A Preliminary Investigation on the Utility of Embedding Fluency-Building Strategies within the TAGteach Procedure

TAGteach is a trademarked intervention package designed to promote skill acquisition by combining the use of an audible stimulus as immediate feedback with several other behavior analytic procedures. Although TAGteach effectively improves the accuracy of sports performance, previous researchers have noted that TAGteach does not reliably promote synchronized, coordinated (i.e., fluent) sport movements. To date, no study has evaluated the efficacy of embedding fluency-building strategies within the standard TAGteach procedure. We used a concurrent multiple baseline across skills design to evaluate the accurate and fluent performance of three dynamic-gymnastics skills through virtual coaching with an adapted TAGteach procedure with four participants aged 6-11 years. For all participants, the adapted TAGteach procedure increased the accurate and fluent performance of all gymnastics skills, and these gymnastics skills maintained for a minimum of 1 month. Results are discussed within the context of intervention implications and suggestions for future research. Implications for Clinicians and/or Researchers in Behavior Analysis: • To date, no studies have incorporated or assessed fluency-building strategies within the TAGteach procedure in sports. Given that many sport skills are "dynamic" and require synchronized, coordinated movements, it seems critical to incorporate fluency-building strategies into existing coaching strategies to enhance the fluency with which one performs sports skills.• Our adapted TAGteach procedure with fluency-building strategies produced improvements in all skills for all participants-and these improvements largely maintained for at least 4 weeks.• When three participants did not achieve or approach the frequency aim for the straddle jump, our procedural modification to this skill increased their rate of correct tag points or decreased their rate of errors during fluency probes. This outcome emphasizes the importance of data-driven procedural modifications for effective behavior-analytic practice.• Participants reported enjoying our adapted TAGteach procedure with embedded fluency-building strategies.• Our adapted TAGteach procedure produced performance changes large enough to be detected by a novel expert.

The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-025-01142-0.