurdle helps you keep the power of your run directed forward. One way to keep a clean powerful hurdle is to reach into the hurdle with your shoulders and arms touching your ears. This will keep your head in line and your back straight which helps to maintain your power.”

Directions: “Go to the floor and do four round-offs with good alignment”

The tag point is… Shoulders touching ears

The athlete now has a single criterion for success, “shoulders touching ears”. If the shoulders are touching the ears in the hurdle, there is absolute success for that tag point. Any additional refinements can be addressed with future tag points.

Lesson Description: “Your feet need to stay together in the handstand, even when you are doing a pirouette on bars. If your feet come apart, they can pull you out of alignment and cause the handstand to tilt or even collapse. Besides, the judges will take a deduction for feet apart.

Directions: Do one handstand half pirouette on the floor bar and 5 handstand pirouettes on the low bar and 5 handstand half pirouettes on the pit bar.

The tag point is…Big toes glued together

Fixing it is Fun

Although studies show that success is in itself reinforcing, the measurable successes marked by audible tags can be used in a token economy. As an athlete ‘collects the tags’ she may turn them in to “buy” stickers, trinkets, come in late for a Saturday practice, choose the next skill or even the next tag point. Groups of athletes can combine their earned tags and turn them in for open gym time or the chance to compete in skill contests.

When the name of the game is perfection, we all have to “fix it” endlessly. The challenge lies in developing the concentration and motivation needed to fix everything. One solution is a direct line of focus between the coach’s directions and the athlete's performance of them. The Focus Funnel provides this direct line by reducing confusion while introducing positive reinforcement and encouraging commitment to the performance.

Read a scientific article by Cora M. Dzubak, PhD about multitask learning that concludes: "there is unequivocal evidence that depending on the task, degree of thinking and the need for future application, we might want to do some things one step at a time, free of interruption, and do them well"

Teaching Kids About Operant Conditioning

2011-07-08T21:44:00.001-04:00

By Jane Jackson - Level II TAGteacher

I thought I'd share a little project I did this week with some kids aged from about 10-15. I've tried to promote +R techniques with the kids in our Pony Club (a local chapter of a global organization with nationally set Standards of Proficiency) for several years with varying success. They are interested but I've always felt like I overwhelmed them with too much info at once but never knew how to break it down smaller when I had limited time and access to them.

This week we had our annual camp with 9 kids- staying at a friend's very nice facility. There were also 2 older kids there as junior instructors. They have lessons twice a day and lectures at noon; they bring their own horses and are responsible for all care and working as a team to keep the whole barn neat and safe. There were two other instructors in addition to myself- the friend, my age, who owns the property; and a young woman who graduated from our club (she was there part time). Pony Club utilizes "traditional" methods- lots of -R and does not hesitate to advocate +P. I want to share +R techniques as much as possible but have to acknowledge this is my own little interest, not part of the United States Pony Club curriculum.

Explaining the Challenge

I decided to do a week long explanation of the four quadrants. I've felt for a long time that understanding those four "tools" is really helpful. At our morning briefing on Monday, I introduced my "challenge" to the kids. Each day we'd focus on a different quadrant (I didn't use that word). At the morning briefing I would explain each "tool" and give a couple examples. Then they could look for examples of that tool through the day. Anyone who brought me an example (any time!) would get a ticket. The example did NOT have to be correct. Just telling me something they THOUGHT might be right earned them a ticket. I wanted them to bring me lots of ideas and then I could tell them if it was an example of the tool of the day or not and if not, why. No wrong answers. They had 2 options with their tickets. I had a tin of candy and a plastic bag labeled raffle in the tack room (so yes, I used Theresa's seminar model!). They could either trade a ticket for a piece of candy (honor system) or drop it in the bag for a raffle of a free private riding lesson. Each day at lunch we'd review some of the ideas that they'd come up with during the morning, then they'd have a little more knowledge to go hunting in the afternoon. Each day I added new candy to the selection to keep the appeal fresh!

Day 1

I loved how it worked through the week. The first day was +R and they were very enthusiastic. They discovered early on that compliments were a great example so we had fashion tips going strong ("nice shirt", "I like your socks", "That's a cool saddle pad", "your horse looks really good"). All these things made it more likely the receiver would wear the shirt or socks or saddle pad again and keep their horse shiny and healthy. So for the afternoon, I suggested they look for non-fashion examples and they found more horse-oriented ones.

Day 2

Day 2 was +P. I did not want to encourage them to use it or criticize others for using it so I explained how +P may be accidental: tripping over a dog in the doorway will make it less likely the dog is underfoot next time. Being out of balance over a fence may hurt your pony's mouth or back and make it less likely he'll want to jump next time. They found some but there were fewer examples and I said that was GOOD because it's more successful to reinforce a behavior than discourage one. They came up with using pressure to stop a horse from grazing (and hopefully make it less likely they'd try to steal grass again), making a horse who barged out of his stall go back in, etc.

Day 3

Day 3 was -R. The majority of traditional horse training is done with -R but even using that as an example was confusing for them. The thing that clicked was when I used a car's seat belt beep as an example. The examples they brought me were traditional methods- rein pressure, leg pressure, rope pressure. Perfect :)

Day 4

Day 4 was -P I asked how many of them had privileges revoked (computer, TV, phone) for bad behavior. Every hand went up so I had that covered! Many examples I got that day were of that ilk but I also got horse related ones. By that afternoon I could say "negative means" and they knew "take away", and on through positive, reinforcement and punishment.

Review

The last day I did a review of all and the project for the day was to come up with something they'd like to train their horse (simple!) and how they'd go about it. The girl who wanted her horse to stop nipping at her when she tightened the girth had a really hard time framing it in positives ("what DO you want her to do?") so I was really glad for the opportunity to discuss that. Someone else wanted her horse to stand at the mounting block, another to load in a trailer, another to stand quietly, etc. They were great. After they gave me their plans I went into more detail on how to proceed, accentuating the need for baby steps and high rates of reinforcement. The only followup I'll do will be casual- some are my students I see regularly; others I may only see a couple times through the rest of the summer at PC meetings.

Overall I felt it was more successful than any other promotion of Operant Conditioning I've done with the kids. I feel like I really helped them become more aware of what they were doing and assessing whether or not it was successful. One girl told me that when the other instructor yelled at the horse for kicking his stall door, it was an ATTEMPT at +P but it didn't work because he kept kicking it all week :)

Some Tag Points

This wasn't officially TAG teach (there was no auditory marker for this although I used one frequently during lessons). I just thought if anyone else is trying to explain OC with kids, I'd share my experience! Something I picked up at one of the seminars is that TAG teach can be most useful when a learner is experiencing difficulty. In my Level II project, I tried to set up tag points for my program in advance. Putting it to use showed me that many of these tag points were unnecessary and yet there were other tag points that I needed which I hadn't predicted. In this camp situation, my plan was to introduce the 4 quadrants and I did not know what individuals would find challenging so I had no pre-set tag points. Theresa challenged me afterward to find some!

So here are three situations I came up with for which the learner had difficulty:

The girl who had so much trouble re-phrasing her pony's nipping into a positive behavior to reward for.

Another who very enthusiastically kept bringing me examples of management as opposed to training.

A third who is painfully shy. The only times she brought me examples were when I encouraged the other girls to help her find some. She was so shy that when they all excitedly came to me, she would just smile and hang her head and shrug until one of the other girls would offer to say it for her. She got 2 or 3 tickets all week and I really had no idea if she understood any of it.For example #1, I would try playing with opposites. Starting with a point of success, I would tag her for giving me the opposites of up, in, fast, stop, dirty. Tag point is "say the word's opposite"

Next, have her tag me or another adult for the opposites of a list of action words which I would give her: moving (standing), yelling (whispering), greedy (patient). Same tag point but she'd be doing the tagging.

Next step: have someone act out some horse behaviors and then tag them when they changed from doing those behaviors to the opposite. The actor would be a horse fidgeting on the cross ties- "M" would (hopefully) tag when they stood still; a pushy horse to lead, could be tagged when patient; backing -> forward; head up -> head down, teeth clenched -> mouth open. This last example could be in the context of a horse who didn't want a bit in his mouth but could also be reversed to be her pony who had her mouth open to nip! Tag point is "demonstrate the opposite behavior"

Finally, I would ask her to repeat the last exercise but I would tag her for naming the desired behavior when it happened. My goal would be to help her turn her thinking around so that she could begin to think of and verbalize "what DO you want" instead of what you don't want. Tag point is "name the desired behavior".

I would also want her to tell me what the desired behavior looked like for things like "patience" and "standing" (four feet on the floor, etc)

I find creating tag points for cognitive educating to be most challenging. Simply tagging for correct answers is quizzing, not teaching. So I challenge everyone to come up with appropriate tag points for teaching cognitive skills and share them! Use # 2 above as an example if you want.

Visit Jane's website at Bookends Farm

From the Archives - Theresa's TAG Journal, 2003

2011-07-07T12:07:00.000-04:00

I was looking through old files and came across this excerpt from Theresa's journal documenting some of the earliest experiments with TAGteach with competitive gymnasts - thought you would enjoy! Note that this was before we came up with the tag terms, so the clicker terms are used.

Jan. 3/03 The optional team has been watching the compulsory team “playing” clicker games for a week now.

The response in the beginning ranged from mild interest to a quote from one girl of “not me, I don’t want to be trained like a dog”. I pulled her aside and explained that the clicker was not just a way to train dogs. This was a highly scientific way to communicate with her nervous system. We could speed up the time it takes to make corrections and therefore it would require fewer repetitions of elements and would take a lesser toll on her body.

A faster way to learn? Fewer repetitions? Fewer injuries?

Ok, she would give this a try.

The first opportunity for the optional team to click was a vaulting rotation. We use the Tumble Trac (a long tight trampoline, used for tumbling and vaulting drills) a great deal. During this rotation we were doing front layout drills used in the training of front handspring vaults. I began clicking the girls at the exact point they found the tight heel drive position while flipping over a mat into the resi-pit.

They were amazed at how late they were hitting the position. I had to give them proof by showing videotapes of themselves. The girls saw that the timing of my click and their position was exact. This helped them “trust” the clicker. Trust is the most important element in the coach-gymnast relationship.

During this rotation I heard a shy “can I try that clicker thing”. YES! This came from the same gymnast that didn’t want to be “trained like a dog”. The girls were coming to me.

Everyone wanted a chance to be the clicker boss.

I had to film their faces. They were totally focused on the exact points I had been begging them to think about. Now they could turn that visual internally and focus on their own positions.

I think the gymnasts realize that this is a step up from teaching “Fido to sit”. Should I tell them Fido was easier to teach?

Do I Have to Say "The tag point is..."?

2011-07-06T17:33:00.000-04:00

Sometimes people ask us about using the phrase “the tag point is..” before each tag point and that this seems contrived. It's true, it does seem that way at first. We have found however, that this is very important because as people get into TAGteach the phrase “the tag point is..” becomes a powerful cue to focus on the teacher. They know that the most important part of the instruction is coming. It also becomes calming for some people if they are anxious, because they know that they can succeed because of past experience. It is also non-judgmental. Much better than saying “I want you to..” or “I need you to..”, since these are emotion-laden and put a burden on the person to try to comply so as not to disappoint you. You just need to judge your learner. If they are uncomfortable or annoyed by the use of the phrase, then you can certainly use the other principles of TAGteach without using the phrase.

Using the phrase "the tag point is..." also helps the teacher. It forces you to focus on what it is that you really want and to articulate this very clearly to the learner.

We do encourage people to try to use the phrase "the tag point is...", because it really does have a powerful effect once people get used to it.

Thanks TAGteach - From a Medical Student

2011-07-06T17:22:00.001-04:00

This letter was sent to one of our TAGteachers by a medical student...

I had never done an LP (lumbar puncture), but I went through the simulation teaching using models with my instructor during JURSI orientation week. In her group the teaching method incorporated using "tag" points that allowed us to remember the sequence of steps in performing an LP. I had not thought about those tag points since that day we had training, which was about 6 months ago. Recently on my Neurology rotation, a resident had offered to let me do an LP, but first I had to explain the process, the contraindications, and indications for doing an LP. I was amazed at how easily I recalled the tag points in their correct order. The resident was impressed and let me perform the LP, which ended up being successful on the first try. I think there are many medical students that would benefit from the teaching method employed by my instructor where a procedure or physiological process is broken down into steps - tag points - that make a complicated pathway/procedure more manageable and easier to mentally process.

It is safe to assume, that the patient is grateful as well!

Basic Principles Article #10: Using TAGteach for Physical Movement

2011-06-07T20:55:00.000-04:00

By Joan Orr, M.Sc.

In past articles in this series we have talked about the tag point – the exact response, action or position that a teacher pinpoints with a tag (the click sound) to tell the learner “YES, that was right!”, how to associate the audible tag with a tangible reinforcer, how to harness the power of peer tagging and how to apply TAGteach in various practical learning situations. Here we talk about how TAGteach can be used to help teach physical skills.

Identify the Activity and Break it Down

TAGteach was first used with physical skills and this is a very powerful application that can have dramatic results in a short time. As a coach, you first identify the critical steps involved in the skill you wish to teach and then identify your learner’s point of success to give you a starting point.

Point of Success

The point of success is something the learner can already do and where he is guaranteed to earn a tag. For example a T-ball player can stand with his feet on each of two marks that you have put on the ground. This is the point of success since you know for sure he can do this. The first tag point is “feet on the markers”. After a few tries you will no longer need the markers and the tag point is “feet in the ready position”. The point of success is a place to return to if the athlete is having trouble with more difficult tag points.

