INCREASING AUTISTIC CHILDREN'S DAILY SPONTANEOUS SPEECH

We investigated the effectiveness of teaching parents of 3 autistic boys to use a time delay procedure to increase their children's appropriate spontaneous speech in several naturally occurring daily settings (e.g., saying “good morning” in the morning). Generalization across settings and within settings across persons and locations was assessed. Variation in the children's spontaneous speech was also assessed. In addition procedural errors in the parents' use of time delay were calculated. Results indicated that all children increased their daily spontaneous speech and generalized their speech to other locations and persons.     

AN EVALUATION OF TWO METHODS FOR INCREASING SELF-INITIATED VERBALIZATIONS IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

Three children with autism and mental retardation were treated for deficits in self-initiated speech. A novel treatment package employing visual cue fading was compared with a graduated time-delay procedure previously shown to be effective for increasing self-initiated language. Both treatments included training multiple self-initiated verbalizations using multiple therapists and settings. Both treatments were efffective, with no differences in measures of acquisition of target phrases, maintenance of behavioral gains, acquisition with additional therapists and settings, and social validity.     

INCREASING SPONTANEOUS PLAY BY SUPPRESSING SELF-STIMULATION IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN1

Appropriate play with toys was studied in two autistic children with high occurrences of self-stimulatory behavior. Each child participated in the experimental sessions in an A-B-A design, where “A” refers to baseline sessions and “B” refers to self-stimulation suppression sessions. It was found that: (a) during the baseline sessions, the children exhibited low levels of play and high levels of self-stimulatory behavior; (b) the per cent of unreinforced, spontaneous, appropriate play increased when self-stimulatory behavior was suppressed; and (c) when the suppression of self-stimulation was discontinued, the per cent of self-stimulation and that of appropriate play approached their presuppression levels. These results seem particularly significant because they identify a set of conditions under which spontaneous appropriate behavior, uncommon in autistic children, occurs at an increased level.     

DEVELOPMENT OF SPONTANEOUS MANDING IN LANGUAGE DEFICIENT CHILDREN

Six institutionalized children, aged 7–11, with little or no spontaneous vocal manding, were trained to request food items under appropriate natural conditions when snacks were presented. “I want a” was appropriate when an adult presented food in the playroom. “Out” was appropriate when the items were displayed in the hallway, across a half-door barrier from the child. A sequence of steps was trained, through increasingly naturalistic setting and cuing conditions. The two mands were trained in sequence, not concurrently. To encourage “spontaneous” productions, no vocal cuing was provided by the adult. After criterion performance in each step, several probe sessions were conducted for various cuing conditions, adults, and settings. Probes after imitation training showed no spontaneous manding. Thus, failure of manding was not due to production difficulties. In probes after training for “approximately” natural cues, most children showed little transfer to the natural cues. This implies that training for the specific appropriate cues may often be required. However, good transfer generally occurred across persons, and from training room to playroom. Probes also showed that most children did not use one of the trained mands in the stimulus conditions that were appropriate for the other mand. Thus, adding a second mand did not generally disrupt use of the first. However, significant disruption occurred for two children. Finally, at the end of training, extinction training was given for one mand in one setting. Performance of the other mand was litle affected. In sum, the appropriate form of a mand depends on specific stimulus and setting characteristics, and these characteristics must be considered in training.     

INCREASING SPONTANEOUS VERBAL RESPONDING IN AUTUSTIC CHILDREN USING A TIME DELAY PROCEDURE

One oft-cited problem with teaching speech skills to autistic children isthe failure of the speech to be spontaneous. That is, the children's speech often remains underthe control of the verbal behavior of others rather than underthe control of other nonverbal referents inthe environment. We investigatedthe effectiveness of a time delay procedure to increasethe spontaneous speech of seven autistic children. Initially, the experimenter presented a desired object (e.g., cookie) and immediately modeledthe appropriate response “I want (cookie).” Gradually, asthe child imitatedthe vocalization, the experimenter increasedthe time between presentation of the object andthe modeled vocalization in an attempt to transfer stimulus control of the child's vocalization fromthe experimenter's model tothe object. Results indicated that allthe children learned to request items spontaneously and generalized this behavior across settings, people, situations, and to objects which had not been taught. These results are discussed in relation tothe literature on spontaneous speech, prompting, and generalization.     

