The Effects of the Question “What Is This?” on Tact‐training Outcomes of Children With Autism

Studies on teaching tacts to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have primarily focused on visual stimuli, despite published clinical recommendations to teach tacts of stimuli in other sensory domains as well. In the current study, two children with ASD were taught to tact auditory stimuli under two stimulus‐presentation arrangements: isolated (auditory stimuli presented without visual cues) and compound (auditory stimuli presented with visual cues). Results indicate that compound stimulus presentation was a more effective teaching procedure, but that it interfered with prior object‐name tacts. A modified compound arrangement in which object‐name tact trials were interspersed with auditory‐stimulus trials mitigated this interference.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder to tact auditory stimuli

Hanney

Carr

LeBlanc³

2019

“…If a verbal stimulus occurs in conjunction with the nonverbal stimulus, it is likely that the response is under multiple control (Michael, Palmer, & Sundberg, ). Marchese, Carr, LeBlanc, Rosati, and Conroy () evaluated the effects of verbal antecedent stimuli on the acquisition of tacts by children with ASD. Results indicated that inclusion of the verbal antecedent stimuli did not hinder tact acquisition or maintenance of the tacts under conditions in which the verbal antecedent stimuli were absent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder to tact olfactory stimuli

Dass

Kisamore

Vladescu

et al. 2018

Research on tact acquisition by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has often focused on teaching participants to tact visual stimuli. It is important to evaluate procedures for teaching tacts of nonvisual stimuli (e.g., olfactory, tactile). The purpose of the current study was to extend the literature on secondary target instruction and tact training by evaluating the effects of a discrete-trial instruction procedure involving (a) echoic prompts, a constant prompt delay, and error correction for primary targets; (b) inclusion of secondary target stimuli in the consequent portion of learning trials; and (c) multiple exemplar training on the acquisition of item tacts of olfactory stimuli, emergence of category tacts of olfactory stimuli, generalization of category tacts, and emergence of category matching, with three children diagnosed with ASD. Results showed that all participants learned the item and category tacts following teaching, participants demonstrated generalization across category tacts, and category matching emerged for all participants.

“…The present data add empirical support for Skinner's (1957) conceptualization of human language, as well as some initial yet limited utility of the PEAK curriculum (Dixon, 2014b) to teach verbal behavior to persons with autism. Prior research has recently documented technologies in which clinicians can teach ever more complex verbal operants such as generalized mands (Falcomata, Wacker, Ringdahl, Vinquist, & Dutt, 2013), mand relations (Betz et al, 2011), informational mands (Lechago, Howell, Caccavale, & Peterson, 2013;Shillingsburg, Bowen, Valentino, & Pierce, 2014), tacts (Marchese, Carr, LeBlanc, Rosati, & Conroy, 2012), novel intraverbals and dictation (Greer, Yuan, & Gautreaux, 2005), and cross-operant transfers of responding (Ingvarsson, Cammilleri, & Macias, 2012;Kooistra, Buchmeier, & Klatt, 2012;May, Hawkins, & Dymond, 2013;Miguel & Kobari-Wright, 2013). In an era of continued criticism that behavioral interpretations of language are inadequate for explaining complex language, it appears that subsequent investigations that explore the extensive opportunities that Skinner's analysis affords our field will weaken the position of disbelief.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching complex verbal operants to children with autism and establishing generalization using the peak curriculum

Dixon¹,

Peach²,

Daar³

et al. 2017

The present study evaluated the feasibility of the PEAK Relational Training System's Generalization Module (Dixon, 2014b) to teach and establish generalization of autoclitic mands, distorted tacts, and creative path finding in three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Using a multiple-baseline design across behaviors, each participant was provided with differential reinforcement and a least-to-most prompting hierarchy for correct responses to a subset of stimuli, and responses to other similar stimulus sets were probed for emergent generalization. Following training, each participant successfully acquired the directly trained behaviors and demonstrated generalization to the nonreinforced test exemplars. These data support the utility of Skinner's (1957) analysis to teach complex forms of verbal operants, and suggest that a manualized curriculum such as PEAK may have utility for promoting skill development and generalization for front line staff and caregivers of children with autism.