Stimulus equivalence training has been relatively under represented in the research literature for training individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in early letter-sound correspondence. The primary purpose of the current study was to compare the effectiveness of two different topographies of intraverbals on the emergence of untrained…

Recombinative generalization is the production of responses in the presence of novel combinations of known components. For example, after learning "red triangle" and "blue square," recombinative generalization is observed when a child can tact "red square" and "blue triangle." Recombinative generalization…

A portion of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty acquiring conditional discrimination. However, previous researchers suggested that the discrimination of nonverbal auditory stimuli may be acquired more efficiently (Eikeseth & Hayward, 2009; Uwer, et al., 2002). For example, a child may learn to touch a…

Previous studies on skill acquisition have taught targets in stimulus sets composed of different numbers of stimuli. Although the rationale for selection of a stimulus set size is not clear, the number of target stimuli trained within a set is a treatment decision for which there is limited empirical support. The current investigation compared the…

Previous research has shown that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can categorize visual stimuli without direct training when they can also tact these stimuli using a common name and behave as listeners in relation to this name. However, children usually learn to assign objects specific names prior to learning the category to which they…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty generalizing from directly trained responses to untrained responses (i.e., emergent responding). In this study, we used a chain prompt combined with matrix training to teach 2 participants with ASD to tact 192 three-digit numerals. We used a multiple-baseline design across matrices to…

Purpose: It has been reported that tone language-speaking children with autism demonstrate speech-specific lexical tone processing difficulty, although they have intact or even better-than-normal processing of nonspeech/melodic pitch analogues. In this early efficacy study, we evaluated the therapeutic potential of Auditory-Motor Mapping Training…

A common practice in tact training is to include a supplemental verbal stimulus (e.g., "What is it?") in addition to the presentation of a nonverbal discriminative stimulus. Previous literature has suggested that this supplemental verbal stimulus can impede acquisition and generalization relative to the presentation of the object alone,…

We sought to evaluate the efficacy of successive matching training for establishing generalized reflexive matching across 4 children with autism. In Experiment 1, differential reinforcement with delay fading was efficacious in establishing "yes" and "no" matching and nonmatching responses in 2 participants when 2 identical or…

Children with autism are often taught auditory conditional discriminations in the form of personal information questions that might prove useful in conversation (e.g., "What is your favorite food?" "Pizza" and "What is your favorite color?" "Purple"). In these questions, the auditory stimuli presented as…

The current study sought to evaluate the efficacy of a stimulus equivalence training procedure in establishing auditory-tactile-visual stimulus classes with 2 children with autism and developmental delays. Participants were exposed to vocal-tactile (A-B) and tactile-picture (B-C) conditional discrimination training and were tested for the…

The current study extends the literature on task interspersal (TI) by comparing the effects of four different TI ratios on the efficiency of skill acquisition and on levels of problem behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder and related disorders. The four ratios of TI were 3:1, 1:1, 1:3, and 0:1 mastered-to-acquisition tasks. An adapted…

This study investigated the effects of tact prompts on the acquisition and retention of divergent intraverbal responding to categorical questions involving conditional discriminations. A 6-year-old boy with autism participated in the study. A multiple probe design across behaviors was used. A tact-prompt procedure was implemented. The results…

Objective: This retrospective case study of an eight year old female with autism illuminates how alteration of the training environment using florescent objects under blacklight conditions, may have been the facilitating impetus that increased her interaction with objects over time. Methods: This study approach was chosen to best correspond with…

The present study evaluated the emergence of intraverbals for 2 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Prior to baseline, both children demonstrated tact, tact function, listener, and listener by function responses with 12 pictorial stimuli, yet they failed to demonstrate intraverbals related to the function of the items (e.g.,…