INCREASING AUTISTIC CHILDREN'S SPONTANEOUS VERBALIZATIONS OF AFFECTION: AN ASSESSMENT OF TIME DELAY AND PEER MODELING PROCEDURES

We assessed the efficacy of time delay and peer modeling procedures in increasing autistic children's spontaneous verbalizations of affection. Four autistic children were taught to spontaneously say “I like (love) you” in response to a hug from a familiar person and their mother. Generalization from a free play training setting to free play outdoors and at home was assessed. Ancillary social and affection behaviors were also observed. Results indicated that the time delay was a quick and effective procedure for all the children. Peer modeling was unsuccessful in teaching the target behavior.     

USING TIME DELAY TO PROMOTE SPONTANEOUS SPEECH IN AN AUTISTIC CHILD

One of the frequently observed deficits in autistic children is their lack of spontaneous speech. We used a multiple baseline across behaviors to investigate the effectiveness of a time delay procedure for inducing spontaneous speech in a 10-year-old male autistic child during play. We first taught the child to imitate the experimenter's verbal prompts that described the child's motor response. Once the child reached criteria on imitation, we implemented baseline wherein an immediate verbal prompt for speech was provided after each of the child's motor responses. Intervention consisted of a gradual delay in the presentation of the verbal prompts. The time delay effectively increased the child's spontaneous speech on trained items; some generalization to untrained items also occurred, but only within the same behavioral class of car play. Generalization was also observed across settings. Spontaneous speech remained at high levels during the 4-month maintenance for the behavior of car play but decreased for a second behavior. Decreases in the child's response latencies suggest that spontaneous speech may be an anticipatory verbal response.     

ACQUISITION OF SIGN LANGUAGE BY AUTISTIC CHILDREN. I: EXPRESSIVE LABELLING

There has been growing interest in teaching sign language to autistic children who have failed to develop speech. However, controlled experimentation in this area is nonexistent. In the present study, four nonverbal autistic children were taught expressive sign labels for common objects, using a training procedure that consisted of prompting, fading, and stimulus rotation. The efficacy of the procedure was demonstrated in a multiple-baseline design across objects. The results were reliable, replicable across children, and generalizable across therapists. A stimulus control analysis demonstrated that, for three of the children, correct signing was controlled solely by the visual cues associated with the presentation of a given object and was independent of the auditory cues related to the same object. These latter results are discussed with respect to the known perceptual and linguistic deficits of autistic children.     

ACQUISITION OF SIGN LANGUAGE BY AUTISTIC CHILDREN II: SPONTANEITY AND GENERALIZATION EFFECTS

Autistic children typically do not use their language repertoire in order to communicate. Six autistic children who exhibited poor communication skills were trained to use their sign repertoire to make spontaneous requests of adults. Training consisted of imitative prompting, fading, and differential reinforcement, and included aspects of incidental teaching. The children displayed an increase in the rate and variety of spontaneous sign requests (Experiment 1). Generalization of spontaneity across adults (Experiments 1 and 2) and settings (Experiment 2) was also observed. We suggest that spontaneity may be facilitated when language is brought under the control of broadly defined stimuli such as adult attention rather than narrowly defined stimuli such as the presence of specific objects or verbal prompting in the form of questions. Finally, response generalization was observed as well (Experiment 1). Specifically, as spontaneity increased, self-stimulatory behavior decreased. This result may be accounted for in terms of reinforcer competition, reinforcer consistency, or discriminative stimulus effects.     

TEACHING CHILDREN WITH AUTISM TO SEEK INFORMATION-ACQUISITION OF NOVEL INFORMATION AND GENERALIZATION OF RESPONDING

A time delay procedure was used to teach 3 children with autism to ask the question “What's that?” when novel stimuli were presented during an instructional task. Once the ability to ask the question was acquired, the children's ability to learn novel information by asking the question was assessed. The children were then taught to ask the question within a less structured context. All three studies used a multiple baseline across participants. Generalization was assessed in a different room, to a new person, and to novel stimuli. All of the children learned to ask the question within the instructional context, while on a walk in the school building, and to request information about three-dimensional objects. The acquisition of novel information was consistent for receptive and expressive tests for 2 of the children, with varied results for the 3rd. These studies indicate that children with autism can be taught to ask questions that lead to the acquisition of new information.     

INCREASING THE INDEPENDENT RESPONDING OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN WITH UNPREDICTABLE SUPERVISION

We investigated the role of predictable versus unpredictable supervision on the independent task responding of three autistic children. In a predictable supervision condition, the therapist was present in the setting for a regular period of time and then was absent for the remainder of the session. In an unpredictable supervision condition, the therapist's presence was scheduled on a random, intermittent, and unpredictable basis throughout the session. The multiple baseline analysis showed that the unpredictable supervision produced much higher levels of on-task responding during the therapist's absence for all three children. Analysis of work completed during the therapist's absence also favored the unpredictable supervision condition. The results are discussed in relation to the literature on generalization and educational practice.     

