The present study used a multiple baseline across participants design to assess whether 4 children with autism could learn a generalized repertoire of helping adults with different tasks through the use of a multicomponent teaching package. Different helping responses were taught in the presence of multiple exemplars of discriminative stimuli drawn from experimenter-defined categories of helping behavior (e.g., locating objects, putting away items, setting up an activity). During the training condition, video models, prompting, and reinforcement were used. The results showed that all 4 children learned to emit appropriate helping responses in the presence of discriminative stimuli from the helping categories used during training. Generalization of helping responses was observed in the presence of untrained discriminative stimuli during additional probe conditions. Additional pre-and postintervention generalization trials showed that the frequency of helping responses also increased in the presence of novel stimuli, in a novel setting, and with a novel instructor.

The purpose of this study was to teach contextually appropriate affective behavior to 4 youths with autism. Treatment consisted of modeling, prompting, and reinforcement introduced in a multiple baseline design across response categories of affective behavior. During treatment, verbal praise and tokens were delivered contingent on appropriate affective responding during training trials. Modeling and verbal prompting were used as correction procedures. Each youth received treatment in either three or four response categories. Treatment systematically increased responding within the response categories for all 4 participants, with effects being specific to the affective response categories under treatment. Treatment effects occurred across untrained scenarios, therapists, time, and settings, suggesting that generalization had occurred.

An experimental analysis ofimitation was conducted to examine the influence ofresponse topography on generalization of imitation across three response types. Four children with autism were presented with both reinforced training trials and nonreinforced probe trials of models from vocal, toy-play, and pantomime response types. The probe trials were used to examine generalization within each response type. A multiple baseline design was used to analyze percentage of matching and nonmatching responses to models across response types. This study, the first to analyze imitative response classes in children with autism, showed that imitation generalized from reinforced training models to nonreinforced probe models within a response type, but it did not generalize across response types. Thus, functional response dasses determined by topographical boundaries were exhibited within generalized imitation.DESCRIPTORS: generalized imitation, vocal responding, toy play, autistic children, response dasses Generalized imitation refers to a dass of responses that temporally follow and are topographically similar to behavior modeled by another person. Because of its possible role in social behavior and language development, imitation has received considerable attention in the research literature. Experimental analyses of imitation have been conducted with normally developing children and in-

A multiple baseline across three sets of stimuli was used to assess the effects of a script‐fading procedure using embedded text to teach 2 children with autism to engage in conversation statements about the stimuli. Both students stated all the scripted statements, and unscripted statements also increased. Generalization was assessed with novel peers and with untrained stimuli.

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