For most children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), manding for information is an important skill that must be systematically taught. Although previous studies have evaluated interventions for teaching other mands for information, to date no studies have demonstrated effective procedures for teaching the mand "why?" The purpose of the…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of intraverbal prompts on response diversity and novelty in intraverbals posed to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intraverbal prompts involving function, feature, and class (FFC) of an item were used in the training of three questions requiring multiple responses. Two Chinese…

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of audio script and script-fading procedure in teaching initiation to children with ASD. Three children with ASD and a parent of each child participated in the study. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across children was used. The findings showed that the initiation emitted by the children…

This single case design study evaluated the effects of a video modeling (VM) intervention on the customer service skills of five young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Verbalization of greeting, service, and closing phrases contextualized to community employment settings were the target behaviors. A systematic approach to visual…

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…

Better conversational skills correspond to a higher quality of life for adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, we taught vocal--verbal responses discriminated by compound arrangements of concealed conversation partner mands to two college students with ASD. Participants learned to engage in self-questioning about…

We investigated the effects of a script-fading and discrimination-training procedure on mand variability in preschoolers with autism. Participants were taught to vary their vocal mands in the presence of written scripts, a green placemat, and a lag schedule of reinforcement. They were also taught to engage in repetitive mands in the presence of…

The ability to engage in positive social interactions is an important goal for young children with developmental disabilities (DDs). Peer-mediated intervention (PMI), one category of interventions often employed with those who show social skill deficits, involves use of typical peers who live model appropriate behaviors. A second frequent category…

Social skills training programs have increasingly enlisted same-age typical peers as instructors in the teaching of social skills to children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The inclusion of peers in the teaching process has been found to be a critical component in these programs. Despite strong support for incorporating…

The current study extends the mand-for-information literature by examining a method to teach mand-for-information frames, targeting 2 frames for the "How?" mand ("How do I?" and "How many?"). Using separate behavior chains to target the 2 frames, we taught 3 children with autism to emit mands for information with 1…

Script-fading procedures have been shown to be effective for teaching children with autism to initiate and participate in social interactions without vocal prompts from adults. In previous script and script-fading research, however, there has been no demonstration of a generalized repertoire of vocal interactions under the control of naturally…

A multiple baseline design across participants was used to examine the effects of a portable video modeling intervention delivered in the natural environment on the verbal compliments and compliment gestures demonstrated by five children with autism. Participants were observed playing kickball with peers and adults. In baseline, participants…

This article presents an individual intervention combining cognitive-behavioral and behavior-analytic approaches to target severe emotion dysregulation in verbal youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) concurrent with intellectual disability (ID). The article focuses on two specific individuals who received the treatment within a therapeutic…

This study examined two facets of the use of social cues for early word learning in parent-child dyads, where children had an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or were typically developing. In Experiment 1, we investigated word learning and generalization by children with ASD (age range: 3;01-6;02) and typically developing children (age range:…

Although Discrete-trial Teaching (DTT) is effective in teaching a many skills to children with autism, its proper implementation requires rigorous staff training. This study used an interactive computer simulation program ("DTkid") to teach staff relevant DTT skills. Participants (N = 12) completed two sets of pre-tests either once (n = 7) or…