This study evaluated the effects of least-to-most prompting strategies to increase peer-to-peer vocal mands. Three preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) participated in this study, which focused on increasing mands towards same age peers with ASD. Highly preferred tangibles were delivered from the peers to the target participants, contingent on a correct independent or prompted mand. Generalization was programmed within the study as peers were alternated and sessions were conducted both in a separate, discrete trial room and within the natural classroom setting. Results of the study suggest that the teaching package with least-to-most prompting increased peer-to-peer mands for the three target participants. / Educational Psychology

Children diagnosed with autism exhibit deficits in communication that impact their ability to control their immediate environment. Recent research on mand training has been criticized for producing a limited number of mand topographies over a long span of time with limited generalization to novel environments. There is a body of research, however, that successfully establishes larger repertoires. Training parents as change agents may mediate generalization by teaching under naturally maintaining contingencies. Additional effects of parent training may reduce parent reports of stress, increase favorable quality of parent-child interactions, and increase reports of parental self-efficacy. The current study evaluated the effects of a generalized training framework to teach parents how to target generalized mands and expand their child’s communicative topographies. The effects of the training were evaluated using a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants and skills. Results indicated that parents were able to effectively teach their child to mand for a variety of items and events and to substantially increase the number of different mand topographies and expand the topographies the child emitted. Parents were observed to have higher overall confidence and lower overall stress following intervention. The current study builds on previous research on generalized teaching strategies for parents that are effective in teaching a variety of responses to the child.

Language development and the ability to access reinforcement in young children with autism may be impeded by lack of behavioral variability in verbal behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of simultaneously teaching multiple responses and extinction of repetition on producing varied verbal behavior in young children with autism. In particular, we examined the effects of these procedures on increasing the behavioral variability of mands used to request edibles in preschool children with autism. For all three participants, neither increasing mand repertoires via teaching multiple responses, nor extinction of repetition, by themselves or in combination were effective at producing stable behavioral variability. However, antecedent strategies (presence of visual cues) were effective at producing varied manding for all three participants.

The picture exchange communication system (PECS) is a functional communication system frequently used with individuals diagnosed with autism (Frost & Bondy, 2002). Few empirical investigations have evaluated staff training procedures to train staff how to teach consumers to use PECS, and none have been published to date on training staff to promote the use of PECS outside of the training environment. Using a multiple probe design the current investigation evaluated staff training procedures for teaching Phases 1-3 of PECS to adults with autism spectrum disorders, with direct care staff. Typical staff training procedures resulted in little improvement from baseline performances for each participant. Performance following behavioral skills training improved significantly, approaching mastery criterion levels.

Repetitive behavior and delays in communication are core deficits of autism spectrum disorder. As a result, individuals with autism often engage in repetitive verbal behavior, and they may not vary their verbal behavior, even when the situation demands it. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a script training 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 Lag schedule of reinforcement. They were also taught to not vary their vocal mands in the presence of the same written scripts and a red placemat. When the scripts were removed, all three participants continued to engage in varied manding in the presence of the Lag schedule of reinforcement and the green placemat. All three participants also did not vary their mands in the presence of the red placemat. When the Lag schedule of reinforcement was removed, two participants continued to engage in varied responding in the presence of the green placemat and unvaried responding in the iv presence of the red placemat. One participant did not engage in varied responding when the Lag schedule of reinforcement was removed. However, when the Lag schedule of reinforcement was re-introduced, varied responding re-emerged. Finally, all three participants demonstrated mand variability during snack sessions when their peers were present, and they maintained their varied manding after a 2-week follow-up.

Language development and the ability to access reinforcement in young children with autism may be impeded by lack of behavioral variability in verbal behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of simultaneously teaching multiple responses and extinction of repetition on producing varied verbal behavior in young children with autism. In particular, we examined the effects of these procedures on increasing the behavioral variability of mands used to request edibles in preschool children with autism. For all three participants, neither increasing mand repertoires via teaching multiple responses, nor extinction of repetition, by themselves or in combination were effective at producing stable behavioral variability. However, antecedent strategies (presence of visual cues) were effective at producing varied manding for all three participants.