The Three Try Rule

You give an athlete three tries (or fewer) at a new tag point and if she cannot earn a tag, then you redesign the tag point to improve her chances of success. For example, you are teaching a two-foot take off for a spike shot in volleyball. The tag point is at the start of the jump “two feet on the ground”, but the athlete runs and jumps off one foot three times in a row. Rather than reminding (dare we say nagging) to get the desired result, a solution is to take the jump out of the skill. Have the athlete stand on the ground. The tag point is “rise on your toes”. This is a point of success since you know she can do this. After a few tags for rising on toes, the next step is to jump in place (no run up). At the start of the jump the tag point is “two feet on the ground”. When this has been tagged a few times the athlete can take one step and then jump of two feet and then two steps etc until the run has been put back into the skill and the athlete is consistently jumping off two feet. The tag point is still the same, but the skill is becoming more complex. If there are three failures in a row, you simply return to the most recent point of success.

Build on Success

Your athletes can build skills rapidly using the above approach without needing constant reminders. Each part of a skill is developed individually with tag points designed to maximize each athlete’s success. Off-point errors are ignored so that the athlete can focus on the tag point. For example, in the volleyball spike the tag point is “two feet on the ground” during the jump and so you will not comment on any other aspects, such as arm position. Later you can give a tag point (or series of tag points one at a time) to help focus on arm position and you will ignore one-footed jumps if they occur. Return to the jumping tag points if you notice any deterioration in these, but usually previously tagged aspects of a skill are retained, or regained easily in one or two tries. Athletes describe the tagged skill elements as “photographs” in their minds to which they can easily return. Here is a video of high jump taught with the techniques described here.

Next time we will talk about the Point of Success in more detail.

TAGteach at the Association of Behavior Analysis International Conference

2011-04-26T17:11:00.000-04:00

TAGteach will once again host a symposium and a workshop at the Association of Behavior Analysis International Conference. This year the conference is in Denver from May 27-31, 2011.

Symposium: Bridging the Gap Between Response and Reinforcement

Sat May 28, 4:00-5:20 PM

Discussant: Julie Vargas

1. Using Shaping and Student Success to Increase Reinforcement for Teachers
2. Marking What You Want: Using TAGteach With Children With Autism
3.That's It! The Use of Acoustical Markers to Improve Student Responding

Workshop: Using TAGteach to Deliver Instructions and Positive Reinforcement in Various applications Including Precision Teaching

Fri May 27, 4:00-7:00 PM

Click here for conference registration information

TAGteach Certification Requirements

2011-04-22T12:13:00.000-04:00

TAGteach offers four levels of certification for TAGteachers:

Primary
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3

The requirements for each of these is described at this link, or you can download a pdf.

We have made some recent changes to the certification process for the Primary level and we have also made some pricing changes.

You can now earn Primary TAGteach certification by taking the online course: Introduction to TAGteach, without attending a live seminar. You must submit your course journals and worksheets for evaluation in order to earn Primary certification. There is an additional fee of $75 if you want to have your materials evaluated. This is payable to TAGteach International at the time of submission for these materials (that is after you have completed the course).

The enrollment fee for the online course is $299.

If you wish to earn Level 1 TAGteach Certification, then you must attend a live TAGteach seminar.

Upcoming TAGteach Seminars

2011-04-22T11:56:00.002-04:00

Chicago March 2011

Upcoming Seminars

Detroit MI (5/7-8/2011)

Milpitas CA (5/18-19/2011)

Portland OR (6/11-12/2011)

Calgary AB (10/1-2)

Solothurn, Switzerland (10/22-23/2011)

San Diego CA (11/05-06/2011)

Recent comments we have received about TAGteach...

"Absolutely fantastic. Great mix of backgrounds- human behavior analysts, dog trainers, musician, teachers of all backgrounds... lead to a very enriching environment" - Colleen Koch (veterinarian)

As always, love the practicality of TAGteach. We have time to work through our own scenarios and are ready to use TAGteach when we return to the educational environment the very next day. Sheila Smith (special education - Arkansas)

How to Use Targets - A Gymnastics Example

2011-04-19T15:50:00.002-04:00

We love targets at TAGteach! Whenever we can use a physical or visual target to help a learner find the right position we do it.

Here is an example of using targets to help teach a front roll. There are two hand targets to show where the hands should go. The first tag point is "hands to hands". Repeat this several times until the athlete places her hands reliably and confidently on the target every time.

The next tag point is "head to circle". Tag only when the head is correctly placed on the circle. Repeat this a few times until the athlete places her head reliably and confidently on the target every time.

Once the head placement is correct, allow the rest of the front roll to happen. This is being done on a inclined soft mat and so the roll with happen easily.

Remove the hand targets and continue with the "head to circle" tag point a few more times. Remove the head target and move on to working on other aspects of the skill

If the hand or head placement becomes incorrect then replace the required targets and go back to practicing with the target-related tag points.

Get creative! You can use targets in many different ways and lots of things can be targets. Send us photos to show us how you are using targets to improve efficiency in your teaching.

Basic Principles Article #9: Using TAGteach for Language and Music

2011-04-09T23:42:00.000-04:00

By Joan Orr, M.Sc.

TAGteach™ (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) is a new way of teaching using positive reinforcement with a click sound marker to identify successful performance. In past articles we have talked about the tag point – the exact response, action or position that a teacher pinpoints with a tag (the click sound) to tell the learner “YES, that was right!”, how to associate the audible tag with a tangible reinforcer and how to harness the power of peer tagging. Here we talk about how TAGteach can be used to help reinforce language and music concepts.

Identify the Activity and Break it Down

Use TAGteach as a way to help solidify language and music concepts in a positive way that allows the learner to self-assess performance. The first step is to identify the activities that the learner needs to work on. The next step is to break each activity down into discrete parts that can be tackled one at a time.

A Language Example

A critical part of language instruction is of course, reading. There are many components, including punctuation, pronunciation, word decoding and more. Let’s consider a punctuation example. Beginning readers often read straight through periods without stopping. We would like the reader to take a breath after each period. The tag point is “take a breath after each period”. Start with a 2 sentence paragraph. There is potential to receive two tags, one after each sentence. If the learner hears two tags then another sentence can be added. If not, the learner can identify where the tag should have been heard and can try again. The learner can move a marker from one side of the desk to another while reading as an easy an unobtrusive way to count the tags. The tag counters can be used to control the length of the session. Once all the tokens are moved to the other side of the desk it is time to move on to the next activity.

A Music Example

Learners often have difficulty remembering to play flats and sharps. The traditional way to help them remember is to circle them on the music as a visual reminder and to correct them verbally (or with the help of a ruler in the bad old days) if they make a mistake. Upon making a mistake and hearing a correction the learner invariably stops and starts over from the beginning, thus practicing the first part of the piece over and over and net getting to the last part as many times in one session. This can be prevented by working on one line at a time and by using tag points instead of correcting mistakes. Consider the example of a piece with B flat to be played five times in the first line. Circle all the B flats to highlight them. The tag point is “play B flat at the circle”. If the learner does not get five tags, he can try to identify where the tags were and were not and can try again. The piece can be approached line by line in this manner, or even bar by bar if the learner is having little success.

Next time we will talk about using TAGteach to help teach physical movement.

We invite you to join the TAGteacher discussion group at www.tagteach.com to meet others who are implementing TAGteach in various disciplines and to see the list of upcoming TAGteach seminars.

TAGteach: Why It Works

2011-04-08T12:24:00.001-04:00

By Luca Canever

Here is a question with which we all struggle: if somebody asked me where TAGteach can be useful, I do not know what to answer ... The “standard” answer I use sounds like: "TAGteach is useful wherever there are skills to be acquired." It is a broad answer!

On Sunday morning, I'm in the pool with my son. There is a girl who is taking individual swimming lessons in the small pool where we are splashing. I'm listening to the instructions given by the coach: they are precise but too long and hard to remember: "When you start hold both arms outstretched, do not raise your right arm but keep your back straight and arms outstretched. Do not do this movement (the coach mimics this), do not turn the head but stand firmly with your arms. " They Repeat once, twice, three times; roughly the same instructions are repeated, the task does not improve, the results of such commitment from both parties are not seen. I listen and think, "The tag point is: arms outstretched".

TAGteach works because it uses positive reinforcement, because it eliminates frustration, because what it teaches comes in small fragments easily accessible by anyone. Sailors of deep-sea fishing vessels or young gymnasts, does not matter, there is only one answer: TAG!

TAGteach Around the World

2011-04-01T18:52:00.001-04:00

We have TAGteachers all around the world and we have been to many countries for training seminars. In several cases the presentations were done in English with simultaneous translation into one or two other languages. One of the reasons that this can actually work is that the practical aspects of the seminar transcend language barriers. There is so much non-verbal about TAGteach that we can develop relationship and work with people who don't speak the same language as we do. In fact we can work with people who don't speak at all!

I thought that you might be interested in knowing about some TAGteach translations in case you know someone who would like to learn more, but doesn't speak Enlgish. Here are the links:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tagteach_en_francais/

http://www.tagteachenfrancais.com/

http://www.tagteach.com/spain/index.html

http://www.tagteach.com/german/index.html

http://www.tagteach.ch/ (German)

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAG_teach (Swedish)

TAGteach With Toddler Video

2011-03-31T17:45:00.000-04:00

Watch great mom Keri Gorman using TAGteach to help her toddler accept saline nose spray. You will see the "before" situation, which every parent will recognize is leading to trouble and possibly full blown tantrum. Ker skillfully changes her son's motivation using TAGteach methods and soon he is happily cooperating. Please note that Max is very TAG savvy and has had lots of great experiences with TAGteach. If you want to use TAGteach to help with something that might be scary or uncomfortable or you want to change a longstanding behavior, it is best to start first with fun things and activities that don't matter. The tag gains power with a strong reinforcement history and so you want a lot of fun and positive reinforcement associated with the tag before you start using it to change more difficult behavior.

more about Keri

TAGteacher Winner in Video Contest

2011-03-31T00:02:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to TAGteacher Madeline Gabriel for winning second place in the 2010 Canis Film Festival. Madeline's video illustrated a wonderful combination of the clicker training for dogs and TAGteach for kids to teach about safety around dogs. She showed a unique approach to teaching both child and dog the appropriate behaviors in interacting with each other.

Watch Madeline's video, entitled "Dogs Like Kids they Feel Safe With"

TAG Teaching to TAG Thinking – A Path of Training for Dancers and other Performing Artists

2011-03-29T17:39:00.001-04:00

By Ann Aiko Bergeron MFA

It all began with a Border Terrier named Ninja. Then a clicker in my hand. Now it’s simply a way of life. As a university professor who trains dancers, TAG teaching came as a natural progression of my obsessive interest in clicker training. At first I was hesitant to bring the techniques into a professional adult training program. Would my students think I was crazy? Would my university colleagues think I had gone off the deep end? Encouraged by Theresa McKeon, who sent me a box full of clickers after we had discussed the possibilities at a Clicker Expo, I told my classes that they were going to be my guinea pigs – that I had no idea where TAG teaching was going with them, but please humor me. Fortunately, I’m not known as the most conservative dance teacher, so they moved forward with goodwill and playful curiosity.

Before beginning TAG teaching in the dance class, I first had to set the foundation for the work, attempting to extinguish the foundation of fear-based training, which, unfortunately, traditional dance training has been steeped in for centuries. Dance classes were (and often still are) a place where you needed to be “good” or you would generally feel humiliated (either externally or self-imposed). Many performing artists are severe type A’s. They can’t tolerate the idea of not being “good enough” or “right” and spend incredible amounts of wasted energy in self-denigration and negativity. From day one I make it very clear that “wrong” and “right” don’t exist in my class – there are only focus points.

The fear of “failing” needed to be completely erased from the students’ mind. The first thing the student needed to learn was “letting it go” when they didn’t achieve something they intended to. They learned to stay in the moment and move forward to the next moment rather than to dwell in their “failure”. I’ve discovered it takes a good year of “practice” to make this habit rather than a purposeful effort, but the result is a happier dancer who learns exponentially faster. Usually a smile and a deep exhalation from me will get them back on track until they learn to do the same signal for themselves.

Then of course, comes the tagging. Tagging with the clicker is great fun, and the students always ask “can we tag today?” or confirm, “we need to tag the passé in the pirouette!” and on and on. But success tagging physical skills is already well documented. Those of us in the TAG and Clicker training community are pretty well convinced it works and depend on it on a daily basis. As a teacher of adult pre-professionals, the new questions for me became, how can I adapt the work so the student doesn’t depend on me to tag them all the time (yes, this can be time consuming!) and how can these concepts be re-shaped to help them in the future when they move on into the professional world? How can TAGteaching shape detail beyond basic skills that transform dance technicians into dance ARTISTS?

And so I introduced the concept of TAG thinking to my students. I think the best part about it is that it has taught the dancers to be very active, thinking learners (do I hear my dog saying “duh?), rather than passive, “teach me, teacher” machines.

After learning the concepts of TAGteaching in a practical, audibly-tagged manner, the students learn to establish their own tag points and approximations. At first I might offer them a list of choices, but eventually they become extremely observant of their own actions and are able to self-impose tag points that I could not have ever perceived! I will often repeat an exercise “across the floor” and ask each dancer to identify their personal tag point, and ask them to change it each time they are successful. And I encourage them to celebrate their successes – forget humility. I have been known to “spontaneously combust” (Jumping high in the air with my arms up shouting “yes” at the moment a student makes a very specific breakthrough - jackpotting). And I encourage them to do the same for themselves and others. This keeps everyone positively invested in each individual’s progress, which is great distance away from the competitive negativity that is often prevalent in the dance classroom.

Another major TAG Thinking skill is the ability to judge one’s success ratio and know when to personally decrease or increase the criteria for success. Of course they learn this first by training each other so they fully understand how the dynamic works. I will often offer students a range of criteria for a certain step and let them shape their execution dependent on their self-knowledge of their current skills. There is absolutely NO stigma about doing the “easier” choice, and often a student progresses through increased criteria by the time we are finished with that particular exercise.