TIME DELAY: A TECHNIQUE TO INCREASE LANGUAGE USE AND FACILITATE GENERALIZATION IN RETARDED CHILDREN

Institutional breakfast-serving procedures were manipulated to assess what effect changes in that aspect of the environment would have on requests for food. During baseline, six severely retarded children were required to pick up their food trays and return to their seats. The first manipulation, delaying the giving of the food tray for 15 seconds, served as a cue to evoke meal requests by three of the six children. Two of the remaining three required a model of an appropriate meal request (i.e., “Tray, please.”) at the end of the 15-second delay before they began requesting their meals. To evoke meal requests from the sixth child, an intensive training procedure, consisting of massed trials of delay and modeling, was required. Three different probes were administered to assess generalization across the people serving the meals, across mealtimes, and across both people and mealtimes. Typically, generalized responding in these new situations could be prompted by use of the 15-second delay procedure. Functional aspects of the delay procedure and its potential usefulness for evoking speech and facilitating generalization are discussed.     

EFFECTS OF DIFFERENTIAL REINFORCEMENT ON THE GENERALIZATION OF A REPLACEMENT MAND IN THREE CHILDREN WITH SEVERE LANGUAGE DELAYS

We investigated variables that may influence the generalization of a replacement mand in 3 young children with severe language delays. A multiple baseline design consisting of one stimulus class of manding opportunities that we arbitrarily divided into three categories (i.e., food, toys, and events) was used for each child. During baseline probes, all children manded mainly by reaching, grabbing, or leading. We then taught each child a replacement mand using a single member of the stimulus class. Acquisition of the replacement mand occurred under highly restricted conditions in a setting that was completely isolated from the generalization settings. Postacquisition probes revealed almost exclusive use of old manding forms. Subsequently, extinction of the old forms and reinforcement of the replacement mand were introduced in a sequential fashion. Two children manifested a substantial increase, and 1 child displayed a moderate increase in the occurrence of the replacement mand (i.e., generalization occurred). These results suggest that a differential reinforcement procedure can alter the probability of the occurrence of response class members across a variety of stimulus conditions.     

ACQUISITION,GENERALIZATION, AND MAINTENANCE OF QUESTION-ANSWERING SKILLS IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

We conducted an investigation to evaluate the effects of a training strategy for teaching autistic students generalized responses to three forms of wh— questions (what, how, and why). Students were taught, using modeling and reinforcement procedures, to answer questions with magazine pictures as the referents. Each question form was divided into two or more subcomponents reflective of common social usage and was taught within the context of a modified multiple probe design across subcomponents. Following acquisition of each subcomponent, generalization to natural context and storybook questions was assessed; additional probes were conducted to assess responding over time and whether acquisition of responses to questions promoted question-asking skills. Results showed that the picture training procedure was effective in teaching a generalized response to questions for which the relevant cue was visible, whereas specific generalization programming was required for situations in which the relevant cue was not visible. All acquired responses were durable over time.     

THE ROLE OF RESPONSE DELAY IN IMPROVING THE DISCRIMINATION PERFORMANCE OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN

This study investigated the influence of a response delay requirement on the discrimination performance of autistic children. In the context of a multiple baseline design with subsequent repeated reversals, two conditions were compared: a no-response-delay condition, where the child was allowed to make the target response immediately after presentation of the discriminative stimulus versus a response-delay condition, where the target response was permitted three seconds following the discriminative stimulus when the therapist would signal the child to respond. The results showed that the response-delay condition produced higher levels of correct responding than the no-response-delay condition. In addition, teachers in the research setting rated the response-delay procedure to be a practical and effective teaching technique that could be implemented in a classroom setting. The results were discussed in relation to the literature on impulsivity, and were interpreted as indicating that the response-delay procedure provides a valuable technique for teaching autistic children.     

TEACHERS' GENERALIZED USE OF DELAY AS A STIMULUS CONTROL PROCEDURE TO INCREASE LANGUAGE USE IN HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

In Experiment 1, classroom teachers were taught to delay their offers of help in naturally occurring situations, and thereby to provide additional opportunities for language use by six moderately retarded language-delayed children. The teachers introduced this delay technique in a multiple-baseline design across the six children. As delays were used, child verbal initiations increased. Follow-up assessment showed that teachers were maintaining greater than baseline levels of the delay technique after 10 weeks. Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1, and included a more thorough maintenance assessment, while focusing on teachers' generalization of the delay technique. Teachers were found to generalize their use of delay to 56% of their monitored untaught opportunities. The two experiments show that (a) the delay technique is quick to teach and simple to implement, (b) delays do provide opportunities for children to initiate, (c) teachers can generalize their use of delay to novel self-selected situations, and (d) teachers can maintain their use of delays over time.     

