Henry Learns to do Fun Stuff: A TAGteach Success Story

March 24, 2022March 24, 2022 Joan Orr Leave a comment

By Emma Wicks

My son Henry (now 11) was diagnosed with autism at the age of two and a half. Despite his complex needs and communication difficulties, TAGteach has been a simple yet effective tool for Henry and his family and tutors to help pinpoint the precise movements that enable him to get the most out of his hobbies, school, and day to day routines.

Happiness for Henry was Paramount

Like all parents, I wanted Henry to gain the skills needed to enjoy an independent, fulfilling, and happy life. With complex special educational needs (SEN), this throws up some challenges both for the child with SEN and the parent. I qualified as a Montessori teacher in 2013 and believed in the importance of following a child’s interests and allowing them time to discover, explore and just ‘be’.

TAGteacher Spotlight – Martha Gabler MA

August 17, 2018August 17, 2018 Joan Orr Leave a comment

Editor’s Note: We are thrilled to have Martha on our team of TAGteach Instructors as a Faculty Member. Martha has made a huge contribution to the development of TAGteach for autism.

Martha is the author of the popular book, Chaos to Calm: Discovering solutions to the everyday problems of living with autism.

Meet Martha in person and learn about TAGteach at the upcoming Advanced Workshop in Boston, Sept 29-30, 2018.

By Martha Gabler MA, TAGteach Faculty

My name is Martha Gabler. My husband and I are the parents of two boys. The younger one, now 22 years old, was diagnosed at age 3 as having severe autism and being profoundly non-verbal. He had all the common difficult behaviors typical of children with autism, including self-injury and aggression.

By sheer chance, I learned about TAGteach and realized instantly that this method for positive behavior change could be a huge help for us. This turned out to be the case. My son is now a delightful, happy teen who loves life and loves going places. He still has autism, but life is much, much better for us all.

Here is a video that shows my son Doug going for a walk with his friend Anne and listening to his music. I had to teach him the skills for safe walking and sitting still to listen to music; now he can apply these and gain enjoyment from them independently.

Using TAGteach to Help Learners Acquire Spontaneous Imitation, Functional Play and Social Skills

September 8, 2017June 16, 2018 Joan Orr Leave a comment

By Roni Dunning, B.A., ABA M.Sc., TAGteach Level 2, Blossom ABA

The first time a child performs a skill that they haven’t previously demonstrated is always unforgettable! At Blossom ABA, we’ve been using TAGteach® to help our learners emit spontaneous behaviours in a number of different developmental areas such as imitation, play and social skills. While we use an audible marker, we tend to limit language to teach behaviours that we want to increase in frequency or behaviours that require a chain of steps.

How Does TAGteach Work?

TAGteach enables the teacher to mark a learner’s appropriate behaviour with a sound made using a handheld clicker (or tagger). The tag becomes a conditioned positive reinforcer through association with tangible rewards (access to a preferred toy for example) or praise if the learner finds praise reinforcing. At times, the tag sound can be combined with a small piece of a highly preferred food, a sip of a preferred drink or a token economy system, which helps learners who are being taught skills intensively to understand when they’ve finished that round of teaching and can access a preferred item or activity. We use the terms “reinforcement” and “reinforcing” when referring to things that increase the likelihood that a behavior will happen in future (Skinner, 1957). There is research evidence to support the use of TAGteach and its efficacy in teaching a number of skills, ranging from the teaching of every day tasks to children with autism, movements in sports and to teach surgical procedures to medical students (Jackson, P. A., 2014; Gabler, M., 2013; Fogel et. al, 2010; Levi et. al, 2015).

TAGteacher, You’re My Hero! A Letter Every Teacher and Coach Wishes to Receive

April 5, 2016February 27, 2017 Joan Orr Leave a comment

You’re my hero! Wouldn’t you love to hear that from your students? We think you’ll agree that receiving something like this makes all the work, the dedication, the blood, the sweat, the tears and the dealing with the criticism from the doubters completely worth it. This is an essay that 10 year old Irene Kim wrote for a 5th grade assignment. She chose skating coach and TAGteacher Lynn Loar as the subject of her essay. Thank you Irene for sharing your thoughts and shining the light on Lynn, who is an inspiration to all of us.

The Skating Hero

by Irene Kim

I skate freely around the bitter cold ice rink with my hands in my pocket. I glance up and see a bright shiny smile that seems to light up the room. It’s from Lynn, my hero.

Interview with a TAGteacher: TAGteach for Special Needs Tennis

March 25, 2016February 27, 2017 Joan Orr Leave a comment

Have you wondered how to apply TAGteach in a group sports setting with special needs kids? Will it be too noisy for the learner to hear the tags? Will the learner be too distracted by everything else going on the room? How do you handle the reinforcers? Can you use TAGteach to manage behavior and social issues? Do coaches really think that kids taught with TAGteach learn better? Listen to this month’s interview with a TAGteacher and watch the accompanying videos to get answers to these and more questions.

Interview with a TAGteacher: TAGteach in an Autism School Setting

February 27, 2016February 27, 2017 Joan Orr Leave a comment

Have you wondered how to apply TAGteach in a classroom setting? Will it be too noisy for the learner to hear the tags? Will the learner be too distracted by everything else going on the room? Will you need to give too many food reinforcers? Can you use TAGteach to manage aggressive and dangerous behaviors? Is it OK to let the child use the tagger and be the teacher? Listen to this month’s interview with a TAGteacher and watch the accompanying videos to get answers to these and more questions.

This month’s interview is with Anne Wormald. Anne is one of the first TAGteachers and has extensive experience from both ends of the tagger, being the daughter of Joan Orr, one of the TAGteach cofounders. Anne is working on her BCBA and is a Level 2 TAGteacher. She has many years of experience working with special needs kids and at the moment is working in home and school settings with children with autism.