USE OF CHAINING TO INCREASE COMPLEXITY OF ECHOICS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Echoics are a critical target of language intervention for children with autism, because a well‐established echoic repertoire on the part of the child allows the clinician to use vocal modeling as a flexible, low‐effort prompting procedure during teaching. In this study, we implemented a chaining procedure to increase the complexity of echoics in 2 children with autism and 1 child with developmental delay. The procedure was effective for all 3 participants, and gains were maintained after treatment was withdrawn in most cases.     

Inducing Vocal Verbal Behavior in Children with Severe Language Delays Through Rapid Motor Imitation Responding

We conducted two experiments demonstrating the use of a rapid motor imitation sequence to evoke echoic and independent mands in three preschoolers with no vocal verbal behavior, who were unresponsive to alternative procedures. We further tested the procedure in the induction of echoics and independent tacts. The dependent variables for both experiments were echoics, mands, and tacts. In Experiment 1, we used a within subject multiple baseline design, across two mand and two tact forms, which were introduced in a counterbalanced order. In Experiment 2 we used a multiple baseline across subjects design with a tandem tact and mand training schedule, during which opportunities for echoic and independent mand training were contingent upon correct echoic and independent tact responses. Results showed that the rapid motor imitation antecedent was successful in inducing echoic and independent mands and tacts. Tacts required fewer opportunities than mands for mastery during the first experiment.