TRANSFER BETWEEN RECEPTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE LANGUAGE IN DEVELOPMENT ALLY DISABLED CHILDREN

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between receptive and productive language acquisition in developmentally disabled children. A single-subject operant methodology was employed to evaluate the effect of training in one mode on performance in the other mode. Noun labels for pictured objects were used as the unit of analysis. Six children with severe language deficits participated in the experiment. Each subject learning to identify a different set of five pictures in each of four successively administered training conditions. In the first condition, a set of pictures was trained in the productive mode. In the second condition, a different set was trained in the receptive mode. These training conditions were then repeated using two additional sets of pictures. Training was done using reinforcement for correct responses and prompting for incorrect responses. Nonreinforced probes were conducted throughout training to assess performance in the untrained mode. The pictures in each set were trained successively so that transfer across the language modes could be studied separately for each response trained. All subjects successfully met the criteria for learning each picture set in both the receptive and productive training conditions. The probe data showed that opposite-modality performance improved as a function of both types of training, although performance levels differed. After productive training, five of six subjects' performance was highly accurate on receptive probes. By contrast, receptive training resulted in limited correct productive performance. Transfer from receptive training was negatively related to subjects' use of extra-experimental labels on productive probe trials. In addition to these competing response errors, subjects frequently made articulation errors. The findings suggest that for retarded children similar to those studied here, productive training will be sufficient to establish accurate receptive performance on vocabulary tasks. However, receptive training does not appear to be either a necessary or a sufficient condition for productive performance. The results do not support the reception-then-production training sequence based on normal language development.     

初生到三岁儿童言语发展记录的初步分析

我们用纵向法对五个婴儿从初生到三岁这一期间的言语发展作了记录(采用录音和文字记录),其中三个男孩、两个女孩。但这五个婴儿的记录并不都全,有的缺某一个时期)。记录用两种方式:一种是隔一定时间(一周或更长些日子)作一次记录,每次约半小时。为了使儿童比较自然,不影响他们发音或说话,我们尽可能事先和儿童熟悉,而且一     

RESPONSE-REINFORCER RELATIONSHIPS AND IMPROVED LEARNING IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

In order to affect more rapid response acquisition for autistic children, researchers have recently begun to investigate the functional relationships of reinforcers to other components of the operant conditioning paradigm. Previous research suggested that functional relationships between target behaviors and reinforcers might be especially effective. For example, locating a reward inside a container might be a more efficient way to teach a child to open the container than by handing the child a reward for opening an empty container. The present experiment assessed, within a multiple baseline design, the possibility of improving autistic children's learning by changing arbitrary response-reinforcer relationships (while holding target behaviors and reinforcers constant) so that the target behaviors became functional (i.e., a direct part of the response chain required for the child to procure the reinforcer). The results showed that: (1) arranging functional response-reinforcer relationships produced immediate improvement in the children's learning, and resulted in rapid acquisition of criterion level responding; and (2) high levels of correct responding initially produced by functional response-reinforcer relationships were continued even when previously ineffective arbitrary response-reinforcer conditions were reinstated. The results are discussed in terms of understanding and improving autistic children's learning.     

AN ECOBEHAVIORAL EXAMINATION OF A SIMPLE STRATEGY FOR INCREASING MEALTIME LANGUAGE IN RESIDENTIAL FACILITIES

Typically in large residential facilities for retarded persons, meals are served in an institutional style that does not appear to encourage appropriate peer interactions. An ecological program alternative is serving meals in a family style. The present study was designed to examine both the feasibility of serving family style meals and the effects of family style meal service on mealtime language. Five retarded young adult male residents, who had some conversational skills and appropriate table manners, participated in this study. The experimental design involved a multiple baseline analysis across meals (dinner, lunch, and breakfast). Observers coded the youths' mealtime verbalizations according to the type, content, and direction of the verbalizations and they recorded the length of the meals. The analysis of the verbalization data indicated that during family style meals the participants spoke substantially more often than during institutional style meals. Increases in peer-directed conversation about the meals primarily accounted for the verbalization changes. Family style serving also resulted in the youths spending more time with their meals. In addition, social validation measures suggested that the family style procedures were preferred by the consumers (participants, staff, and concerned community members).