Purpose: Miniature linguistic systems (also known as matrix training) is a method of organizing learning targets to achieve generative learning or recombinative generalization. This systematic review is aimed at determining whether matrix training is effective for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in terms of improving recombinative…

Generalization is the ability to apply regularities to novel instances, for example, correctly guessing that the plural for the novel English word 'wug' should be 'wugs'. Early language learners make overgeneralization errors like 'mouses', applying regularities beyond their attested uses. Theories concerned with the question of how learners learn…

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…

Purpose: In this study, the authors examined the effects of the Teach-Model-Coach-Review instructional approach on caregivers' use of four enhanced milieu teaching (EMT) language support strategies and on their children's use of expressive language. Method: Four caregiver-child dyads participated in a single-subject, multiple-baseline study.…

This study investigated the effects of the Direct Instruction writing program, "Expressive Writing" (Engelmann & Silbert, 1983), for high school students with learning disabilities (LD). The study used a multiple probe design across participants and results indicate the effectiveness of "Expressive Writing" in improving the writing skills of high…

Teaching Research Initial Expressive Language Program (developed by H. Sloane, et al.) is a structured language program for moderately and severely handicapped preschool children. (Author/PHR)

Incidental teaching and traditional discrete-trial procedures were used to teach two children (ages 10 and 12) with autism the expressive use of two color adjectives. Results demonstrated that traditional discrete-trial teaching was more efficient and produced faster acquisition but incidental teaching resulted in greater generalization and equal…

Four nine year olds with mild mental retardation received training on the meaning of idiomatic phrases. All children demonstrated learning and an ability to understand the learned idioms when presented in unfamiliar contexts. Children were able to generalize their receptive learning to an expressive task with varying levels of success. (Author/JDD)

Four developmentally delayed preschoolers were taught action-object responses in receptive and expressive language modalities, using matrix-training procedures. Acquisition of a word combination rule was facilitated by the use of familiar lexical items, whereas subsequent acquisition of new lexical knowledge was enhanced by couching training in a…

This study examined the relationship between 20 hearing-impaired sixth and seventh grade students' ability to write syntactically correct sentences in two formats, one structured and one unstructured. Students generated more syntactically correct sentences in the structured format with little correlation between performance on the two formats.…

Four toddlers with mental retardation were studied in the context of a multiple baseline across subjects design. Results supported the use of a modified version of milieu teaching to increase intentional requesting by these children. Increased intentional requesting was generalized to interactions with mothers. (Author/DB)

This study of four preschool children (two typically developing, one physically disabled, one mildly developmentally delayed) found that use of a simultaneous prompting procedure was effective in teaching expressive word recognition to three of the students. Maintenance and generalization were also successful. (Author/JDD)

Opportunities for teaching a young child with autism to request more play were created at multiple points on the playground by momentarily interrupting the child's ongoing play using the behavior chain interruption strategy. The intervention resulted in high rates of correct requesting which were maintained with a new teacher and generalized to a…

Three case studies are reported, illustrating use of Structured Role Play Therapy in teaching moderately language-delayed children, aged 4-6, to produce specifically targeted grammatical forms and to generalize production to sentences not included in therapy activities. The role-playing resulted in rapid increases in production accuracy of…

Two children, aged six and nine, with moderate mental retardation were taught syntactic rules for combining known and unknown words into two-word utterances. The use of receptive teaching with imitation of the target phrase facilitated both generalized receptive learning and transfer to production in both subjects. (Author/JDD)