Association for Behavior Analysis International

Generalized imitation and observational learning are critical repertoires for future learning. Children with autism display notable deficits in these areas which, ultimately, impact their acquisition of important communication, social, academic, and self-help skills. The first presentation describes an assessment of component skills necessary for observational learning under several conditions. The assessment was conducted with two children with autism and assessment results were used to identify specific component skills targeted for teaching. For both participants, immediate increases in observational learning were observed in the post-assessment following targeted teaching. However, modifications to the post-assessment were required to produce or maintain criterion levels of responding. The second presentation describes the development of a comprehensive intervention called Emergent Multi-Class Imitation Training (EMIT) for establishing generalized imitation in autistic children and presents early findings from efficacy evaluations. EMIT is a manualized training protocol designed to rapidly facilitate generalized imitation in autistic children that supervised ABA technicians can implement with a high degree of procedural fidelity. Clinical implications of the two studies and directions for future will be discussed.

BCBAs, RBTs, clinical practitioners

Autistic children exhibit meaningful deficits in generalized imitation; it has been proposed as a core deficit of autism. Deficits in generalized imitation have immediate and long-term impacts on the developmental trajectories of young autistic children because generalized imitation is not a singular skill, rather it is a foundational repertoire needed for future learning. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) clinicians are frequently tasked with helping autistic children acquire generalized imitation. Unfortunately, many autistic children do not acquire this repertoire despite years of intervention. One possible reason for this is that, at present, ABA clinicians do not have access to an evidence-based training protocol for establishing generalized imitation in autistic children. We have developed a comprehensive intervention called Emergent Multi-Class Imitation Training (EMIT) for establishing generalized imitation in autistic children. EMIT is a manualized training protocol designed to rapidly facilitate generalized imitation in autistic children that supervised ABA technicians can implement with a high degree of procedural fidelity. EMIT is the first protocol designed for clinical use that reflects five decades of research on imitation learning. We will describe the process used to develop the EMIT intervention and present data from early efficacy evaluations.