Mand training is a very logical and natural procedure to begin teaching communication skills to individuals with autism. Existing research has documented strategies for teaching children with autism to mand for preferred items, although there are fewer high quality studies on teaching children to mand for other people to perform an action. In addition to improving the general mand repertoire, teaching children to mand for others to perform an action is important because it allows children with autism to communicate ways in which another person could improve their environment by performing a simple action. The purpose of this study was to document a functional relation between mand training and acquisition and generalization of unprompted mands for another person to perform an action. Using a multiple-baseline design across participants, four children with autism were taught to mand for an adult to perform a variety of actions (e.g., to open a container so the child could obtain a preferred item). Results showed that the intervention produced an increase in unprompted mands for actions for all participants. Additionally, all participants demonstrated unprompted mands at or above mastery criteria during all generalization sessions in a different setting and different interventionist. The magnitude of effect was also large for all participants. This study extends the research on mand training by demonstrating a procedure that can be used to teach children with autism specific mands for actions. Additionally, this study will contribute to a body of strong and adequate studies that will eventually lead to mand training being considered an evidence-based practice.

This study explores similarities and differences in turntaking structures in the discourse of a group of typical children and one atypical child. Nineteen normally developing pre-school children and one atypical child were videotaped reading books with their parents. Each of the nineteen parent/child dyads were videotaped at the child's pre-school, and the atypical child (Ben) was videotaped at school both with a trained educator and with his mother. Analyses of the resulting videotapes yielded categorical data on types and structures of turntaking. The utterances of the typical children appeared most often in the category of response. This finding also applied to Ben when he was interacting with his teacher, although when Ben was interacting with his mother the majority of his utterances appeared in the category of imitation. Parents of the typical children used primarily responses, mands and turnabouts. The greatest difference between Ben's mother and the other parents is found in the categories of response and mand which were lower in the case of Ben's mother. It appears that conversational turntaking in a language delayed child is different from the pattern of conversational turntaking in a group of typical children. If indeed the This study explores similarities and differences in turntaking structures in the discourse of a group of typical children and one atypical child. Nineteen normally developing pre-school children and one atypical child were videotaped reading books with their parents. Each of the nineteen parent/child dyads were videotaped at the child's pre-school, and the atypical child (Ben) was videotaped at school both with a trained educator and with his mother. Analyses of the resulting videotapes yielded categorical data on types and structures of turntaking. The utterances of the typical children appeared most often in the category of response. This finding also applied to Ben when he was interacting with his teacher, although when Ben was interacting with his mother the majority of his utterances appeared in the category of imitation. Parents of the typical children used primarily responses, mands and turnabouts. The greatest difference between Ben's mother and the other parents is found in the categories of response and mand which were lower in the case of Ben's mother. It appears that conversational turntaking in a language delayed child is different from the pattern of conversational turntaking in a group of typical children. If indeed the difficulty lies with interaction, or turntaking skills, this may have significant implications for approaches to remediation used with children who are identified as autistic or severely learning disabled. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a procedure for teaching a caregiver to shape vocal language in a young child with autism. A multiple baseline design was employed to assess caregiver use of shaping procedures, child vocal language progress, and the social validity of the procedures. Following baseline and introductory sessions, the coach and caregiver reviewed video from the previous session and the coach gave descriptive feedback to the caregiver about her performance. Following the review of the videotaped segment, procedures to increase skills were selected and practiced. Rates of responsive opportunity arrangement, model presentation, responsive model delivery, and responsive event delivery, as well as the child's rate of requests, vocalizations, diversity of vocalizations, and social validity were measured. Data suggested that the procedures effectively taught the skill of shaping to a caregiver, which in turn seemed to produce increases in the child's vocal responding.

