Association for Behavior Analysis International

The current symposium will focus on recent methodological developments in the area of emerging verbal behavior in children with or at risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The first presenter will discuss an evaluation of procedures teaching an 8-month infant to sign for “help” when preferred items were inaccessible. The second presenter will discuss research extending the literature on the various treatment components used to train the use of speech-generating devices (SGDs), an alternative communication modality for individuals who exhibit minimal speech. Finally, the third presenter will present research aimed at evaluating generative instruction for SGD users by evaluating procedures that can facilitate tact acquisition and evaluate the emergence of untaught associated tacts.

Junior BCBAs, Behavior analysts within their first 5 years of practice, including practitioners, supervisors, etc. Currently enrolled in or recently completed graduate-level work

Speech-generating devices (SGDs) provide an alternative communication modality for individuals who exhibit minimal speech (Lorah et al., 2015; Tincani et al., 2020). SGDs permit individuals to select icons on a screen that produces vocal output, which allows a listener to respond effectively to the speaker's communication responses. Establishing icon discrimination during mand training has yielded successful outcomes in controlled and naturalistic settings when using a fixed progression through screen and prompting manipulations (Lorah et al., 2014, 2018). The current study extended the preparation of Lorah et al. (2014, 2018) by (a) evaluating the necessity for progressing through all icon manipulations and prompting procedures, (b) completing training during play, (c) probing the maintenance of icon discrimination in a larger array, (d) assessing skill performance before and after SGD training, and (e) completing within-session analyses that further characterize learner's differential performance during participation. To date, participants (i.e., children receiving early intervention services) have varied in their necessity for treatment or all treatment components described by Lorah et al. (2014, 2018) to acquire and maintain icon discrimination in a large array. We discuss our findings with relation to other analyses that further characterize behavior-change that occurred within the scope of participation.

Many individuals with autism remain non vocal and their lack of vocal speech is often supported with speech generating devices (SGDs). Majority of existing SGD studies focus on teaching mands and fewer studies evaluate more complex communicative repertoires involving other verbal operants. Furthermore, unlike the literature evaluating language for vocal individuals with ASD where several strategies are aimed at producing generative language and examining efficient learning practices, the SGD literature is focused on evaluating the effects of direct teaching strategies on the acquisition of target skills. The present study aimed to evaluate generative instruction for SGD users by evaluating procedures that can facilitate tact acquisition and evaluate the emergence of untaught associated tacts that received no direct instruction. Four categories with four items belonging to each category were chosen for each participant. At the start of the study neither participant emitted correct responses to any of the tact targets included in the study. Prompting and reinforcement strategies were used to teach two items from each category as tacts. Results showed that once the participants were taught to tact items from a category, correct tact responses to other associated items that belonged to the same category emerged without any direct training.