Teaching Young Children With Disabilities to Label Nonvisual Stimuli

Abstract

A braham is a 4-year-old boy with mild autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He is enrolled in a mainstream preschool class with two children with developmental disabilities (i.e., cerebral palsy, Fragile-X syndrome) and 10 typically developing children. In addition to preschool, Abraham receives three speech therapy sessions a week after school. He typically works one-onone with the therapist and is taught different pictures and objects. He can communicate vocally using three to four word utterances with some articulation errors, and he labels over 100 pictures and objects. Those pictures and objects include, but are not limited to, animals, foods, drinks, vehicles, clothes, and household items. Although he is building a large vocabulary and is able to label more pictures and objects, Abraham's teachers and parents have noticed he does not name things he hears, smells, or feels. They feel this is important and would like to incorporate more labels of nonvisual stimuli into their weekly routines.