And here is where my heart really starts beating. I came upon a neurologically based explanation that moves far beyond my empirical observations in the classroom. Daniel Coyle’s THE TALENT CODE explores how talent grows in the brain. In a nutshell, Coyle suggests that many neurologists now consider the neural insulator MYELIN to be the “holy grail” of acquiring skill. Coyle affirms, “Myelin’s vital role is to wrap those nerve fibers the same way that rubber insulation wraps a copper wire, making the signal stronger and faster by preventing the electrical impulses from leaking out. When we fire our circuits in the right way our myelin responds by wrapping layers of insulation around that neural circuit, each new layer adding a bit more skill and speed.”

Practicing “deeply” is at the core of developing myelin, but what TAGteachers can identify with most closely is that to practice deeply, you train in small increments.

“The trick is to choose a goal just beyond your present abilities, to target the struggle. Thrashing blindly doesn’t help. Reaching does.” Sound familiar?

Robert Bjork, the chair of psychology at UCLA says: “It’s all about finding the sweet spot. There’s an optimal gap between what you know and what you’re trying to do. When you find that sweet spot, learning takes off.” I am barely scratching the surface of this study here, but one can infer its significance on the scientific validity of TAGteaching and TAG Thinking.

In my classes, I call it “riding the myelin wave”. It is training deeply on that edge where the student is highly conscious of small increments of progress. In order to stay on the optimum edge of this wave, the student must train without fear of “failure.” Any fear puts the student on the safe side of the wave and progress does not occur. In fact – it is a rule in my classes that when someone falls, we applaud them. We applaud them for riding the wave, going for that extra off-balance dynamic, going for that extra pirouette…this is what the classroom is for. It is a place to grow, a place where students are fully confident to take risks with only positive consequences.

Since integrating TAGteaching and TAG Thinking, every day in the classroom is exhilarating for me. I have seen so many young people find their confidence and personal voices, not only as artists, but also, more importantly, as human beings.

Ninja was the inspiration that changed my teaching life and philosophy. We now “team teach” a special lecture for Introduction to Psychology students on learning theory called “FROM PUPS TO PIROUETTTES.” He’s a terrific teacher.

SUMMARY:

TAG Thinking affects dancers in the following ways:
1. A Dancer learns to stop dwelling on “Getting it right” and takes risks, riding the “myelin wave” which accelerates the neurological path to skill improvement.
2. At advanced levels, a Dancer learns to train him/herself in all situations and becomes less dependent on direct teacher feedback. They can stay focused on personal approximations and decrease or increase of criteria in an effective manner.
3. A Dancer learns the joy of communal energy that happens in a TAG Thinking classroom. They often rediscover that dancing is FUN even when working extremely hard.

QUOTES FROM STUDENTS:

“One of the biggest changes I have seen in myself is my way of thinking. I have learned to let go any imperfections, lower the stakes, and shake it off. Most of this came about when we learned about TAG teaching. Being a perfectionist in most things, I want to always “get it right” and with dance there are so many elements to focus on. With the tagging aspect, I allow myself to focus on one improvement at a time (Slow and steady wins the race). I also learned to celebrate the accomplishments and simply ignore anything else. I started seeing this change in me near the second half of the semester. I try to smile as I cross the floor, knowing that I have nothing to lose and so much to gain. There isn’t a chance to fail, just a chance to learn and improve. That aspect of just clicking good behavior and ignoring all others is a great way to keep self-confidence and really focus on learning rather than success or failure.”

“My mind set has changed during this course from fearing I would do something incorrect to knowing I could make a mistake but know exactly what to do to make it better. TAG thinking in this course I would give lots of credit for my improvement. TAG thinking has enabled me to grow as a dancer because you are able to make mistakes and move past them. It allows you to use our intuition and trust yourself when performing a move. Trust your body; trust that you’re able to succeed by tweaking that one detail each time you perform it."

“TAG thinking has been a huge aspect of my new way of thinking. It is so great to find a particular area to focus on while doing a routine, and it is even more gratifying when I “click” myself for being able to do it. This way of thinking is revolutionary by eliminating frustrations with dance, and turning them into tag points, or goals."

“I think TAG thinking is a genius idea. Focusing on one specific element of a piece of dance, such as a turn, really helped us this semester. It made me identify something I needed to improve on, learn how to do it correctly, have the focus to try it, learn when I was doing it correctly and what it felt like when I was, and eventually perfect that specific element. I truly think we should start to incorporate tagging in all of our dance classes because I think it could help us learn more efficiently and faster. “

Ann Aiko Bergeron is a Morse-Alumni Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Dance at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She and her husband Dale live on the shore of Lake Superior and are owned by their two Border Terriers, Ninja and Banzai.

TAGteacher Tale - Junior Basketball

2011-03-07T18:03:00.000-05:00

By Robin Sallie

This morning The Kidlet, age 8, is playing in the State Basketball tournament for 3rd place. She is a 3rd grader playing on a team with 4th graders.

On her own today, she got up early and started making a "TAG MAP." The fourth graders run very simple plays that it has taken my 3rd grader most of the season to figure out. Anyway, she made diagrams of where she needs to go on each play and put an X where she wants me to tag her.

We use a thumbs up during the practice, but I don't tag her during the games. That is the coach's job (and he ALMOST gets it.) I say that because yesterday they were down by a lot. At half time the coach called me over and asked me to tag the The Kidlet for stealing the ball. I gave her one tag point for defense - Stop the Ball Every Time - and one tag point for offense - Hustle to Your House.

She ended up with 9 steals and her team went from losing by 22 to losing by 2 points.

We started tagging The Kidlet when she arrived on our door step at 18 months old.

TAGteacher Tale: Nursing Skills Practice

2011-03-01T11:43:00.000-05:00

by Maggie Ouillette

Here's the latest on the tagging project I have been working on.

I needed more practice with placing long term IV catheters in home care patients, and wanted to set myself up for success. I decided to use TAGteach to help me to be successful.

The first step was to review the procedure and identify tag points. It's very tempting to want to have errorless learning by tagging everything.

A few months ago, I was working on developing tag points for teaching medication injections.I learned from that experience that tagging every individual step isn't practical or necessary.
My goal was to identify the tag points that were most important for me to perform the skill successfully.

In analyzing the previous practice session, it was very apparent that my anxiety played a role in my performance. I decided that the first tag point would address that issue.

Exercise One:

The first exercise involved a behavior that would enhance my ability to remain calm and focused.

Walk to doorway, stop, take two deep breaths before entering the room. My husband tagged me for this one.

The instructions " After you stop at the doorway, the tag point is TAKE TWO DEEP BREATHS".

Rationale:This behavior will help learner (me) to maintain focus and relax prior to interacting with the patient.

I practiced walking to the doorway, stopping and taking two deep breaths. My husband Jim tagged me. I repeated the exercise five time, was successful each time.

Applications for medical and nursing students.
This deep breath behavior could be used for the multiple 'first' experiences, such as hands on procedures. Students could work in groups in the classroom setting, taking turns tagging one another.

Exercise Two:

The second exercise involved naming each of the items listed. I wrote a list of all the supplies (fourteen items) needed for the procedure, including extra items that might be needed.

The instructions: "the tag point is NAME AN ITEM ON THE LIST".

Rationale: Immediate recall of all items needed for the procedure will help the procedure to go smoothly.
My husband tagged me each time I named an item. If I hadn't named all listed items, my husband waited a few seconds, then said "try again"

I performed the exercise four times. By the third time I was naming all items on the list without hesitation.Its amazing how good I felt that I was able to rattle off the items on the list.

Applications for medical and nursing students.
This exercise could be used to help familiarize students with supplies needed for procedures. A hands-on version would be easy to set up in a classroom situation, with students tagging one another for retrieving specific items.

I realize that these exercise may seem oversimplified. They are valuable because they start the learner at a point of success which can be built upon. Tag points should always be individualized for the specific learners.

The other behaviors that I will work on will be: advancing the introducer into the vein, handling the catheter with sterile forceps, and removing tourniquet immediately after veinpuncture.

More to come

Maggie Ouillette
Whitmore Lake Michigan

TAGteacher Tale: A Child Who "Gets It"!

2011-02-28T18:45:00.000-05:00

Thanks to TAGteacher Lucas Canever from Italy for sharing this wonderful story about his young son. This is what happens when you start them early with TAGteach! It spills over into other aspects of their lives.

Tonight, after his bath, Alexander asked me for the clicker and some kibble to"work" with the dogs. they usually play a "look for!" game.The dogs are in the kitchen with me Alexander places the kibbles around the house, comes back to the kitchen, and screams "look for!" (cercacerca in Italian). The dogs rush out of the kitchen followed by a laughing Alexander.

Tonight he took one kibble and threw it to Akira (the border collie). I gave him this instruction: "Alexander, if you want, you can say "Akira, seduto (sit)", click and then give the kibble". I helped him for a couple of throws. After this I let him try alone. He worked pretty well for two or three repetitions.

Then with my BIG surprise Alexander said:"Akira The TAG is: seduto!" very very clear and with a good TAG phrasing.LOL!!!

He repetead this till the end of the kibbles!!! At the end the phrasing was this "Akira, my friend, The TAG is: seduto". This was absolutely AMAZING!!!

All the best, un abbraccio
Luca

Basic Principles Article #8: Using TAGteach for Math and Science

2011-02-25T17:10:00.000-05:00

By Joan Orr, M.Sc.

TAGteach™ (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) is a new way of teaching using positive reinforcement with a click sound marker to identify successful performance. In past articles in this series we have talked about the tag point – the exact response, action or position that a teacher pinpoints with a tag (the click sound) to tell the learner “YES, that was right!”, how to associate the audible tag with a tangible reinforcer, how to harness the power of peer tagging and how to gain co-operation around the house. Here we talk about how TAGteach can be used to help reinforce math and science concepts.

Identify the Activity and Break it Down

Use TAGteach as a way to help solidify math and science concepts in a positive way that allows the learner to self-assess performance. The first step is to identify the activities that the learner needs to work on. The next step is to break each activity down into discrete parts that can be tackled one at a time.

A Math Example

Learning math facts provides a good opportunity to apply the concepts of TAGteach. Let’s take the common activity of learning times tables using flash cards as an example. The tag point is “state the correct answer”. If the learner hears a tag, he knows the answer is correct and he can put a bead in a jar, mark a tally on a chart or otherwise record the tag to be accumulated and exchanged for a tangible reinforcer later. If the learner does not hear the tag he knows to try again. The learner is now responsible for assessing his own performance without the need for the teacher (or partner) to say “no” or “wrong”. After two wrong answers to the same card, the partner could show the answer and put that card back in the pile, or even show it again right away so that the learner can be successful.

A Science Example

TAGteach can be used effectively with older learners as well and is particularly useful for teaching laboratory skills that require precision. Consider the activity of preparing a wet mount microscope slide. There are several steps involved, the most error prone of which is applying the cover slip so as not to introduce air bubbles. The key to doing this successfully is to introduce the cover slip at an angle, releasing it only once the liquid on the slide has become attracted to the edge of the cover slip where it contacts the slide. The instructions to the learner are: “hold the cover slip between thumb and forefinger, place it against the slide at a 45 degree angle, slide it along until it contacts the liquid and the liquid is attracted under the edge of the cover slip, then release the cover slip gently to trap the liquid under it”. The tag point is “cover slip at 45-degrees”. Once the learner hears the tag he can then proceed to slide the cover slip to the liquid droplet on the slide and then release it. Ideally the teacher would demonstrate the procedure and have the learner tag at the appropriate point so that it is clear that the learner understands the process and the tag point. If it becomes apparent that the learner is having difficulty with other steps in the procedure, these could be used as tag points in subsequent trials until the whole process is mastered. Older learners often do not need tangible reinforcers. They find that getting the precise and clear information without any negative feedback and seeing themselves improve is reinforcement enough.

Next time we will talk about using TAGteach to help teach language and music concepts.

We invite you to join the TAGteacher discussion group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TAGteach/ to meet others who are implementing TAGteach in various disciplines and to see the list of upcoming TAGteach seminars.

TAGteacher A Finalist in Video Competition

2011-02-15T21:59:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Level 2 TAGteacher Madeline Gabriel, for being chosen as a finalist in the Canis Film Festival video competition! This competition showcases the skills of top clicker trainers who use positive-reinforcement to achieve amazing training results. Madeline's video shows how to use TAGteach with the kids and clicker training with the dogs

Here is the link to the Canis Film Festival finalists. Enjoy all these terrific videos and it you want you can vote for your favourite:

http://www.canisfilmfestival.com/11_final_14.html

TAGteacher Tale: TAGteach Was There When I Needed It

2011-02-15T14:22:00.000-05:00

We were touched by this post from TAGteacher Leanne Smith from Australia who shared an intimate story of using TAGteach during a very difficult time.

It's all still very raw but I wanted to share a few key points with you all.

This weekend has been the worst one in my life with having to make the heartbreaking decision to put my gorgeous 8 1/2 year old German Shepherd Dog Merlin to sleep on Saturday. That's not so much what I want to share it's more the following two points that helped me through that day, sitting with him as he went and the past two days of tears.

1. TTouch taught me to do two things that helped here - first to listen with my heart and act on it, to use my intuition. This is what enabled me to make this decision and know that it was right even while my brain continued with the what if scenaris. Second - to breathe, to consciously take a deep breath and exhale allowing my body and mind to relax.

2. TagTeach taught me how to rewire my brain/develop new habits that were better for me than holding it all in and trying to deal with it. My TAG Point is exhale. I do it whenever I feel the distress building up - and it really helps.

Thank you Theresa for bringing this to us here in Australia - it was there when I needed it.

Leanne Smith
Australia

TAGteach Defined

2011-02-08T18:02:00.001-05:00

by G. David Smith, PhD., BCAB-D, Psychologist, Board Certifed Behavior Analyst

What is TAGteach?

Previously I have learned and practiced clicker training (see Karen Pryer, Don’t Shoot the Dog, 2002) and observed the use of TAGteach with learners who have autism. Though the founding principles and logic of these practices are compelling I have more often than not observed inconsistent application and (not surprisingly) erratic results. Until now I have had nagging misgivings about the efficacy of TAGteach with human learners. My recent participation in a TAGteach Primary Certification Seminar ( see www.tagteach.com) has remedied these concerns.

