Association for Behavior Analysis International

Nearly a quarter of individuals with a diagnosis of autism, remain non vocal-verbal even after 8 years of age (Lord, Risi, & Pickles, 2004; Wodka, Mathy & Kalb, 2013) and those with speech impairments and minimal verbal skills have less favorable outcomes in life (Anderson,2007). A 6-year 8 months study (2010-2016) with children with autism (n=126) was successful in inducing 7 first instances of speech in 105 (83%) of the participants, Awasthi (2017), using Mand and Intraverbal Training procedures. Drawn from this large cohort study, the first 3 studies in this symposium offer newer perspectives on the technologies that minimize the number of children remaining non-vocal, and reviews its effect on older non-vocal children. Details on the form of 734 first speech instances as words and syllables are also discussed. The fourth study, building upon previous research from behavioral sciences and Speech Language Pathology literature Presents video self-monitoring to improve procedural integrity in speech production training.

Behavior Analysts and Speech Language Pathologists

The current study spanning 6 years and 8 months, reviews the technologies developed for the emergence of speech in non-vocal children with autism and examines the effectiveness of sign mand training and intraverbal training and the role of stimulus stimulus pairing and motivating operations in inducing first instances of speech in non-vocal children on the autism spectrum. A total of 126 non-vocal children between the ages 1.4 years to 13.5 years participated in 4 experiments that used delayed non-concurrent multiple baseline design across subjects. The technologies were effective in inducing first instances of speech in 83% participants. The time to vocalization, vocals across operants, type of vocal emergence, age of vocalization and the relative successes of the technologies used are explored.

A 6-year 8 months study (2010-2016) with children with autism (n=126) was successful in inducing 7 first instances of speech in 105 (83%) of the participants (Awasthi, 2017). This retrospective study examines a) the form of speech emergence (syllables, word approximations, words) in this large cohort and b) the form of emergence under different stimulus conditions. A total 735 first instances of speech were recorded (first 7 vocals of each participant). Of these, initial vocals emerged as words in 341 instances (46%) and as word approximations or syllables in 394 (54%). When speech emerged as mands, 66% were words and only 34% were word approximations or syllables. The percentages were 57% and 43% respectively for intraverbal fill ins. With part echoic-part mands, only 19% were words and 81% were word approximations or syllables. Sounds that started with /b/, /m/, /p/, /c / /k/ and /o/ accounted for 54% of the first instances of speech. These results suggest a pattern of speech emergence in children with a diagnosis of autism undergoing behavioral interventions for speech emergence. Identifying, recording and classifying the type of emergence could help with clinical decision making for further interventions and serve as a starting point for new lines of research.

Non-vocal-verbal children with Autism, aged between 1.8 years to 13.5 years participated in a large cohort study (n=126) spanning 6 years and 8 months, that was successful in inducing first instances of speech using mand and intraverbal training procedures in 105 (83%) participants, Awasthi (2017). Of these, 7 were older children with autism (8y 2m to 13y 5m). Of these 6 acquired first instances of speech while 1 left the study thirty weeks into intervention. Vocals emerged for 3 with mand training alone, 2 with delayed addition of intraverbal training and for 1 with simultaneous introduction of both. Of the 6 who were successful, the first speech instance emerged within 30 days of intervention with 4 but took more than 150 days with 2 others. The mean days to acquisition of all 7 instances of speech was 181 days (range 58 days to 359 days) taking an average of 25 days/ vocal. A recast of their data in 2 non-concurrent, delayed, MBL graph format confirms the effectiveness of these interventions in inducing first instances of speech in older non-vocal children with autism.