Children with developmental disabilities often have complex communication needs that require professional intervention. For children with limited or no functional speech, the first step in treatment programming is choosing an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) modality that best represents the needs of the child. The availability and diversity of AAC systems are only increasing (Loncke, 2014). Parents and practitioners are faced with a difficult decision and existing literature has yet to come to a consensus on the potential benefits or disadvantages of incorporating specific AAC strategies. The field of applied behavior analysis has empirically demonstrated the utility of AAC modalities as viable manding topographies to reduce problem behavior (Harding et al., 2009; Ringdahl et al., 2009). Despite reliable reductions in problem behavior, there is paucity in research directly comparing mand modalities and the subsequent effects on communication repertoires. Existing studies contain methodological features that make it difficult to draw firm conclusions (Chambers & Rehfeldt, 2003; Gregory, DeLeon, & Richman, 2009; Tincani, 2004). Therefore, the purpose of the current investigation is to expand on existing literature evaluating aided and unaided AAC modalities and contribute to literature on mand training as it relates to topography-based versus selection-based system outcomes. This study compares three popular mand modalities frequently utilized in interventions implemented by speech-language pathologists and behavior analysts: (1) speech only (2) picture card + speech (3) sign + speech. Conditions were compared in an alternating treatments design for two participants to determine differential modality acquisition, problem behavior reduction, communicative gesturing, and speech emergence. Methodological considerations were given to control for the influence of transfer of stimulus control procedures by adopting a graduated time delay prompt fading procedure and, to the greatest degree possible, minimize the influence of response effort variability by employing the lowest response effort possible across all conditions. Results support the “multimodal” conceptual framework and the practice of “total communication” and provide evidence against the opposing “incompatibility hypothesis.” Keywords: augmentative alternative communication (AAC), mand, verbal behavior, multimodal, total communication, incompatibility hypothesis, aided, unaided, topography-based, selection-based