TAGteach is a system for teaching (and changing behavior) which relies heavily on the use of positive reinforcement. It emphasizes the acquisition of new (adaptive and desirable) responses to improve behavior. The acronym TAG stands for “teaching with acoustical guidance” and it is the delivery of a distinct sound (at the moment a learner performs a targeted response) that distinguishes this method from other learning-based behavior change techniques. In addition to positive reinforcement, TAGteach artfully incorporates the use of other scientifically established principles and practices of learning/teaching including; task analysis, shaping by successive approximations, discrimination training, differential reinforcement of alternative responding, errorless discrimination, generalization, behavioral momentum, modeling/imitation, vicarious reinforcement, extinction, and negative punishment. TAGteach advances the technology of teaching beyond clicker training by incorporating principles of human motivation, self awareness, and the judicious use of language.

To be effective, the TAGteacher must clearly conceive and articulate the learner’s new behavior as an observable response so that they and the learner will reliably recognize it. This is referred to as the TAGpoint. When TAGteaching, the “teacher” engages with the learner in a uniquely alert and interactive manner so the teacher is able to deliver a “tag” every time the learner performs the designated response.

Though there is a dearth of published research on the efficacy of TAGteach, its faithful incorporation of already established behavioral principles and practices and a large body of anecdotal evidence lend it credence. There are many questions (e.g. Does the acoustical marker act as a conditioned reinforce?) about which variables (exactly) give this technique the power to effectively and efficiently improve behavior. These can and should be addressed experimentally. Nevertheless, my own experience and study suggest that the most powerful effect is on the teacher’s behavior. Using the technique requires a degree of precision (conceptualizing and articulating the “target” response) and attention (to the learner’s responding) that is commonly avowed by teachers and other behavior analysts but is seldom practiced. Informed use of TAGteach promises to improve teacher/intervener effectiveness. TAGteach provides a tangible format that has the potential to efficiently prompt and support optimal intervener behavior and to improve learner outcomes. These prospects call for systematic study and replication.

TAGteach provides a concrete, straightforward, and readily acquired methodology contrasting with common practice which tends to be overly complicated, poorly focused, and inconsistently applied. By using TAGteach as a core teaching technique, instructional strategies can be streamlined and intervener skills strengthened as they have repeated opportunities to practice and refine a discrete set of powerful teaching skills.

TAGteach Defined

TAGteach is a behavior change technique that emphasizes the use of positive reinforcement and incorporates several well established behavioral principles and practices. Though its purpose is to improve learner behavior, its first effect is on teacher behavior. In TAGteach the first “learner” is the teacher who learns to deliver a stimulus immediately upon detection of a predetermined learner response – the TAGpoint. Faithful implementation and thorough understanding of TAGteach call for systematic study of the teacher’s actions. In order to facilitate systematic study, I propose the adoption of a standard name and concise definition of teacher actions critical to the efficacy of TAGteach.

Because it describes an action, the focal TAGteach event is best named by use of a (gerund) form of the verb, “tagging.” Dictionary (www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/tag) definitions of the verb “tag” include;

Attach a tag or label to.
Touch a player while he is holding the ball.
Provide with a name or nickname.
Supply (blank verse or prose) with rhymes.
Go after with the intent to catch; “The policeman chased the mugger down the alley”; “the dog chased the rabbit”.
To fit with, or as with, a tag or tags.
To join; to fasten; to attach.
To follow closely after; esp., to follow and touch in the game of tag.
To follow closely, as it were an appendage; — often with after; as, to tag after a person.
Base verb from the following inflections: tagging, tagged, tags, tagger, taggers, taggingly and taggedly.

Drawing upon these definitions, “tagging” as used in the context of TAGteach may be defined as follows;

Tagging – To produce a stimulus (that the learner detects) as soon as a learner performs a specified response (the tag point)

This is a function-based definition (Cooper et al, 2007, p 65) as it designates a class of responses (tagging) which have a common effect on the environment (production of a sensory stimulus). This class of responses may comprise topographically distinct actions all producing the same outcome including, for example;

The teacher depresses the surface of a clicker with his thumb causing it to make a sound….
The teacher blows into a whistle causing it to make an audible sound….
The teacher makes a clicking sound with her mouth…

Assuming that the teacher produces a clicking sound with her mouth to tag and the tag point is “hand on cup,” the following illustrates application of this definition to describe teacher tagging.

The teacher makes a clicking sound with her mouth as soon as the learner places either hand on the cup.

Posted with permission from http://gdsbc.com/blog/

TAGteacher Tale - A Tool for the Corporate Trainer

2011-02-08T13:10:00.003-05:00

TAGteach: A Tool for the Corporate Trainer

Corporate Trainer? A case review by TAGteach certified Glenn Hughes, director of Global Learning Architecture at KLA-Tencor.

Last week, I was able to use the TAGteach principles in my work context for the first time.

BACKGROUND

On December 21st, I contracted author Ed Muzio (Four Secrets to Liking Your Work and Make Work Great) to certify my team (8 people) in 'Advanced DISC'. DISC is a behavioral assessment tool, much like Meyers-Briggs. http://www.groupharmonics.com/

On day one, Ed noted that we were going to be a challenging group. We all possessed between 3 and 10 years of DISC training/facilitation experience. Our language patterns were well established. We were used to using phrases like "She's a D", "He's an I", and "I’m a D".

In advanced DISC, it is very important to steer away from labels and move to observations of behavioral patterns. Ed wanted us to use phrases like "you show high D behavior", "she shows low I behavior", or "he shows high S behavior".

Despite his pleading, begging, modeling the correct behavior, and 'calling out' our misuse of the language, we didn’t change our behavior.

On the morning of day two, Ed and I were chatting about different learning events we've been doing, and I shared my TAGteach experience. Ed asked, "Could we use it on our problem?"

My response was, "Hmmm... I hadn't thought about using it to change language or culture, but it's an observable behavior, so, yes. I think we can."

On day two, we implemented TAGteach, with great results.

WHAT WE DID

Since everyone in the room was a facilitator, I opened the morning by teaching them the history and process of TAGteach.
We identified the target behavior. We would tag anyone who used the phrase, "Hi/Low 'X' behavior" - such as "Jodi is showing hi D behavior". If either "high or low" or 'behavior' were missing, we would not tag.
We did not have Taggers, so we had to improvise. We agreed that a finger snap or hand clap would be the Tag.
We identified the TAG point. The tag point is: "Hi/Low 'X' behavior"
Ed then spent fifteen minutes modeling correct and incorrect behavior, so we could practice tagging.
We agreed that we understood. Ed spent the rest of the morning (2.5 hours) teaching us advanced DISC. Anytime Ed, or any of us used the language correctly, they were tagged with a clap or snap.
In the afternoon, each facilitator lead a teach-back for our certification. During these 3 hours, the audience was reinforcing the targeted phrase with claps/snaps.

RESULT

In one day, we re-patterned the language (behavior) of 8 facilitators.

In my debrief with Ed the next day, he commented that our 'success rate' of using the correct phrase on day one was 0%. By the end of day two (facilitator teach-backs), he estimated that we were over 70% success rate. He felt that we would NOT have improved more than 10% without applying TAGteach.

Additionally, we saw a number of classic effects:

increased energy: everyone had fun with it, as opposed to being annoyed by corrections
self-correction: by mid-morning, people would sense that they were not 'tagged' and correct their language
self-learning: one facilitator missed the morning history, process, AND TAGpoint identification. In the afternoon, after her teachback, I asked if she knew why we were clapping/snapping all day. She responded, "Of course. You're reinforcing the use of the correct phrase"

NOTES

Obviously, we're thrilled with this outcome and can see many more applications. Theresa, I'll definitely want to have you run an onsite certification session for my colleagues in the spring.

Upcoming TAGteach Seminars

2011-02-08T12:53:00.000-05:00

Register now for an open TAGteach Certification Seminar or contact Theresa at t@tagteach.com to schedule a personalized seminar for your group.

The Early Bird discount dates for Glastonbury, CT and Chicago, IL have been extended to February 10. Don't miss out on this $50.00 dollar discount, register today!

Register at http://www.tagteach.com/events or call 704-995-9237 for more details.

Seminar at the Vista School in Hershey PA

Upcoming Seminars

Franklin IN (2/12-13/2011)

Glastonbury CT (3/11-12/2011)

Chicago IL (3/26-27/2011)

Denver CO (4/15-16/2011)

Detroit MI (5/7-8/2011)

Portland OR (6/11-12/2011)

Recent comments we have received about TAGteach...

Had to share! When I first heard of TAGteach I thought I could use it for Ayana's stuttering. Once we started speech therapy they were using R+ but no marker. We are at 5 praises to 1 correction this week, but she suddenly shut down. But when she said something "smooth" she said, "Mommy, bing?" And I asked her if she wanted me to tag her.. all of a sudden she was a very enthusiastic learner! - Lisa Jemus

I was introduced to TAGteach a few weeks ago and decided to give it a try with my kids. My 8 year old daughter took to it like a duck to water and begged to stay up late tonight to keep working on her math facts. This is fantastic and I can't wait to incorporate it into my daily life with my kids and their education! Thanks for everything you do! - Erin Wiggington

Just did some TAG with my daughter working on her times tables. We worked for 15 minutes and she was thrilled to get 84 tags!! Awesome! - Erin Wiggington

TAGteacher Tale - Teaching Lumbar Puncture to Medical Students

2011-02-04T21:59:00.000-05:00

If you have ever had to (or ever will have to) undergo a painful and invasive medical procedure, you really hope that the doctor has been well trained and has had lots of practice before it is your turn. Dr. Karen McLean tells us about how she is using TAGteach to help teach medical residents to do lumbar punctures and also to help a colleague improve clinical reasoning skills:

The students who participated in the Lumbar Puncture / TAG study were in a linking week between their preclinical years and their clinical rotations. They did this on Thursday and started on the wards on Monday. It just so happened that I took over one of the clinical services for Internal Medicine the day after the study and one of my new students on Monday was one who had been in the TAG group – coincidentally we had to do an LP a couple of days later – the statistical probability of that happening were not high!

The junior resident was doing the procedure but the student (by now very excited to be even peripherally involved in the first real procedure of his clinical career!) was there so I asked if he could remember the tag points – which he did almost perfectly (we both sailed right past one of them and did not remember it till the procedure was over – he was the first to point out that we had missed one!). He relayed and explained the tag points as the resident was doing the procedure, before each step where we had placed a tag point in the teaching session. He had the wording down pat and the order correct.

It was neat to see a week later that he had the points, the wording and the order still firmly embedded in his mind and was able to retrieve them very quickly with no prompting or cueing.

Unrelated to the study, I have been working with a senior resident who has been having some difficulties with clinical reasoning. One of his challenges is presenting information clearly, using appropriate language so that information can quickly and accurately be conveyed to his attending physicians (especially in the middle of the night when you have been awakened from REM sleep by the beeper!).

One of our sessions focused on getting him to use terms that convey “semantically meaningful chunks of information”. In trying to convey what that might sound like, I gave some examples and suggested we could call these “sound bytes” - short phases that convey a lot of meaning and help the listener start to draw conclusions about the case. He offered the term “high calorie phrases” as his preferred descriptor. (Our sessions do usually start around coffee time!) In any case ‘high calorie’ worked better for him and I tagged him every time he was able to use an appropriate ‘high calorie’ descriptor in his case presentation.

What impressed me about this was that he was clearly making a huge effort to reorganize information in his mind to assess where he could use appropriate terms – it made him really think and start to apply some of the skills we have been working on.

I won’t say it was a major breakthrough as he has been working hard and steadily making progress but I think it crystallized an important concept in a way that we had not so clearly been able to achieve up till then.

Update from Niabi Zoo

2011-02-04T21:45:00.000-05:00

This excerpt is posted with permission from the KPCT blog. Click here to see the entire article

By Laura Monaco-Torelli

Progress in both animal and human training

Twiga with her calf, Zuri

We are delighted to share a third installment of the Niabi Zoo story. This “Anniversary update” describes the exciting progress the zoo training programs have made this year. In order to grow and improve, modify and enhance, every training program should be evaluated on a regular basis. It’s important to revisit and revise goals, and assess and celebrate achievements. At Niabi Zoo we do that regularly, looking ahead to see what the possibilities are, and making plans to ensure those possibilities are realized. We continue to build collaborations with others in our field, collaborations that emphasize the varied facets of our shared expertise.

This past year has been full of growth and excitement at Niabi Zoo! Two healthy reticulated giraffe calves were born, and the colobus troop has grown by one new baby, too—all while the zoo was under renovation. Through it all, we augmented and advanced our animal training programs to start fresh in 2011.

To help move our programs forward, we looked at the human end of training. After all, we experience day-to-day interactions with more than just the animals in our care; we have frequent interactions and conversations with our colleagues and zoo patrons. As great trainers know, good people skills only enhance and improve any work surroundings. Our goals in the human area include helping others know what is expected of them without nagging, and focusing training beyond the animals and toward zookeeper continuing education and professional growth.

Time for TAGteach!

In 2008, while I was a student in the Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) Dog Trainer Program, I learned about Theresa McKeon and TAGteach International. When Niabi Zoo heard that I attended Theresa’s TAGteach seminar in Chicago to earn primary certification, they offered to host her at the zoo in March 2010. Theresa invited TAGteach Level 3 instructor Eva Bertilsson from Sweden to join us as well. We were very lucky to have both women teaching a two-day seminar at the zoo, working with us toward several of our goals. TAGteach lessons helped staff members achieve even more success clicker training the zoo animals. The lessons also helped staff members feel upbeat about themselves and their many workday interactions.

