Expanding Vocal Requesting Repertoires via Relational Responding in Adults with Severe Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

We gratefully acknowledge two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version. This project constituted the master's thesis of the first author in the Behavior Analysis and Therapy program at Southern Illinois University, completed under the supervision of the second author. We thank Franklin-Williamson Human Services, Inc., in West Frankfort, IL. We also thank Autumn Kaufman, Rocio Rosales, Pam Tibbetts, and Megan Ziomek for assistance with the reliability data.Address Editorial Correspondence to Ruth Anne Rehfeldt, Ph.D., Mail code 4609, Rehabilitation Institute, Rehabilitation Services Program, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901-4609; email: rehfeldt@siu.edu.The purpose of this project was to demonstrate untrained vocal requests in three adults with severe developmental disabilities. Specifically, we evaluated whether a history of reinforced relational responding would give rise to untrained vocal requests for novel items. Participants were first taught to request preferred items using their category names. They were then taught conditional discriminations between pictures of preferred items that were categorically related. Finally, participants were tested for their abilities to request items that had not been originally presented during request training, using their category names. All participants demonstrated untrained requests, and for some participants, changes in the mand repertoire were accompanied by changes in the tact repertoire. Some participants also showed generalization of skills across settings.

The Functional Independence of Mands and Tacts: Has It Been Demonstrated Empirically?

“…After considering the construct validity of these studies, we find that data from at least four studies may be difficult to interpret due to major uncertainty regarding the mand or tact functions of some of the trained or tested responses (Alves and Ribeiro 2007;Córdova et al 2007;Lamarre and Holland 1985;Shillingsburg et al 2009). Absence of mand-totact transfer has been demonstrated fairly convincingly in a set of studies in which the stimuli tacted and manded were preferred items (Halvey and Rehfeldt 2005;Normand et al 2011;Pino 1994;Ziomek and Rehfeldt 2008) and absence of tact-to-mand transfer appears to have been demonstrated in a set of studies that used blockedresponse procedures (Finn et al 2012;Hall and Sundberg 1987;Petursdottir et al 2005;Twyman 1996), although minor uncertainty regarding EO presence in the mand condition may be present in some of them. Although these results may be at least promising, only two of the above-mentioned studies (Finn et al 2012;Petursdottir et al 2005) demonstrated instructional control over tacting and manding during probes, which may be particularly problematic in studies with minimally verbal participants (Normand et al 2011;Pino 1994;Ziomek and Rehfeldt 2008).…”

“…(1) tact repertoires Alves and Ribeiro (2007) x 3 -6 ASD PPVT-3 age equivalent 1-9 to 3-4 -Frequent mands and tacts for 3 of 4 participants, utterance length 1-3 to 6-8 words Hall and Sundberg (1987) x 2 16-17 Severe ID; deaf --Extensive tacting repertoires; low rates of manding Halvey and Rehfeldt (2005) x 3 Adult Severe ID ICAP social/communicative age equivalent 1-8 to 3-11 IQ 32-36 b Utterance length 1-2 words Kelley et al (2007a) x x 3 3 -10 ASD (1), apraxia (1), language delay (1) --Utterance length 1-3 words Lamarre and Holland (1985) x same was true of the young, typically developing children who participated in Normand et al (2011). Table 2 outlines several variations in methodology across studies.…”

“…The primary stated purpose of these studies was in most cases to evaluate mand-tact independence, or to assess the effects of mand or tact training on the emergence of the other operant under a given set of conditions. In a few studies, however, mand-tact independence data were secondary to another primary purpose (Halvey and Rehfeldt 2005;Normand et al 2011;Ziomek and Rehfeldt 2008). Nine studies evaluated both tact-to-mand and mand-to-tact transfer, either within or between participants; five studies evaluated mand-to-tact transfer only, and three studies tact-to-mand transfer only.…”

“…One study (Normand et al 2011) included a functional analysis to confirm the mand function of the trained responses. However, in the other three studies (Halvey and Rehfeldt 2005;Pino 1994;Ziomek and Rehfeldt 2008), multiple mands were trained and acquired simultaneously, ruling out control by nonspecific aspects of the training situation. Although the manded stimulus was visible during mand training in all three studies, it seems implausible that the trained responses were under the control of that stimulus, given that accurate tacts did not occur during tact probes for most participants.…”

“…Stimuli Manded and Tacted Studies in which the stimuli manded and tacted were highly preferred items (Halvey and Rehfeldt 2005;Kelley et al 2007a;Normand et al 2011;Pino 1994;Ziomek and Rehfeldt 2008) represent the approach of capturing an EO (Sundberg 1993) by identifying a stimulus that is currently high in reinforcing value (e.g., as determined by approach) and temporarily blocking access to that stimulus in order to evoke a mand. In most of the studies, a mand training or mand probe trial began with the visual presentation of a preferred item to which the participant's access was blocked.…”