Association for Behavior Analysis International

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of the Intensive Tact Instruction (ITI) on the ability related to social interactions. The participants of the study were three 5-year-old males with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in Busan, South Korea. For this study, a multiple probe design across participants was used to identify a potential functional relationship between independent and dependent variables. As an independent variable, the Intensive Tact Instruction (ITI) was implemented in which 100 additional tact Learn Units were presented in addition to the mean number of daily Learn Units received by the participants. The social interaction was measured as a primary dependent variable which consisted of initiative and responsive social behaviors (e.g., joint attention/activity, tacts, mands, etc.). The dependent variable was measured in two non-instructional settings: hallway and play. The result indicated that the dependent variable significantly increased during the post-intervention probes comparing to the pre-intervention probes. These results suggest that the Intensive Tact Instruction (ITI) is effective to improve the social interaction of the participants with ASD.

Independent tacting is an essential repertoire of verbal behavior that many students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder are missing. There is ample research on teaching tacts to students with ASD, but far fewer on examining effective tactics for increasing the rate of acquisition of tacts therefore, we conducted an experiment using an A-B-A-B reversal design with counterbalanced conditions to compare the effects of specific versus non-specific praise on the rate of tact acquisition. Specific praise, where the name of the stimulus was repeated, and non-specific praise, general praise, was delivered as a consequence when participants correctly tacted. Researchers also used the specific name of the tact during the correction procedure. The experiment is still underway, but the data indicate there are no differences between the use of specific and non-specific praise on the acquisition of tacts. Participant attendance and setting events were a limitation of this study. Future research should be conducted to determine whether the level of verbal behavior or having BiDirectional Naming influences the rate of acquisition of tacts.

Stimulus-stimulus pairing is a procedure intended to produce vocalizations in children with language delays, especially those for whom standard echoic training failed. The procedure was effective in some studies, partially effective in others and ineffective in some. Two groups of variables might explain such mixed results, characteristics of participants and procedural variables. This study aimed to investigate the effects of vocal pattern during pairings over frequency of novel vocalizations. Participated 3 girls and 6 boys with autism, 2 to 8 yo. Procedure included a pre-assessment screening for existing vocalizations, a baseline session and 10 treatment sessions. In baseline session, 2 vocal sounds were presented in a 1-minute VI schedule without pairing, 5 times each. In treatment, the same sounds were paired with preferred items or social stimulation. Procedure was ineffective for 5 participants (AG, DV, LA, MA, RA) and partially effective for 4 (DA, JV, LN and LP). For those whom the procedure was partially effective, differential results on the vocal pattern during pairings were not consistent. Previous studies used motherese pattern relying on the premise this pattern would have conditioned value due to pairings in early childhood. These results does not support this assumption for children with autism.

Previous research has proven that stimulus-stimulus pairing is an effective form of intervention for increasing vocalizations. However, few research studies replicate variables used during stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) in order to create a systematic and technological method of implementation for SSP. This research study evaluated the effects of varying the number of presentations of target sounds presented during stimulus-stimulus pairing to bring echoics under echoic control, replicating similar variables of Miliotis et al. (2014). Two conditions, three presentations of a target sound and one presentation of a target sound, were compared using multiple baseline across two participants. The results of the study concluded that 1 presentation sound produced higher rates of producing echoics brought under echoic control.

A mand is a key component of verbal behavior training for individuals with language deficits. Mand training provides these individuals with an opportunity to access a variety of reinforcers when a relevant establishing operation (EO) is in place. However, poor articulation of these mands may hinder the individual’s ability to access these reinforcers. Despite the importance of clear articulation when emitting mands, there is limited research evaluating the efficacy of various procedures for teaching this skill. The purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate nondifferential reinforcement (NDR), shaping, and echoics as procedures for improving articulation of mands. Current results show the mixed echoic mand training condition was the most efficient. This procedure was then added to both other conditions, formerly depicted as shaping, and NDR. Results are currently ongoing for these conditions; however, there has been greater acquisition for the target mand in both conditions. Potential training difficulties (i.e., co-articulation skill deficits) and other implications will be discussed, and future research ideas will be provided.