We received very positive comments from keepers who attended the seminar:

“Clicker training has opened my eyes to a new perspective of zookeeping. I have been able to do daily husbandry and vet visits with so much less stress on the animals. In the last two years I have seen animals go from not wanting any interaction to waiting to be trained on a daily basis. Clicker training and TAGteach have had nothing but a positive effect in my life and on the animals at Niabi Zoo.” ~Jessi Lench Porter

“The clicker provided our team with an effective tool of communication that transformed the behaviors of a variety of species such as giraffe, gibbon, lion, and jaguar. Clicker training brought our overall animal management to the highest level of care.

To enhance and expand the communication skills of our staff, we were introduced to the principles of TAGteach by Theresa McKeon. Theresa's contagious enthusiasm about TAG brought to light how we all process information in a variety of ways, which sometimes leads to different interpretations in our everyday communications. Using the concepts of TAG, we were able to clearly set criteria and offer positive feedback to each other. We can all benefit from this type of teaching, which focuses on what is correct rather than the opposite.” ~Colleen Stalf

“Clicker training has made me so much more aware of my interactions with animals (and people), has taught me patience, and has helped me understand that effective communication can work wonders. Training a lion or having a positive interaction with a coworker, the skills have been invaluable. Such a warm feeling of accomplishment to realize that small, positive steps can lead to a finished behavior that will reduce stress levels during veterinary procedures. Clicker training can deepen the relationship and create trust between trainer and animal. When you start training animals and practice that positive spin on life, it becomes second-nature and is so much easier to transfer to your human relationships.” ~Mandy Turnbull

Observing Theresa and Eva while they taught was extremely reinforcing for me. I knew that the keepers would gain first-rate information easily translatable and applicable to their daily interactions with people and with animals. We all learned how to be more effective, proactive, and positive with our communication skills. We had a lot of fun with this process!

TAGteach in action: using food tools

One of the safety goals we worked on with the keepers during Theresa’s workshop was feeding the large cats (lion, tigers, cougars, leopards, jaguar, and bobcats) with tongs, spoons, or feed poles. These tools keep zookeepers’ hands safe. For the keepers, learning how to mark the desired behavior with the clicker and then move the hand to load the primary reinforcer can prove challenging! We found it helpful to practice clicker mechanics before we actually trained and fed any animal, and made that step part of a fun training game. But the keepers’ biggest challenge was to replace a previous behavior (feeding the large cats with their hands), especially since the behavior had a strong reinforcement history.

In this video (view the original article to see the video), keepers Colleen, Mandy, and Jessi practice feeding techniques using TAGteach. To determine their focus they used the Focus Funnel, a strategy for organizing and delivering verbal lessons and instructions to a learner.

It begins with: The Lesson is…

Follows with: The Directions are…

And ends with a tag point of 5 words or less: The TAG point is:

Using the focus funnel reduces the amount of language that must be processed by a learner right before attempting a behavior.

Lesson: The hand that delivers the treat needs to go to a neutral place immediately after delivering the reinforcement. This way the lion will turn his direction back to you instead of following the feeding stick. We call that neutral place “home.”

Directions: Move your feeding hand back to home position immediately after delivery.

tag point: Initiate hand to home.

Training sequence: Mandy cues mouth open behavior-> Jessi offers mouth open behavior-> Mandy marks behavior-> Mandy moves reinforcement hand to place food onto pole-> Mandy places food into Jessi’s hand-> Mandy initiates hand to home (tag point).

Watch Colleen in the background as she observes the sequence. She is observing the series of behaviors patiently without talking and without giving extra verbal information to Mandy. The tag point was discussed ahead of time. Each time Mandy offers the tag point (initiate hand to home) successfully, Colleen marks that behavior with a clicker.

Later, as I worked on earning TAGteach Level 1 certification, we focused on Jessi’s tag point: feed with tongs. At ~36 seconds into the video loop, you can see Jessi self-assess as she reaches for the food with her bare hand, only to correct herself and then reach behind her with the tongs. My role was to mark with the clicker each time she offered the tag point successfully.

Theresa McKeon was as positive as the Niabi keepers and I were about the TAGteach learning experience. She saw that we all understood the connections between the human and the animal training, and worked hard to benefit from the positive principles in action. She shared some of her thoughts about the Niabi seminar:

“When I was asked to present a TAGteach workshop to the keepers at Niabi Zoo, I was beyond thrilled. Not only for the opportunity to work with Laura, but to see the clicker training technology come full circle. Laura had already been teaching the keepers that optimal animal learning occurs when information is delivered in finite bits, immediately marked, and followed up with reinforcement. She also wanted them to experience how the principles of clicker training hold true for any learner—including people.

Because of our reliance on verbal language, people need a bit of practice when transferring clicker training skill to other people. People teachers can quickly progress from using language to abusing it. Important points get buried in long lists of criteria and even longer explanations. Social responses divert concentration. We resort to nagging and escalate from there. Nagging doesn’t work on cougars and it doesn’t work on people.

The TAGteach workshop demonstrated to the Niabi staff that we can learn and teach each other with the same respectful process they use with their animal learners. Deliver information in finite bits, immediately mark an acquired behavior, and follow up with something that is reinforcing for the learner (usually success). I can’t think of a better gauge of an application’s power than its flexibility. This clicker ‘stuff’ can bend all the way around in a full circle.”

TAGteacher Tale - Dealing with Distractions

2011-01-05T12:09:00.003-05:00

by Matt McKeon

My name is Matt and I’m 22 years old. I’m a server at an upscale sushi bar and restaurant and also a full time student. I have many tasks to remember throughout the day including: cleaning and pressing my work clothes, researching for a term paper, posting on the discussion board for my on-line classes, remembering the drink order for the five people sitting at table twelve, and sending in my car insurance payment.

I’ve also been diagnosed with ADHD, along with eighty-five percent of my generation. I constantly have to readjust my focus and attention to not get lost in the myriad of thoughts that run past my eyes. I understand that this is something many people struggle with on a daily basis, but there are ways to train yourself on your day to day tasks.

First thing, decide what your problem is. For example, I was having an issue remembering to enter the customer’s order after taking it. This was causing me some serious stress because I would regularly have to have food cooked with extra haste because I spaced the order. The solution to this problem was simple, enter in the order. It seems simple enough, but so many things can come between taking the order and entering it into the computer. There are people asking directions to the bathroom, another table asking me to find their waitress and the chief yelling out that three orders are ready to be taken out.

Other people run into similar problems everyday and find themselves confronted with the same instruction, "Just do it." So how can you "just do it"? Obviously if all I need was someone to tell me to "just do it", I wouldn't be having the problem in the first place. I need restructuring. My behavior must meet the "shape" of the task at hand. I must have a clear and simple goal, make that goal a recurring priority, and execute the plan.

Here is how I made it happen. I decided the important “just do it” thing was to “enter in the order”. That would be my sole objective. The directions are, “Say thanks, punch it in”. The TAG point is…punch it in. “Say thanks, punch it in” was the 5 word expression I used in my head to remind myself to perform the task. I mentally tagged myself every time I entered in an order right after saying thank-you. Since I started using TAG at my workplace, there have been some significant positive changes in my efficacy at work.

TAG is not just for one person to use to teach another, it is a whole new way to approach the learning and retaining information. The roles of the teacher and the student become interchangeable. I see this as one of the keys to TAG's wide success in all forms of training. I will post more on the topic as I develop.

TAGteach Seminar Report - Hershey PA

2010-12-24T00:20:00.000-05:00

Theresa and I were in Hershey PA last week for a terrific TAGteach seminar at the wonderful Vista School. The Vista School brings state-of-the-art special education and therapeutic services to children living with autism in Central Pennsylvania. We had a great group of people from several different backgrounds and we all learned a lot from each other. There were four behavior analysis professors there and all of them have plans for research studies, which is very exciting for us.

One of the homework exercises is to think of something that you would like to change in your own behavior and do some self-tagging to see how this works. Everyone takes home the tagulator that they made for themselves and pulls down a bead to mark the tags when they successfully execute the tag point they set from themsleves.

Here are some creative examples of self-tagging tag points that people invented:

After printing off a sheet from the printer file it right away rather than leaving it on the printer to pile up. The tag point is file the paper

While shopping, rather than getting annoyed at other people for pushing or other rude behavior, have empathy for them and think about what they might be thinking and why they might be in a hurry or stressed out. The tag point is think about others.

Instead of giving unsolicited and often unwanted advice to older teens and twenty-something children, keep quiet and let them enjoy the time together as a family. The tag point is keep quiet.

Associate Professor from Penn State, Rick Kubina told us that he has a 6 year old client with autism whose parents have struggled unsuccessfully for the past year trying to teach the child to tie his shoes. Rick had also been unsuccessful in an attempt to teach this. Rick went straight home and tried out his new TAGteach skills on this problem and posted the following on his Facebook page:

After my two day TAGteach seminar I had the chance to use my new acquired skill with a 6-year-old boy (he has autism). For the last year parents have been trying to teach him to tie his shoe. I tried about a month ago and failed miserably. After one, 20 minute TAGteach session I tagged what you see in the picture. Very proud of my little guy.

We had lots of interesting discussions about the application of TAGteach principles to real-life teaching situations that the attendees face. We look forward to hearing from everyone about their successes with TAGteach.

TAGteacher Tale - TAGtone for Medical Students

2010-12-13T22:03:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Dr. Karen McLean for telling us about her application of TAGteach with medical students.

I recently took the TAG teach workshop in LA and thoroughly enjoyed it. (Thanks Theresa and Hello fellow students!) I use tagging in the hospital environment where I teach medical students and residents, particularly in physical examination skills or procedures at the bedside. This has been enthusiastically received by the residents who all want their own taggers so they can practice in small groups (they are preparing for a major exam). For use at the bedside I want a "tag tone" that fits better (is less intrusive) in the hospital environment. The click is harsh and may be disruptive or annoying to some patients (we have few single rooms), if used repeatedly. Sadly the clicker plus is not readily available.

There is an iphone clicker app for a clicker but I have found nothing for blackberry (my device of choice), and the iphone app as far as I know only produces the "click". I want a higher pitched tone, more musical than metallic, that will blend better into the ambient background noise, yet still be audible to small groups at the bedside. Our IT guys suggested two options - one being to use the custom profiles (for setting alerts) on the BB and the "try it" function to trigger the tone - that proved to be a bust as the time delay is anywhere
from almost 1 to 3 seconds, even though there are some suitable tones already available on the device.

The second suggestion was to try an online sound generator and import it into the device (should work for any device). After a few unsuccessful attemtps I found a site that works like a charm and within about 5 minutes I was able to generate and load to my blackberry a couple of suitable tones. (my IT guys call me an "early adopter" - but I am definitely not a techno-geek.) On my device this plays instantly with a press of the trackball as long as I have it selected.

If you are interested in trying it out for yourself - here is the website and the steps I used - it is pretty intuituve.

http://www.planetofnoise.com/midi/morse2mid.php

This website is intended for generating morse code ring tones – but if you pick a single letter and adjust the SPEED, PITCH and SOUND functions you can get pretty much what you want. For example, the letter 'e' gives you a single tone, 'h' is a short burst and 'm' is biphasic. I like the pitch high (3) because I want it to be less audible to older folk (which includes the majority of my patients) who often have high frequency hearing loss.

The "make Morse" bar allows you to check out the sound and keep adjusting paramters until you have what you want. Then click on "this file" as per the instructions and it will bring it up as a file on a webpage by itself. If you use the "file" option on the menu bar and "send page by e mail" you can then get it on your device, down load the attachment to a ring tone file...and there you have it. (this last is a little different than the instructions on the website.)

To use it you just open the ring tone file, select the one you want and hit play.

Now, I can get rid of one more thing from my pockets and I will always have my "tagger" with me. Next I am going to see if I can find a sound that is close enough to a clicker to work with my dogs and I won't have to have a clicker in every room in my house and every carry bag I use for classes!

Karen McClean

Rehearsing Polite Manners with TAGteach

2010-12-07T18:29:00.001-05:00

One of the things we learned early on with TAGteach is that the principles we have been developing are brilliant for allowing the rehearsal of specific small pieces of behavior. In our work with children and with adults in occupational and management training we have used a lot of role playing with tag points for specific areas of focus. The role playing allows us to set up situations that are non-threatening and allow the learner a chance to practice and succeed while gaining the skills required to accomplish a specific task in a real situation.

In his excellent book "The Kazdin Method for Parenting the Defiant Child with no pills, no therapy, no contest of wills", Dr. Alan Kazdin explains that children need to practice desirable behaviors in a no-stress simulated situation so that they have the skills available to offer these behaviors in a real situation. Building a strong alternative behavior is the best way to eliminate unwanted behavior. For example, if a child has trouble sharing, he is more likely to be able to share in a real situation if he has practiced sharing in a simulated role-playing situation. If a child has never had the opportunity to practice the behaviors associated with sharing, and any time he has been exposed to a sharing scenario it has ended in stress and frustration, he will never develop the skills required and will become even less likely to share. Giving a child (or an adult) the opportunity to succeed by applying a new skill in a low stress simulation, increases the likelihood that he will employ these skills in a real-life situation.

We have posted a video that illustrates how we insert a tag point into a simulated situation to help Lear (who is four) practice polite manners. We want him to ask permission before opening the fridge. The tag point is "ask to open the fridge". We have provided motivation for him to open the fridge by providing a bowl of melon pieces. This keeps the game going as long as he wants some melon. The tag comes when he asks, and the primary reinforcer is a plastic sea creature.

You may wonder why we don't just let opening the fridge and getting the melon be the primary reinforcer after the tag. The main reason for this is that we want to be in control of the primary reinforcer. He wants a sea creature more than he wants a piece of melon (or perhaps he is smart enough to know that he can get both!). He is free to open the fridge and take a piece of melon when ever he feels like it. If he did that without asking there would be no tag and no sea creature. We do not want to have to hold the fridge closed or otherwise use force if he does not ask permission. This would ruin our tag session and would result in a tantrum and no learning is possible in this state of mind. In fact he never did just take a piece of melon, he asked every time. In this session Lear asked permission to open the fridge many times. This increases the chance of him asking in the future under similar circumstances. The more practice a child has with polite behaviors, and the more these are reinforced with a positive outcome the more likely he is to use these habitually.

