Although low levels of memory strategy use have been found in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), few studies have explored the effectiveness of interventions for improving strategy use with this population. In two studies, we examined the short- and longer term effectiveness of rehearsal strategy training. In Study 1, children with…

Children with Down syndrome typically have weaknesses in oral language, but it has been suggested that this domain may benefit from learning to read. Amongst oral language skills, vocabulary is a relative strength, although there is some evidence of difficulties in learning the phonological form of spoken words. This study investigated the effect…

This study was conducted as a follow-up analysis to two prior studies using existing data gathered in those original studies. In the current study, we focus on those preschoolers who received one of two interventions that varied in terms of the level of visual supports for grammatical elements (n = 22 of the original 34 participants). Utilizing…

The Center for Disease Control estimates that one in 88 births result in a diagnosis of autism (CDC, 2012). Of those individuals diagnosed with autism approximately 25-61% fail to develop vocal output capabilities (Weitxz, Dexter, & Moore, 1997). The use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems, such as Picture Exchange (PE)…

We compared the efficacy of tact-to-intraverbal (i.e., using picture prompts) and echoic-to-intraverbal transfer-of-stimulus-control procedures to establish intraverbal responding in 3 boys (4 years old) with autism. For all 3 participants, the picture prompts resulted in fewer trials to criterion, but both prompting tactics were eventually…

Background: The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a popular augmentative communication system frequently used with "nonverbal" children with autism. Several studies suggested that PECS could represent an effective tool for promoting improvement of several social-communicative skills. Only sparse evidence is instead…

The abilities to identify threat and learn about affect in facial photographs were compared between a non-autistic university student group (NUS), a matched Asperger's group (MAS) on the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM), and an unmatched Asperger's group (UAS) who scored lower on the SPM. Participants were given pairs of faces and asked which…

Six participants with autism learned conditional relations between complex auditory-visual sample stimuli (dictated words and pictures) and simple visual comparisons (printed words) using matching-to-sample training procedures. Pre- and posttests examined potential stimulus control by each element of the complex sample when presented individually…

The purpose of this comparative efficacy study was to investigate the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and a speech-generating device (SGD) in developing requesting skills, social-communicative behavior, and speech for three elementary-age children with severe autism and little to no functional speech. Requesting was selected as the…

Background: Children with word-finding difficulties manifest a high frequency of word-finding characteristics in narrative, yet word-finding interventions have concentrated on single-word treatments and outcome measures. Aims: This study measured the effectiveness of a narrative-based intervention in improving single-word picture-naming and…

Children with mental retardation have pronounced difficulties in using cognitive strategies and comprehending abstract concepts--among them, the concept of sequential time (Van-Handel, Swaab, De-Vries, & Jongmans, 2007). The perception of sequential time is generally tested by using scenarios presenting a continuum of actions. The goal of this…