The Emergence of Untrained Mands and Tacts in Children With Autism

Abstract

Despite Skinner's (1957) assertion that verbal operants are initially functionally independent, recent studies have suggested that in some cases the acquisition of one verbal operant (e.g., mand) gives rise to the other (e.g., tact) without explicit training. The present study aimed to evaluate the functional independence of mands and tacts during instruction with children with autism. Four boys with autism (3 to 6 years old) were taught to construct two 4-piece structures. Two participants were taught directly to mand, whereas the other 2 were taught to tact the names of the pieces. The effects of training were evaluated in a multiple probe design across verbal operants and tasks. Three of the 4 participants demonstrated an immediate transfer of control from 1 verbal operant to the other. These results were consistent with previous research with typically developing young children.

Ensino de comportamento verbal por múltiplos exemplares em uma criança com desordem do espectro da neuropatia auditiva: estudo de caso

“…Children with delayed language development show clearly that learning one type of linguistic repertoire can be maintained independently. In such cases, it is necessary to program direct teaching conditions to relate the lacking repertoire to those that have been previously established 11 . For example, picking up a glass of water when mother asks (listener behavior) is not a necessary condition for the child to later ask for water when he or she is thirsty (speaker behavior) or say "water" when looking at a glass of water.…”

Efeito De Intervenção via Cuidadores Sobre Aquisição De Tato Com Autoclítico Em Crianças Com Tea

“…Finn et al, 2012) poderá ser investigada em pesquisas futuras. Além disso, considerando a própria definição estrita de repertório autoclítico, será importante, em pesquisas futuras, observar a ocorrência desse tipo de repertório com novos estímulos, de forma a se garantir que o repertório seja de fato autoclítico, ou seja, repertório verbal sob controle do próprio repertório verbal do falante.…”

“…"); uma dica textual; dica ecoica; e até com linguagem de sinais (Sundberg et al, 2000;Valentino & Shillingsburg, 2011). Além disso, alguns estudos têm investigado a emissão de tato a partir do ensino conjunto deste com os repertórios de mando e ecoico (e.g., Kodak & Clements, 2009) e ainda investigando a transferência de função entre os repertórios de mando e tato (e.g., Finn, Miguel, & Ahearn, 2012).…”

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

“…Interestingly, participants whose verbal repertoires may have been relatively advanced (i.e., typically developing children of preschool or kindergarten age) in some cases appeared less likely to show transfer between tact and mand contingencies (e.g., Lamarre and Holland 1985) than children who had language delays due to developmental disabilities (Finn et al 2012;Kelley et al 2007a) or adults who were more or less nonverbal (Sigafoos et al 1990). This aspect of the results may raise questions about procedural differences that may have contributed to variability across studies.…”

“…Some of this burgeoning interest may likely be attributed to growing enthusiasm for language interventions that incorporate Skinner's (1957) analysis, but some of it also appears to be due to researchers questioning data from previous studies (e.g., Egan and Barnes-Holmes 2011;Petursdottir et al 2005;Wallace et al 2006). As some authors have noted (e.g., Barnes-Holmes 2010, 2011;Finn et al 2012), the literature has become difficult to interpret due to variable results across studies, coupled with methodological variations. As a result, a critical review of this research is timely.…”