This video was submitted by Anne Wormald as part of her Level 1 Certification project.

Interview with TAGteach Co-founder Theresa McKeon

2010-12-06T19:35:00.000-05:00

Listen to an interview with Theresa McKeon published at the blog of BehaviorTherapist.com:

In this episode, R. Trent Codd, III, Ed.S. LPC interviews Theresa McKeon about TAGteaching. Items discussed include:

An overview of TAGteaching

The range of applications for this technology

The research base

The relationship between TAGteaching and Precision Teaching

Current directions in TAGteaching

Click here to go to the BehaviorTherapist blog and listen to the interview

Back Chaining - The Key to Reliablity

2010-12-06T19:24:00.001-05:00

Back chaining is a concept foreign to many and counter-intuitive to most who first learn of it. We want to talk about it briefly here, because it is a very effective way to build highly reliable behaviors and it is one of the key techniques that any TAGteacher should understand and apply properly. A reliable behavior is one that looks the same each time the subject performs it. For example, with forming the letter "E", we would consider the behavior to be reliable if the child drew the letter the same way every time and the letter was drawn correctly.

Back chaining involves teaching a skill starting at the end and working back to the beginning. For example we would teach a child to come down the ladder to the climbing structure safely before teaching him to climb up it. This way we know that once he climbs up he will be able climb down. To do this we would place the child on the bottom step and work on taking one step down to the ground until he is confident with that. The we would place him on the second step and work on coming down two steps. After a few steps he would be confident with coming down and we could start working on going up and then coming back down. By teaching the last part first the learner is always moving toward the part of the skill that he learned first and with which he is most confident. The gymnast that learns her balance beam routine from back to front will not be worrying about moving toward the part of the routine that she has practiced the least, she will be confident that she is less likely to fall as the routine moves forward. The pianist who learns the last part of the piece first will be moving toward the part he has practiced most and with which he has the greatest confidence. Karen Pryor has been tweeting lately about her experiences with a choir director who understands back chaining and has been applying it most effectively. Follow Karen on twitter and look back through her choir posts for a play by play description of this back chaining application.

We have posted a video at YouTube that shows a very simple application of back chaining. This is the formation of the letter "L". We taught the right to left stroke of the bottom part of the letter first using a template that already had the down stroke completed and with red and black dots to guide the cross stroke. The tag point is "red to black". The child is to draw a line from the red to the black dot thus completing the letter correctly and with the pen stroke going in the correct direction. After practicing this until he was confident, the next tag point was also "red to black", but this time completing the dots created the down stroke of the L. Notice in the first trial with down stroke he goes on to finish the letter without any instruction or prompting. Because he had learned the last part of the letter first he naturally went on to complete it by doing the behavior that he was first taught (i.e., the cross stroke). This is a very nice demonstration of the power of back chaining.

Many of you have already seen our famous high jump video. This is a very complex skill that involves simultaneous rotation about two different axes and incorporates the transfer of power from the run to the jump. How could we teach something this complex backwards? Watch the video again (or for the first time) and see back chaining in action with a complex skill.

Congratulations New TAGteachers!

2010-11-24T20:56:00.001-05:00

Our congratulations to the following new and advancing TAGteachers. We are proud of your accomplishments and honored that you are taking this journey with us!

New Level 1’s

Jennifer Nash LRSD, BCBA

Lisa Knighten, OT

Dr. Jennifer Hennessey, BCBA, Behavior Intervention Consultant

Shelia Smith

New Level 2

Madeline Gabriel

Seminar Feedback from Educators

2010-11-24T11:55:00.000-05:00

One of the areas in which we think TAGteach could have a profound impact is in the classroom, so we are thrilled to have been able to conduct seminars for educators from the Alternative Organizational Structure 94 Board Special Services in Maine and Arkansas Department of Education - Special Education Unit. In attendance were behavior analysts, early childhood behavior specialists, school psychology specialists, speech pathologists, and other specialists. TAGteach cofounder Theresa McKeon said:

Every state should be lucky enough to have a group this educated, dedicated and open-minded.

Here are some comments from attendees at the first training session in AK:

It truly was one of the best trainings I have ever had the opportunity to attend. Not only will help me in my professional world, but my daughter also learned to tie her shoes without the normal frustration we would experience. Thanks so much! - Sheila Smith

I agree with all Shelia said! I never believed I could teach my daughter to tie her shoes in less than an hour! I'm excited to see how I can use all I learned professionally. - Jennifer Hennessey

Thank you for investing your time bringing your training to AR. I agree with Shelia and Jennifer. Definitely was one of the best 2 days of training in 15 years. I look forward to applying the strategies at work and home and expect amazing results. - Laura McKenzie Cooke

And some comments after the second session:

Once again, the training was amazing!!! One of the most practical trainings I have ever attended. I highly recommend it to others in the field of education. Can't wait for the advanced training! - Sheila Smith

I agree with Shelia. I got positive feedback from all attendees. One sent me a text saying "I LOVE TAGTEACH" Thanks for another awesome training! - Jennifer Hennessey

If you are an educator and you have a training budget give us a call. Your teachers and specialist educators will love TAGteach!

Continuing Education Credits for TAGteach Seminars

2010-11-22T20:22:00.000-05:00

Attendees at TAGteach seminars qualify for continuing education credits from the Certification Council for Pet Dog Trainers and from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board

BACB CEU's

A TAGteach seminar falls under the description for Type 3 Continuing Education:

Completion or instruction of a seminar, colloquium, presentation, conference event, workshop or symposium not approved by the BACB, or engaging in supervision activities, only if they relate directly to the practice of behavior analysis. A maximum of 25 percent of the total required number of hours of continuing education may be applied from this category during any three-year certification period.
http://www.bacb.com/maint_frame.html

CCPDT CEUs

The TAGteach online course qualifies for 9 CE credits from CCPDT. Just make a copy of your certificate and submit this. There is no need for any other form.

TAGteach live seminars qualify for 13 CCPDT credits. We don't apply for these every time, since each seminar requires a separate application. If anyone whats these credits please tell us ahead for time so that we can do the application.

Self Assessment - Developing an Athlete's "Inner Eye"

2010-11-13T23:00:00.003-05:00

By Theresa McKeon

The customary way to put a nail through a board is to pound it with a hammer. It’s fast, forceful and hammering can be a physical outlet for frustration. But what if there was a superior nail that with a little guidance would pull itself through the board and hold longer and stronger? Could you put down the hammer?

The following techniques are designed to help athletes build a repertoire of problem solving skills and a path towards self reliance in place of coach reliance.

Reinforce the Process

Step 1

Although feedback from the coach is imperative, an athlete who can self-assess will ultimately decrease his dependency on an instructor and increase his desire to look inward for answers. The process of handing over some of the reins may take a bit of time. At first athletes may be stymied by the prospect of being part of their own coaching staff. They have been programmed to take corrections directly from their coach, not to look inward. Coaches may initially fear wasting practice time while athletes find their ‘coach within’, but the results are very motivating.

Success is motivational so athlete and coach need to find immediate reinforcement opportunities. The techniques used in the TAGteach methodology are very helpful in providing organized opportunities for reinforcement in combination with self assessment. This can be valuable in the transition from passively being coached to participating actively in the process. With TAGteach, (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) feedback from the coach is transmitted audibly with a simple device that produces a sharp click sound. This sound, called a 'tag', marks a single response, action or position called a tag point. The tag means "yes, correct". The absence of the tag means “self assess”. This binary feedback eliminates the need for immediate verbal performance feedback from the coach which can be loaded with social and emotional nuances. It allows the athlete to make the judgment "I did it right" or "I need to try something else next time". The athlete focuses on the results of the performance of the specific tag point and not on the tone of voice or other irrelevant information that often accompanies verbal corrections.

To make this work, the coach creates a single issue task that is set up for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Take for example a volleyball player who has trouble remembering to bend her knees before she bumps the ball. The coach sets up a single issue task (tag point) that can be judged as correct or not correct. “The tag point is…knees bent.” If the athlete bends her knees before the bump, the coach tags. The athlete, conditioned to identify that sound as, “yes”, captures the mental snapshot of this correct placement and immediately moves on to assess any internal feedback of the position.

If the athlete does not hear the tag he uses this information to self assess:

“No tag? What was the tag point?

It was…knees bent.

My knees must not have been bent.

I will focus on the bend next turn.”

The athlete self assesses before the coach provides additional feedback. This fosters accountability and may decrease the athlete's dependence on commentary from the coach.

To stave off frustration, the guidelines of TAGteach recommend that if the learner hears ‘no tag’ in three successive tries, the coach lowers the criterion for the tag to a level where success is more certain. The coach then increases the difficulty gradually with ever more challenging tag points. This creates a climate of success for the learner and keeps frustration to a minimum.

Step 2

Now that the act of self assessing has been made reinforcing for the athlete (the sound of the tag is associated with success) and the coach (less corrections, more athlete accountability and faster skill acquisition), the next step is to develop the athlete’s problem solving skills.

First the athlete must be given problems to solve. The tagging technique gently introduces problem solving. The final answer can always be found in the clearly stated tag point.

“I didn’t receive a tag…why?” “The tag point was...toes touching in the handstand” “If I’m not getting tagged it must be because my toes are apart.” “I’ll put my toes together” (athlete hears the tag) “yep, that’s what it was!”

Step 3

Say an athlete attempts a tag point three times and does not succeed. Instead of automatically giving an easier tag point the coach may ask the athlete, “this is what we are trying to accomplish, what you think the new tag point should be?” Depending on the athlete’s age and skill level, the coach can quickly shepherd the athlete to a new tag point or allow a more extended dialogue. For example,

Coach: "The tag point was swing the tennis racket parallel to the ground. You didn’t receive a tag on the last three swings. Do you know why?"

Athlete: "No! I understand the tag point but I really felt like I was swinging the racket parallel."

Coach: "OK, what should we do?"

Athlete: "First we should find out if we mean the same thing by ‘parallel’."

Coach: "Great idea. Show me what parallel feels like to you?"

Athlete: (Athlete demonstrates)

Coach: "Aha! There is the problem. The racket head needs to be tilted farther forward." (Coach tilts the athlete’s racket to the correct spot and marks it with a tag)

Athlete: "OK, that’s different from what I thought the tag point was. Can we tag this position a few more times without the swing so I can get used to it?"

Coach: (Tags the corrected racket placement and the athlete feels more successful and confident)

Athlete: "OK, I am ready to put it back into the full swing.”

This scenario illustrates how useful athlete input can be and that with a little guidance the athlete can solve problems and ultimately shorten learning time. If the coach had simply kept repeating, “Parallel…the racket needs to be parallel…why are you ignoring the correction?” both parties could have become frustrated resulting in stalled progress. By creating a concentrated formula for delivering information (the audible tag), the TAGteach methodology reduces the time spent on external feedback, allowing for increased attention to internal feedback. Now it is possible for athletes to be part of the process and to take a cognitive role in their journey to accomplishment.

The nail, with a little guidance, can pull itself through the board.

TAGteacher Tale - Toddler Tagging Follow-up

2010-11-11T18:08:00.001-05:00

Thanks to TAGteacher Denise Lacey for keeping us updated on her toddler tagging adventures. Denise is a clicker trainer and TAGteacher who has been tagging her young son with great results.

My son is almost 27 months old. Focusing on the stuff I want him to do is working really well. He is currently the only kid in his "social circle" who does not use the word "no" as a general response/statement. He has used it a couple times to decline when I asked him if he wanted something. That to me seems really reasonable.

He is helpful in getting dressed and feeding himself. He (usually) is cooperative with having his teeth brushed. He holds my hand when we go in the street and will insist on holding other peoples hands if they are nearby. He also makes wonderful "piggy noises", has learned to blow "raspberries", and is generally a fun little guy. We're getting good with all sorts of things using positive reinforcement. And usually I can ignore the bad stuff and redirect with other behaviors I want.

But this evening I found it impossible to ignore him kicking a plate of stew left from lunch off the kitchen table. Management issue: I suppose I will have to improve my table clearing skills for the near future.

Denise

p.s. Lest you think my child is really a wild beast in a zoo, I confess that I don't think the plate was intentionally kicked. I was turned away finishing wrapping a gift for a cousin's birthday party and had left him happily eating pretzels in a chair so the dog couldn't "help." I believe he climbed on the table and began dancing (a behavior which has earned him a great deal of attention/reinforcement lately so why not try it out on the table) and accidentally dislodged said plate with all contents to the floor. And my response, while I couldn't ignore it, consisted of sitting him on the bottom step so I could clean up the mess without him running through it. Our "bottom down" cue worked pretty well since he seemed to still want to go dancing. Meanwhile, my husband will enjoy our son's impact on my housekeeping skills. I bet I even get clicked for the prompt cleaning!

Check out our previous blog posts about toddler tagging

TAGteacher Spotlight - Helix Fairweather

2010-11-11T13:42:00.000-05:00

Helix Fairweather is Certified Level 2 TAGteacher and an accomplished clicker trainer. Helix is a faculty member of Clicker Expo and the Karen Pryor Academy for Dog Training and behavior. She was the first to apply TAGteach techniques in the instruction of dog handlers, developing tag points for the front cross and other agility-related maneuvers.

I first learned of TAGteach through something Karen Pryor wrote some years ago. I tried so hard to chase down more information searching the internet, looking for books and so on - there was nothing out there at the time! Imagine how happy I was to then be invited to be on the first year's Clicker Expo faculty. Finally, I had first-hand information about TAGteaching!

One of the most joyous uses of TAGteach for me currently is in presenting seminars. My co-presenter, Megan Cruz, KPA CTP, and I bring bags of small candy bars and Werthers to our seminars. As people ask good questions or make observations about dog body language, we give them a bone cut out of cardstock, redeemable for the candy of their choice. It's really fun to see the seminar attendees start indicating "oh! she should get a tag for that" as they pick up on noticing the behaviors we are reinforcing.