We evaluated the effects of an instructional package on the emergence of novel intraverbals in children diagnosed with autism. Participants were two boys with a diagnosis of autism who had tact and listener repertoires for common objects and events, some intraverbal responses, and showed an ability to learn new intraverbal responses through direct instruction prior to participating in the study. Tact training, listener training, sorting training, and mixed training (listener and tact training) were conducted with each participant, with a probe to test for emergent intraverbals following each training step. If some emergence was seen during a probe following a training step, probes were conducted with the remaining sets to test for emergence in those sets as well. Multiple-exemplar training was conducted following the training steps if all targets within a set did not meet the criterion for emergence during probes. Results showed that for one participant, all four training steps, in addition to multiple-exemplar training, were needed to see emergence in all targets during probes for two sets, with the last two sets requiring only tact training before all targets had emerged during probes. The second participant required only tact training during three sets, with listener training required for one target in one set before all targets in all sets emerged during probes.

This study evaluated whether picture exchange communication system (PECS) training would result in the development of conditional relations among corresponding pictures, objects (reinforcers) and spoken words used in PECS training with learners with developmental disabilities. Three participants with autism and mental retardation were trained to use PECS. Match-to-sample procedures were used to assess all possible conditional relations among stimuli before, during, and after PECS training. None of the three participants in this study acquired conditional discriminations involving the pictures, reinforcers, and spoken words used in their PECS training.

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) has been used with children with autism and other developmental disabilities as an alternative to vocal communication. Some researchers have reported rapid acquisition of picture-exchange requesting as well as increased vocal speech and increased spontaneous social interactions following PECS training. Earlier research has found that although 3 children with autism learned to exchange pictures for preferred items during PECS training, requesting topographies did not change and vocal speech did not increase after PECS training. The present study evaluated the effects of PECS training on requesting topographies, especially vocal speech, with 3 participants with autism and mental retardation. Only one participant maintained picture-exchange requesting, and none of the participants showed an increase in vocal speech during probe sessions conducted after each PECS training phase.

The research demonstrates that music therapy is an effective tool in the area of communication and behavior with children with autism and children with other learning disabilities. The hypothesis of this thesis predicted that music would enhance communication and decrease inappropriate behaviors. Qualitative data were gathered from interviews with music therapists and observations of students diagnosed with autism and other disabilities including attention deficit disorder, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome, and other levels of mental retardation. Results supported the hypothesis and also supported the research in the literature that music lowered the anxiety levels in all individuals, resulting in increased learning.

Teachers of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often struggle to find effective instructional methods to use with their students on a daily basis. The characteristic verbal, social, and behavioral limitations of children with ASD make finding effective teaching methods difficult. Though some intensive intervention methods, such as discrete trial teaching (DTT), have numerous studies demonstrating their effectiveness with students with ASD, the required one-on-one format makes it impractical to use in a classroom setting on a regular basis. Direct Instruction (DI) appears in the literature as a promising intervention for students with developmental disabilities. One benefit of DI is that, unlike DTT and similar interventions, it can be implemented in a group format. This group format provides a practical alternative for classroom teachers to use with their students with ASD. This study utilized a multiple probe across behaviors design to further investigate the use of DI to teach high school students with ASD how to answer “wh-” questions. The researcher used the Science Research Associates (SRA) Reading Mastery language program, which is a DI program designed to develop language skills. Three participants between the ages of 15 and 17 participated in 20-25 minute instructional sessions four times a week for eight weeks. Data were collected on each participant’s accuracy in answering “wh-” questions during baseline, acquisition (teaching), and maintenance conditions. The results indicate that DI was effective in helping participants acquire the language skills necessary to accurately respond to “what,” “where," and “who” questions. Implications for small group language instruction for students with ASD and recommendations for future research are discussed. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Research has demonstrated that higher levels of parent language use is correlated with later language use and intellectual development of their children. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display deficits in social and communication skills. They also demonstrate repetitive and restrictive behaviors or interests. These behavioral deficits and excesses may contribute negatively to language development, as well as parent and child social interactions, and communication exchanges. The current study used a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline design to evaluate the effectiveness of behavior skills training (BST) and on-going graphical and verbal feedback on increasing parent language use and child words and utterances. Results of this study demonstrated that BST with on-going feedback was effective in increasing parent language use and child words and utterances above baseline levels for all four parent-child dyads. The dissertation concludes with recommendations for future research. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection