Music-based interventions have been shown to benefit autistic individuals by improving social behavior and communication, and reducing behavioral excesses (Hill et al., 2020). The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether training more discriminable notes (i.e., “C,” “E,” and “G”) would enhance the effects of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) on the acquisition of piano skills, novel piano performance (i.e., reading sheet music), novel note performance, pitch discrimination, and the maintenance of taught and untaught piano skills among autistic children. Additionally, we examined whether participants would generalize their responding to untrained notes appearing on the staff between the trained notes (i.e., “D” and “F”). The training involved simultaneous matching of auditory-visual musical stimuli in a one-to-many arrangement. When given an auditory stimulus, learners selected letters, musical notation, and piano keys. Following training, posttests were conducted to test the emergence of novel untrained relations and musical notes. Maintenance probes occurred within 1 week of the posttests. All participants demonstrated novel piano skills and scored high on maintenance probes. However, none of the participants reached mastery level on the “perfect pitch” probes, nor did they respond accurately to the untrained notes. The results suggest EBI’s efficacy in teaching and maintaining piano skills, though with notable limitations.
Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have difficulty with social interactions and communication. Thus, identifying procedures that are efficient and effective at improving communication is important. Instructive feedback (IF) is a procedure that has been found to increase communication for individuals with developmental disabilities by teaching a primary target (PT) and embedding a secondary target (ST) within the learning trial. However, different procedural configurations exist across the IF literature, which may influence its efficacy and efficiency. The purpose of this study was to compare the delivery of antecedent and consequence ST when teaching different tacts and intraverbals to a child diagnosed with ASD across multiple phases and stimulus sets. In phase 1, we compared teaching antecedent and consequence ST to no ST and found that incorporating ST resulted in better acquisition of ST compared to no ST. In phases 2 and 3, we compared only antecedent and consequence ST and showed that both conditions led to the acquisition of intraverbals; however, acquisition rates differed across conditions. Finally, in phase 3, we assessed the participant’s allocation of responding between the different ST types in a concurrent-link arrangement. The participant allocated responding more to the consequence condition, which was generally more efficient at producing ST acquisition in phases 2 and 3. Possible explanations for differences in acquisition related to when ST were delivered are discussed, as well as areas for future research.
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems allow individuals with vocal speech delays to meet their wants and needs. However, when signs are used as AAC, the implementers and caregivers must also learn signs. Longo et al. Behavioral Interventions, 37(3), 713–731 (2022) found that a self-study training (SST) in which adult participants observed videos paired with text was both efficacious and efficient in teaching eight component and 16 compound signs, arranged in a matrix. We systematically replicated SST, with changes to the matrix design and targets evaluated. The dependent variables were text-sign intraverbal and sign-vocal tacts for component and compound targets. Performance in a role play condition was also evaluated before and after training. SST was implemented with three adult participants using a multiple probe design across behaviors (submatrices). For the first two participants, SST of six compound, diagonal targets led to the acquisition of 30 untrained compounds and 12 component targets across modalities (i.e., text-sign intraverbals, sign-vocal tacts, listener responses) and contexts (i.e., role play). Similar results were obtained with the third participant, though acquisition of submatrix 2 was observed following intervention with submatrix 1. These results have implications for designing training to support implementers teaching sign as AAC.
Previous studies have shown that participants’ preferences for stimuli can affect the acquisition of mands and tacts. However, no studies have evaluated the effect of preference on echoics. In the current study, three preschoolers with autism were taught to echo words associated with preferred and neutral stimuli. We also conducted mand and tact probes to test for transfer of echoic responses across verbal operants. Participants demonstrated correct echoic responding under both preferred and neutral stimulus conditions, though responding met the mastery criterion sooner under the preferred condition for two of the three participants. The mand and tact probe results did not differ across conditions—tacts emerged across conditions, while mands did not. These findings extend prior research assessing the effect of preference on verbal behavior acquisition and transfer across verbal operants. We provide recommendations on the selection of stimuli for teaching echoics to children with autism.
The misconception that teaching children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) more than one language will cause delays in language acquisition could lead bilingual caregivers to not speak to their children in their heritage language. Therefore, researchers should investigate whether teaching a second language to children with ASD could hinder acquisition of communication skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of direct teaching of Spanish auditory-visual conditional discriminations with instructive feedback in English on the acquisition of primary targets, secondary targets, and emergent relations (i.e., Spanish and English tacts) by children with ASD. All participants’ responding met the mastery criterion for the primary targets and the inclusion of instructive feedback resulted in the acquisition of English auditory-visual conditional discriminations.