Sometimes someone will run up to our table on a break and grab a bone to hand to someone who just did something great.

Find out more about Helix from her blogs and wesbite:

http://www.cyberagility.com

http://www.cyberagility.com/seminars.html

http://rosannerosannadanna.blogspot.com/ (How to raise a puppy the clicker way)

TAGteach and Sports - How to Eliminate Nagging

2010-10-27T21:01:00.000-04:00

By Theresa McKeon

“This is the hundredth time I’ve told you…and last time I am going to say it…”

Ah nagging; the most beloved teaching tool in the world. Just keep at ‘em until they fix it, do it, drop it or stop it. In fact, experienced coaches, teachers and parents often use a highly advanced system called, multi-nagging. Hit them with multiple corrections every turn. One of them may stick. This leads us to the question…

How do you amplify the critical feedback athlete’s need, while reducing the amount of language that accompanies it? There is a way.

In a process called TAGteach, (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) feedback from the coach is transmitted audibly with a simple device that produces a sharp click sound. This sound, called a ‘tag’, marks a single response, action or position called a tag point, and says, “Yes, that’s correct”. No tag means, “Self-assess and try again”. The feedback is positive and students don’t have to interpret verbal instructions or corrections while trying to interpret their own intrinsic feedback.

For example, a gymnast must learn the basic skill of keeping good form while performing a handstand. Instead of repetitive requests that bear a considerable resemblance to nagging, such as “get your feet together”, the coach can establish a ‘tag point’. A tag point is something the coach wants, phrased in a way that can be answered yes or no, such as “the tag point is…feet together”. If the athlete puts her feet together in the handstand, the coach marks the exact moment her feet come together with a ‘tag’. If she hears the tag, she hears success. If the athlete doesn’t hear a tag, she must self assess. No tag? She thinks, “The tag point was… feet together. Mine must still be apart.” The athlete decides on a corrective action, pulls her feet together and receives the tag. Changes are considered and made by the athlete through self-assessment before further feedback from the coach is given. Now the athlete is in charge of her progress with minimal intervention from the coach. This fosters accountability and reduces the need for immediate and constant verbal corrections.

Break it Down

The coach can also decrease nagging and boost the athlete’s chance for success by increasing criteria in manageable increments and limiting unsuccessful attempts. The athlete can only truly focus on improving one aspect of a skill at a time, particularly if it is a new skill. When they receive multiple corrections it’s a coin toss. Legs straight? Back straight? Legs together? Toes Pointed? Which correction is the most important to the coach? Even if they do make a correction, there seems to be a “better, but” that lands them in the “you aren’t concentrating” hole again. With TAGteach, the coach chooses and tags for the point that is sequentially most important to the make-up of the skill. If the athlete does not receive a tag within three tries, it is the coach’s responsibility to create a tag point that is within the skill level of the athlete. In all cases, tag points are addressed one at a time and the student does not receive commentary on other errors. These errors will be addressed in future tag points. Because the criterion for success is the attainment of the single tag point and not the completed, perfected skill, the athlete and coach can learn to appreciate incremental successes on that never ending road to perfection.

The Tag Point Is…

There are several direct benefits of using the phrase “The tag point is…” First, a tag point is always phrased in the positive. This helps both the coach and the athlete to focus on what should happen. “Your toes aren’t pointed”, becomes, “The tag point is…pointed toes.” “Stop bumping the volleyball with straight legs, there’s no power in that” becomes “The tag point is…bent knees”. Now both parties are focused on what should happen instead of what shouldn’t happen.

Secondly, the unique construction of the phrase sets the stage for a balanced relationship between coach and athlete. Jim Mernin works with athletes of all ages and cognitive abilities in the art of horsemanship for the Festina Lente equestrian facility in Wicklow, Ireland. He found his students felt less intimidated when objectives were phrased “The tag point is…” instead of the standard “I want you to ….” The absence of the words “I want” allows the coach to become more of a facilitator and less of a dictator. This leveling of the playing field is not lost on the learner. Jim says the phraseology helps create a relationship with his students based on assistance instead of dominance, opening the door for better communication and respect.

Finally, because tag points are broken down into easily recognizable bits with simple yes or no answers, athletes can become the ‘coach’ and tag each other. We call this ‘peer tagging’. Athletes instantly fill with a sense of responsibility and pride as they are handed a tagger and put in charge of deciding if the tag point was preformed or not. They learn to look for correct actions in their partner, while mentally reinforcing the same points within themselves. The student who teaches learns twice.

For instance, a baseball coach breaks his team members into groups of two. The tag point is… step into the swing. One player is the ‘coach’ and will tag if the tag point is achieved. The second in the pair is the ‘athlete’ and will perform the skill. Each group of 2 is now completely focused on their individual assignment and after a set number of tags can flip flop the coach-athlete role. Each athlete is now getting a mental workout even though they may not be the one currently performing the skill. Bonus- with the athletes tagging each other, the coach is now free to give an individual attention, without halting the rest of the group.

Positive Reinforcement

Historically coaches are not given many tools to focus on the good. We acknowledge something performed correctly only as long as it takes to consider what still needs to be improved. The key to TAGteach is to increase a correct response, action, or position by pinpointing and reinforcing it. Although studies show that especially in adults, feedback and accomplishment are in themselves reinforcing, the definable and measurable successes of the audible tag can be counted and used in a token economy. As an athlete collects a pre-defined number of “tags,” she may choose to turn them in to “buy” stickers, trinkets, come in late on a Saturday practice, choose the next skill, or even choose next tag point. Groups of athletes can combine their earned tags and turn them in for open gym time, compete in skill contests, or team sleepovers.

Working with Special Needs Athletes

Although TAGteach is being utilized by nationally ranked main-stream athletes, the methodology of marking a predefined response, action, or position (the tag point), utilizing non-threatening language and positive reinforcement also make it perfect for work with the special needs community as noted by the following: Special Olympics: “We saw an almost immediate improvement in skill execution and confidence in our Special Olympics rhythmic gymnasts”, said Debbie Boycott, head coach of the Oakville Butterflies from Oakville, ON Canada. “The athletes were very quick to understand and appreciate this way of teaching and were even able to teach each other using the TAGteach methods”. [Editor's note: Athlete Emily Boycott won 5 gold medals in Special Olympics rhythmic gymnastics]

Jennifer Golynsky, Special Olympics coach in aquatics and tennis relates, “I have been coaching Special Olympics for 11 years and feel that TAGteach is aligned with the Special Olympics philosophy in that it emphasizes positive reinforcement, athlete confidence and breaking down skills into manageable tasks.

Students with Autism: “Applied Behavior Consultants, Inc., founded in 1986, by Dr. Joseph Morrow and Brenda Terzich, M.A., has provided behavioral services for over 3000 clients worldwide. TAGteach™ allows us to be “language-free” with our reinforcement. This is a tremendous benefit since many of our students have communicative deficits. Once paired with a reinforcer, the “tag” is universal. Preliminary research at ABC, Inc. has shown positive results using TAGteach and positive behavior change. TAGteach™ is not just for competitive athletes and gymnasts; it can be proven functional and invaluable for children with Autism, as shown here at ABC, Inc.” [Editor's note: visit our website and blog posts for research on TAGteach and autism]

Say Goodbye to Nagging

Like the much loved video game, TAGteach provides instant, positive, audible feedback. It’s easy to use and understand and backed by the science of learning. The methodology described, provides coaches with a tool other than a notional hammer to present feedback in a supportive, productive fashion beneficial to coaches and athletes.

Comments from dance teachers after attending a TAGteach seminar:

TAGteach Level 1 Certification in Japan by Webcam

2010-10-27T10:50:00.000-04:00

A group of creative TAGteachers got together in Japan to earn their Level 1 TAGteach certification via webcam and Skype link with Theresa McKeon in the US. The participants had previously attended a TAGteach seminar with Theresa in Japan to earn their primary level certification. After practicing their skills they were ready to work towards their next level of certification and demonstrate to Theresa. The webcam and Skype links allowed Theresa to observe and comment on the session. Everyone agreed that this 2 hour session was a great success.

Here is a short video that shows some parts of the session:

TAGteacher Tale - Teaching the Teacher

2010-10-21T12:53:00.000-04:00

We love to hear of people who learn about the principles of learning and can then apply those in another situation. Thanks to TAGteacher Rebecca Lynch for allowing us to reproduce her story here.

Yesterday was my second session with a very nice couple and their springer spaniel pup. As I was leaving, the husband asked if he could walk me to my car and told me he had a story to tell me. Ron is a 7th grade school teacher. He told me that he had a program in his class where he put the kids in teams and at the end of the week, the team that scored the most points (for doing assignments, bringing their books, etc) would get brownies. The problem he was having was that there were two boys that were trouble-makers. Nobody wanted them on their team because they'd never win.

Ron started thinking about what I had taught him about dog training. Reward the good behavior. He decided to try it out on his kids at school. So he put the two boys on the same team and set out to find something that they could be rewarded for.

It didn't take long. The boys managed to be the first to be seated when class started. Ron started putting check marks by their name on the board. He continued as they remained seated and the other kids were still milling around. After 5 or 6 check marks, one of the other kids remarked, "Mr. Ramage, why do they have all the marks?" He replied, "Because they are sitting quietly at their seats".

By the end of the week, the two boys had done their homework and turned assignments in on time. They brought their books. They quickly sat down when they came to class. AND they won the brownies.

The other teachers were amazed. I'm hoping that Ron will teach the teachers how to do the same. Of course, I immediately sent him to www.tagteach.com.

I'm really proud of him for thinking outside of the box and applying the R+ theory to not only his dog, but his students. I am really looking forward to future sessions with him!

Rebecca is a Karen Pryor Certified Training Partner and owner of K9 Clicking in Mt Juliet TN.

How to Introduce the Tagulator

2010-10-20T14:02:00.001-04:00

Here is a video that shows how to introduce the tagulator to increase teaching efficiency. This child has up until now received a reinforcer after each tag. Sometimes it has been stickers, beads or melon pieces, but he is most interested in Skittles. It is often disruptive to the smooth flow of a lesson to stop and eat a Skittle after each tag. The tagulator provides a great way to reinforce without stopping to deal with the primary reinforcer. Lear is 4 and this is his introduction to the tagulator. Notice that he has no problem with the drastic reduction in the number of Skittles he is getting. Formerly he was getting 1 Skittle per tag, now he is getting 1 Skittle per 10 tags. Clearly it is more about the game than about the candy for Lear now.

He sometimes wants to stop and count remaining beads to see how far he still has to go to get a Skittle, but he does not object to the the 10X reduction in Skittles. The tagulator is fun too.

Note how matter-of-fact the teacher is here. She doesn't cajole or ask him if he wants to use the tagulator, she just tells him that this is what we are doing now and then she does it. She has a good history of reliability with Lear and he likes and trusts her. He also respects her because she sets the expectations, she is clear and she is consistent. Lear is tag savvy and is very clear on the concept of TAGteach.

If you want to know more about tagulators and see a video showing how to make one, please see our previous blog post. You can also buy them in the TAGteach store.

Note: the teacher in this video is Joan's daughter Anne Wormald who has been tagging and been tagged since 2002 and is our newest Level 1 certified TAGteacher. This video is part of her Level 1 project.

TAGteacher Tale - I Changed the Way I Teach!

2010-09-24T17:19:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Marcia Nelson who tells us how learning about TAGteach has changed the way she teaches...

I have turned my teaching style upside down from my old ways when I was introduced to the TAGteach system complete with taggers for my students a few years back at the Clicker Convention in LA.

I've used it now for several years with children in their horsemanship and riding lessons. I use it when I see something they do extraordinary in remembering something they were taught. I use it to set up a challenge for them that either they set up or I set up and I use it for other kids in the class to watch for something that their classmate is working on.

I find that children can only hold a small amount of instruction without being discouraged because coaches like me that are perfectionists tend to find what still needs fixing and forget how much is going well!! Especially when they are riding a horse because there are sooo many elements. I let them know we're picking only one thing to tag, the rest of the things can be whatever, we're only looking at one thing. What a mind blower it is for kids that think they have to get it all right or nothing!! It helps me to keep it age & maturity appropriate for each child this way too. The funny thing is that once we have positively worked with them on something and go to another item when it is good is that they stay pretty darn good on the previous thing we worked on and so we build them up while only focusing on one item at a time!

I have a very bright young one that is succeeding very steadily with this process as I shape her a bit at a time and don't worry that it is not all being fixed in one setting. I'm jazzed to see where she has come in just two weeks of working the tagger system. Prior to that she was good the first few lessons when it was all new and then she knew it all and was like a greased pig to keep in line and heading in a steady direction which is an absolute necessity around horses.

Finding a balance with each personality is sure a necessity and it has to be shaped over and over as you go. Who says we aren't creative artists?? This is incredibly artistic to sort out and keep moving in a forward positive direction.

Marcia Nelson
www.horsemanshangout.com

TAGteach with Toddlers

2010-09-14T15:45:00.001-04:00

In a previous post we talked about some reinforcers for toddlers and today we will hear from two mothers of toddlers who are also accomplished clicker trainers and TAGteachers. How lucky are these kids to grow up with positive reinforcement-based parenting right from the start?

From Keri Gorman - Getting Started

I've been tagging my 2 year old son since he was about 16 months old. Hopefully I can add some ideas that worked for us, but as I'm quickly learning, human animals do not seem to be as straight forward as non-humans :)

When I was just introducing tag, I would do it when we were engaged in a fun game and would only do it for a few minutes and then bring it out again a few days later. This seemed to help keep his interest, it was a novelty to him. I would tag him for doing something I knew he would be successful at and had fun with. For him at that age it was a little sorting cube. He already liked putting the shapes in the cube and was good at it so I would tag him for the correct responses followed by my praise.

We did the same game with sign language. I started with his favorite signs and signs he knew really well. I would tag him for signs that he really liked and had a 100% chance of getting right. I gave him the tagger for this game and would ask him, "Is this the sign for 'more'?" (i would do the sign for 'milk' and he would shake his head no) I would then ask him "Is this the sign for 'more'?" and then do the correct sign for 'more' and he would tag me. it was a great way for him to learn that tagging meant "yes, you did it right"and that incorrect answers didn't get a tag. I was really structured when I gave him the tagger and made the session short and sweet so he couldn't get carried away with it. I would give a very clear "all done" sign and quickly move onto another game or toy.

It was only after he bought into the game did I attempt to use it for washing his hair or changing his diaper. He was in the bathtub and we were having the usual struggle of rinsing his hair and I just stopped and said, "do you want me to tag you?" and he nodded his head. I didn't have a tagger or a reinforcer, but just did a tongue click followed by praise and that was totally enough. As for diaper changing, a hair rubber band turned out to be a perfect reinforcer. He likes shooting rubber bands (you could use a ball or something else to throw) the great thing is that the item leaves their hands and you have to go pick it up and hand it to them again, which sets you up to tag them again right away.

Toddlers are SO smart and I'm not sure I could ever "train" mine to do something. I think letting them feel control over situations is more powerful than anything. I don't think I would be successful with Max if I just said, "I'm going to tag you for..." I think our success has been in making it a game first off, and then giving him the option if he wants to play the game or not. If he says no, I'm respectful of that.

This is just my experience and every kid is so different, so take it for what it's worth.

From Denise Lacey - Some Toddler Tag Points

Owen's first tag point was "Open fingers" - a wide open hand. Worked great because I did not want to cut my hair and he wanted to grab it. He had this one mastered by seven months because I was bragging about him at ClickerExpo after his birth. It has been very handy for lots of things - petting our cats and dogs, getting things out of his hand that he should not have (although now asking him to hand it to me works for that).

We also use "bottom down" for lots of stuff: getting in the car seat, sitting down to brush teeth or eat. He loved doing bottom down in the tub so much that he'd stand up again and crash down to make a big splash so I stopped asking for it there.

"High five" is a great targeting skill. I've used this with other toddlers as well to get them to come back instead of running off.

Many of my reinforcers are strange noises, silly faces and laughing. Toddlers seem to love doing things that cause a reaction so those all work instead of me having to carry a tangible reward around. Owen beams when I say "I LUV IT!" very expressively.

Mostly I just find that I phrase things in terms of what I want not what I don't want or what he can't do. I don't say stay out of the road, instead it is "hold a hand to go in the street." This afternoon he had dad's hand but wouldn't go in the road until he had mine too. I was not planning on crossing the street but with toddlers plans change all the time and I crossed the road.

We had three other little boys over in the sandbox this morning. What started as three moms saying "Don't throw sand" ended up with four moms saying "put the sand in the sand box." I am more than willing to talk to moms about what I'm doing if they ask but just like with my relatives, I tend to just try to be an example and let them choose what they want to do. And I do find that I repeat some tag points over and over and over and over...alternative behaviors can be self reinforcing.

Even after I had started tagging Owen, another mom mentioned an article she read that said toddlers grab things from other toddlers because that is how their parents interact with them - if they have something we don't want them to have or that we want/need we just take it without asking. That just really solidified for me how I wanted to interact with my son. Of course, there are things he can't do. I won't let him play with the stove regardless of whether or not it is on. If I give him a behavior and he chooses to persist in going for the stove, I physically move him (I am bigger and he is not a dolphin :) ). He gets very mad for a brief moment and then I can get him to do something acceptable. Seems that sometimes he is so fixated on his goal that he can't process my requests. Makes me think of "squirrel!" Mostly, he is pretty easy to redirect with a positive request for another behavior and is really getting to be quite the helper around the house.

Upcoming TAGteach Seminars

2010-08-25T14:15:00.005-04:00

"Just how do you adjust what you know about clicker training an animal to make it successful with human learners?" was the question asked by Janet Velenovsky in her article for the July/August issue of APDT's Chronicle of the Dog. Her answer was, "attend a TAGteach seminar!".

Now you can build on your clicker training knowledge and turn it in to an advantage in every field imaginable: teaching, business, parenting, physical therapy and of course animal training. Experience how an audible marker, strategic reduction in language, and a preset point of focus is transforming the human learning experience.

Register now for an open TAGteach Certification Seminar or contact Theresa at t@tagteach.com to schedule a personalized seminar for your group.

Upcoming Seminars

Brisbane, Australia (9/11-12/2010)

Christchurch, New Zealand(9/18-19/2010)

Hamburg, Germany (10/16-17/2010)

Los Angeles, CA (11/6-7/2010)

Tampa, FL (12/3-4/2010)

Franklin, IN (2/12-13/2011)

Glastonbury, CT(3/11-12/2011)

Comments from a recent TAGteach seminar:

"The response from all attendees was unanimously positive. It is rare that professionals from different educational disciplines (teachers, OTs, consultants) all feel that the information from the training will be useful professionally. I clearly saw the benefits that can result from using TAGteach for both teachers and students. "
Maureen Bradshaw, MS-Director, ARLearn-Arkansas Department of Education

"It truly was one of the best trainings I have ever had the opportunity to attend. Thanks so much!"
Sheila Smith-Behavior Intervention Consultant

"Definitely was one of the best 2 days of training in 15 years." Laura McKenzie Cooke-Arkansas Department of Education

More info and to Register

Basic Principles Article #7: Using TAGteach to Gain Co-operation Around the House

2010-08-25T11:36:00.004-04:00

TAGteach™ (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) is a new way of teaching using positive reinforcement with a click sound marker to identify successful performance. In past columns we have talked about the tag point – the exact response, action or position that a teacher pinpoints with a tag (the click sound) to tell the student “YES, that was right!”, how to associate the audible tag with a tangible reinforcer and how to harness the power of peer tagging. Here we talk about how TAGteach can be used to help gain co-operation around the house with household chores. Yes your pre-teen can clean her room and be happy to do it!

Identify the Tag Point

Think about what it is you want your child to do (as opposed to what you want him not to do). For example “I want my kids to take their dishes from the table, clear the plates into the garbage and put the dishes in the dishwasher”. Since this is a relatively simple sequence that most children can easily follow, you explain the sequence and then say “the tag point is dishes in the dishwasher”. Discuss this at breakfast and get agreement from everyone that this is the tag point for the next week.

Choose the Reinforcer

It is beneficial to have agreement about the reinforcer that will be earned for each tag. It could be a ticket in a jar that the family will redeem for popcorn and a movie once there are 100 tickets in the jar. It could be a sticker on chart leading up to some other ultimate reward or it could be the immediate delivery of a skittle or a new colored pencil. Discussing both the tag point and the nature of the reinforcer will ensure the success of the game.

Implement the Game

Remind the children of the tag point at the end of the meal if it seems that someone might forget. If they do forget, just keep quiet and leave the dishes on the table. Put your own dishes in the dishwasher, tag yourself and put a ticket in the jar. This may seem silly and contrived at first, but if you are creative with your tag points and the reinforcement is worth working for you will soon find that an air of cooperation takes over as everyone works towards a common goal. Resist the urge to nag or remind after the fact and pretend that you really don’t care about the dishes. Never mind that you are rewarding the children for doing what they “should” do anyway. Use rewards that you would give them for free anyway (family night at the movies for example). After a week or so of putting the dishes in the dishwasher, this will become a habit that will not need to be reinforced every time and you can move on to something else.

Multiple Tag Points

When teaching a physical skill, the tag point is very narrowly defined. With behaviors around the house, however, it is feasible to have more broadly defined tag points. For example the kids could all have their own taggers and anytime anyone sees anyone else doing anything helpful they can tag the other (they could say “tag” if there is not an actual tagger handy). This gives a group of children a way to earn a lot of tickets in the jar quickly while practicing cooperative behavior at the same time.

Next time we will talk about using TAGteach to help teach math and science concepts.

We invite you to join the TAGteacher discussion group at www.tagteach.com to meet others who are implementing TAGteach in various disciplines and to see the list of upcoming TAGteach seminars.

More Praise for TAGteach with Autism

2010-08-24T14:24:00.003-04:00

"I am a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and I heard about TAG at a conference presented by Julie Vargas. I have been using it for my students with autism and it has work well for every single one of them. I have used it for teaching a student to stay with his family as they walk around a track, have used it to teach games to children with autism, have used it to shape writing behavior, and have used it to teach gross motor skills. I have not tried it with social skills yet, but I would think it would work for that as well! The thing I'm so impressed with about TAG is how fast the kids learn the target behavior. I have been working in the field of autism for over 13 years and have never seen anything work so quickly to shape behavior"

Jerusia Chasse

Jerusia will be hosting a TAGteach seminar in Glastonbury CT on Mar10/11, 2011

TAGteacher Spotlight - Sara McLoudrey

2010-07-27T21:10:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to TAGteacher Sara McLoudrey for becoming our most recent Certified Level 2 TAGteacher! Thanks to Sara for sharing the story of her journey with TAGteach.

I was first introduced to TAGteach in 2008 at Clicker Expo. That summer I was lucky enough to attend my first TAGteach seminar in Chicago. After the first day my life was changed! That night I went home to my then almost 3 year old who was not wanting to go to bed. First step was getting him upstairs. I started tagging any movement towards the stairs. Then he got tagged for every stair he went up. By the time he was tucked in it was the most uneventful bedtime routine for months. I was sold!

Over the next few months I worked with my son, a few client’s children, and my dog training students. One of my favorite training sessions was teaching a client’s 6 year old how to skip. Literally in one tag she was skipping, she was shocked, her mom was shocked and was so excited - it worked! That fall my father passed away and I really wanted to read something at his memorial service. I remember calling Theresa and saying I had an idea to TAGteach it with back-chaining. She was very supportive and asked if I would videotape it. I did, and most importantly I was able to read the piece at the service. I used my tagulator during the reading to help keep me on track. While attending my second TAGteach seminar in Boston in October of 2008 I decided to use TAG to tackle my biggest problem facing me and my son - going to the dentist.

We started by tagging very simple things at home like opening your mouth and playing with the Playdough dentist. The first visit to the actual office it took him over 15 minutes to get into the front door of the waiting room. He would panic and bolt or stop moving out of fear. We eventually did 10 visits, over 6 months - 9 by himself and 1 to watch Dad go to the dentist - before he was willing to try actually seeing the dentist. The first visit with the dentist he sat on my lap and the dentist only wanted to count his teeth. It was a success! For the next 6 months we continued to work on skills at home but we did not visit the office. Time came for his next check up he had an actual complete visit. He sat in the chair by himself, had his teeth polished, flossed, counted and fluoride treated. You could see his stress at times but he was able to do it all - independently! I was not sure if this day would ever come. One year after we started, with only 11 visits we had a child who was not terrified by the dentist. Hopefully I have laid the foundation for a lifetime of healthy dental habits.

More dentist videos on YouTube

In addition to using TAGteach with my son I use it to teach competition obedience handler skills in my dog training classes. With one client we were able to change 25 years of footwork to new footwork more suitable to her current dog. Recently I have started a Self Tagging Blog to share a few Self Tagging Projects. I can’t imagine my life without TAGteach! It makes my teaching easier, it makes being a mom easier and I feel I can tackle almost any problem! I am honored to be called a TAGteacher.

Visit Sara's Facebook Page
Visit Sara's blog
Visit Sara's website

TAGteach Research

2010-07-07T13:47:00.001-04:00

Interested in TAGteach research?
Check out this link is to the power point presentation of Megan Morien's master's thesis study:
The Effects of TAGteach™ Methods on Sign Language Object-Naming Skills in Non-vocal Children with Autism by Megan Morien presented at ABAI 2010

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33974647/Morien-ABAI-2010s

"You Don't Act Like a Jerk When You Have Business Cards"

2010-07-07T13:34:00.003-04:00

Great article:
Reprinted with permission from the Latham Letter
"You Don't Act Like a Jerk When You Have Business Cards"
Lynn Loar, Ph.D., LCSW with
Geoffrey Pott, Sebastian Pott and Noah Carlton
Full version available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/33977977/LLSmr2010LLoar

“You don’t act like a jerk when you have business cards” explained eight-year-old

Geoffrey Pott when I asked about his newfound maturity and impulse control. The business cards were one in a series of reinforcers he – and by now members of his staff – had received for stellar behavior in my ice skating class at the Winter Lodge in Palo Alto, California.

The Family Ice Skating Program, featured in the short documentary TAGs on Ice,** offers ice skating instruction for children with special needs and their families. It’s one of the few programs that entire families can enjoy regardless of the disparate abilities of their several children. A peek at the class through the Winter Lodge’s picture window yields the impression of a laboratory testing prototypes for the next generation of Energizer Bunnies, lots of little boys zooming around with no interest in learning to stop – and a few zooming dads, too!

TAGteach Reinforcers for Toddlers and Preschoolers

2010-06-29T12:50:00.001-04:00

We are sometimes asked if TAGteach works with toddlers and preschoolers. Well of course it does! Sometimes very young children just like the sound of the tag and that fact that their actions can make it happen. It is a fun game that gives them control. Sometimes something more tangible is required. Here is a list of some possible reinforcers for toddlers and preschoolers:

Stickers - to put on a chart, on their hand, on their clothes
Bubbles (child blows, or you blow and child breaks)
Using Crayola stamping markers - on their hands, feet or on a chart
A piece of a puzzle to build later when all the pieces are collected
Opening a drawer or window of a special prize chest - as with advent calendar - to see a new picture or get a small prize
Giving the dog/cat/bird/fish a treat
Pushing buttons - cell phone, remote control etc
Putting drops of food colour in a clear glass of water to watch the swirls
Planting seeds in little pots
Clicking a clicker
Adding a Duplo (or Lego) block to a tower
Knocking down any kind of tower
Adding something to a driveway chalk picture
"Painting" with water on the deck or patio
Making noise with any kind of noisemaker