Comparing the Effect of Echoic and Listener Responding in the Development of Complex Intraverbals.

This study aimed to compare the effects of echoic and listener responding in the emergence of complex intraverbal behavior in four children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Each participant was taught to provide an echoic response or a listener response for different discriminative stimuli for each condition. We used a nonconcurrent multiple probe design across participants and adapted an alternating treatment design to compare the effects between the two conditions. Pre- and posttests were used to evaluate the effects of the two different prompt types in the emergence of complex intraverbals. The results indicate that the echoic response was more effective than the listener response at increasing the emergence of complex intraverbal responses in three out of four participants.

Evaluation of the Effects of the Stimulus-Pairing Observation Procedure and Match to Sample on the Emergence of Listener Responses in Children with Autism.

I investigated the effects of the stimulus-pairing observation procedure (SPOP) in conjunction with match-to-sample (MTS) training to establish untrained listener responses in three young children with autism spectrum disorder. I evaluated MTS training and the SPOP within a multiple-probe across-participants design. I conducted posttest probes across five-stimulus set after participants' exposure to MTS training and the SPOP to test for untrained listener responses. The participants demonstrated emergent untrained responses during the posttest probes and maintained untrained listener responses 3 weeks postmastery.

Nonsimultaneous stimulus presentations and their role in listener naming.

Previous studies on naming have presented the object and its name simultaneously during both training and testing, and thus the training component may establish a transformation of function directly between the object and the name. Successful tests for listener naming may thus not require the emergence of a novel (entailed) transformation of function. The current study aimed to control for this possibility by presenting the object and the name sequentially and nonsimultaneously. Eight typically developing toddlers participated in the current study. During name training, objects and names were presented nonsimultaneously, and all participants failed to emit listener-naming responses during the first test session. Subsequently, 4 participants received multiple exemplar training, which led to improvements in listener naming for all 4; and speaker naming for only 1 participant. As a control condition, the remaining 4 participants were tested repeatedly, without multiple exemplar training, and did not show any consistent improvements in their listener or speaker performances. Multiple exemplar training thus appeared to be effective in establishing generalized listener responses, which involved generating entailed transformation of functions. The strategy of using nonsimultaneous stimulus presentations could allow for greater precision in identifying the behavioral processes involved in listener-naming.

The Effects of the Interspersal of Related Responses on the Emergence of Intraverbals for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The present study evaluated the emergence of intraverbals for 2 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Prior to baseline, both children demonstrated tact, tact function, listener, and listener by function responses with 12 pictorial stimuli, yet they failed to demonstrate intraverbals related to the function of the items (e.g., "What do you do with [item]?" and "What do you use to [function]?"). Following baseline, previously mastered related tact, tact function, listener, and listener by function tasks were presented prior to probe trials for the target item-function and function-item intraverbals. Results showed that interspersal of the related tasks for a subset of the intraverbals led to the emergence of untrained item-function and function-item intraverbals for both participants. In Experiment 2, the long-term effects of this remedial training on the emergence of untrained intraverbals was evaluated as new tact and listener responses were trained. Results of Experiment 2 showed that tact function and listener by function training was sufficient to establish the emergence of item-function and function-item intraverbals in the absence of related-task interspersal. These results are discussed in relation to current explanations for emergent responding.

Matrix Training for Expanding the Communication of Toddlers and Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) typically exhibit a range of social communication deficits. Presequenced stimulus arrangements, such as matrix training, can be used to facilitate generative responding. Accordingly, training procedures can lead to the acquisition of a greater number of targets that are not taught explicitly, with fewer learning trials. Matrix training provides a useful framework for selecting teaching targets to promote the emergence of untaught skills. Participants were 3 young boys diagnosed with ASD, who were taught noun-verb combinations of play actions as tact and listener responses. All participants learned the taught noun-verb targets and showed varying degrees of recombinative generalization to untaught targets. Across subsequent matrices, the rate of acquisition of new targets and the number acquired without direct teaching increased (i.e., recombinative generalization). This suggests matrix training stimulus arrangements can facilitate the acquisition of novel targets by teaching young children with ASD to recombine language components appropriately.

Teaching Children with Autism to Initiate and Respond to Peer Mands Using Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS).

We evaluated the effects of systematic prompting plus reinforcement on listeners' independent responses to peer mands and on speakers' peer-directed mands using the picture exchange communication system (PECS) in two studies. In Study 1, three PECS users with a diagnosis of autism were trained to direct PECS exchanges toward peers, whereas in Study 2, three peers with autism were taught to accept a PECS card, select the requested item from an array of three items, and place it in front of their peer. Study 1 showed an increase in peer PECS mands that generalized to novel trained peers for all participants. Results of Study 2 demonstrated an increase in correct independent responses to PECS exchange for all participants, a response that readily generalized across peers and settings for two out of three participants. These results suggest that this intervention protocol may be an effective way to increase interactions between peers with autism.

Live training versus e-learning to teach implementation of listener response programs.

Discrete-trial teaching is an effective teaching procedure that must be implemented with high integrity to produce optimal learning. Behavioral Skills Training (BST) has proven effective for staff training; however, BST is time and labor intensive. Computer-based instruction (CBI) programs may provide a more efficient and cost-effective alternative to live training if the CBI program is as effective as BST in producing accurate implementation. The current study compared CBI to BST to train novice undergraduate students to conduct discrete-trial teaching. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions and assessed prior to and after the completion of training. Results indicated that although both BST and CBI were effective at training participants to implement discrete-trial teaching, BST was slightly but significantly more effective whereas CBI quickly created a return on the investment of product development.

An Abbreviated Evaluation of the Efficiency of Listener and Tact Instruction for Children with Autism.

We assessed the efficiency of tact and listener training for eight participants with autism spectrum disorder. Tact and listener probes were conducted in baseline for all target sets, and then tact training was initiated with one and listener training with another. Following mastery of one set, tact and listener probes were conducted with only the sets assigned to the same modality of training (i.e., sets 1, 3, and 5 for tact; sets 2, 4, and 6 for listener). Training and probes were repeated for all sets. The measures of efficiency included the number of skills mastered through direct training, the number of skills that emerged without training, the number of trials-to-criterion, and maintenance of skills. Clinical programming based on each participant's results is discussed. For six participants, tact training was more efficient than listener training across multiple measures. For the remaining two participants, tact training and listener training were considered equivalent.