Submitted by Rodrigo Martins Cruz (rodrigo.cruz@ufvjm.edu.br) on 2015-10-23T11:18:19Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dimitri_ Ribas_Fonseca.pdf: 1486448 bytes, checksum: 134a8204530bf086edcbf7b26f37a0bf (MD5) license_rdf: 22974 bytes, checksum: 99c771d9f0b9c46790009b9874d49253 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Martins Cruz (rodrigo.cruz@ufvjm.edu.br) on 2015-10-23T11:20:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dimitri_ Ribas_Fonseca.pdf: 1486448 bytes, checksum: 134a8204530bf086edcbf7b26f37a0bf (MD5) license_rdf: 22974 bytes, checksum: 99c771d9f0b9c46790009b9874d49253 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-23T11:20:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dimitri_ Ribas_Fonseca.pdf: 1486448 bytes, checksum: 134a8204530bf086edcbf7b26f37a0bf (MD5) license_rdf: 22974 bytes, checksum: 99c771d9f0b9c46790009b9874d49253 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico (CNPq) / Funda??o de Amparo ? Pesquisa do estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) / O conceito all-on-four apresenta sucesso cl?nico longitudinal. Entretanto, diferentes estudos mencionaram o uso de pr?teses fixas provis?rias totalmente acr?licas para a fase prot?tica inicial, possibilitando a ocorr?ncia de complica??es mec?nicas de 11% a 30%. Alguns achados relatam a aplica??o de alta tecnologia para elabora??o do refor?o da pr?tese provis?ria como o sistema CAD-CAM e soldas intrabucais para minimizar as falhas prot?ticas. Em uma abordagem que utiliza princ?pios j? fundamentados e ainda n?o agregados conjuntamente em uma mesma proposta prot?tica, este estudo avaliou uma pr?tese com infraestrutura met?lica sem soldas apoiada sobre cilindros pr?-fabricados. Dois desenhos de pr?teses acr?licas, representativas para o conceito all-on-four, com configura??es inovadoras foram consideradas para avalia??o. Para refer?ncia, foram produzidos dois grupos controle, G1 (controle negativo, n=10) e G4 (controle positivo, n=10). Os grupos de estudo foram G2 (grupo teste 2, n=10) e G3 (grupo teste 3, n=10). Todos os corpos de prova foram submetidos ? ciclagem t?rmica com 500 ciclos (5?C,?2? por 30s e 55?C,?2? por 30s). Em sequ?ncia, G2 e G4 foram avaliados quanto ? adapta??o sob microscopia eletr?nica de varredura e os quatro grupos foram submetidos ao ensaio flexural sobre o cantilever. Os resultados tiveram an?lise estat?stica descritiva, avalia??o da distribui??o da amostra pelo teste de Shapiro-Wilk, an?lise de vari?ncia de Kruskal-Wallis e compara??o intergrupo pelo teste de Mann-Whitney. O grupo G2 apresentou menor m?dia de desadapta??o (30,02 ?m) em compara??o ao grupo G4 (79,42 ?m), com diferen?a significativa (P<0,05). Tamb?m foram significativas (p<0,01) as avalia??es dos resultados do teste mec?nico. O grupo G4 apresentou maior m?dia de resist?ncia ? fratura em resina (943,97N), seguido pelos grupos G3 (830,50N), G2 (657,50N) e G1 (403,58N). Os significantes resultados da avalia??o flexural e de adapta??o para a infraestrutura met?lica sem soldas sugerem continuidade na avalia??o desta modalidade prot?tica. / Disserta??o (Mestrado) ? Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Odontologia, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, 2012. / ABSTRACT The all-on-four concept presents high success rates of clinical follow-up studies. However, different studies select fully acrylic provisional bridges for prosthetic initial phase, allowing the incidence of mechanical complications from 11% to 30%. Studies reported the application of high technology to prepare the prosthetic framework such as CAD-CAM systems and intraoral welding, to minimize the failures. In an approach that uses known principles and has not added together in the same way, this study evaluated prosthesis with a metal framework without welding supported by prefabricated cylinders. Two acrylic prosthesis design, representative for the All-on-four, with a new configurations were selected for this study. Two control groups were produced G1 (negative control, n=10) and G4 (positive control, n=10). The study group were the G2 (test group 2, n=10) and G3 (test group 3, n=10). The sample was subjected to thermal cycling at 500 cycles (5?C,?2? at 30s e 55?C,?2? at 30s). In the segment, G2 and G4 were evaluated for misfit under scanning electron microscopy and the four groups were subjected to flexural test on the cantilever. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed and an evaluation of the sample distribution by the Shapiro-Wilk test. The Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were used to compare groups. The group G2 had lower average misfit (30.02 ?m) compared to G4 (79.42 ?m), with significant difference (p<0.05). Were also significant (p<0.01) the results of the mechanical test. The G4 showed higher mean fracture toughness resin (943.97N), followed by G3 (830.50N), G2 (657.50N) and G1 (403.58N). The significant results of the flexural test and misfit evaluation for metal framework without welding, suggest continuity in the evaluation of this prosthesis.

Skinner (1957) suggested that different verbal operants are acquired independently of each other and establishing a verbal operant as a mand will not necessarily result in the appearance of a tact having the same response form and vice versa. Recent empirical research has found that newly acquired mands and tacts can be transferred to different relations without direct training. The present study investigated 1) how verbal responses taught as pure mands affect untrained tact relations; 2) how verbal responses taught as pure tacts affect untrained mand relations; 3) how the size of mand and tact repertoires relate to speed of acquisition of new mands and tacts; and 4) how size of entering repertoires affect the transfer of mand topographies to tacts and vice versa. Two vocal-verbal children with autism were taught three novel responses as mands and three other responses as tacts. Mand topographies transferred to tact relations and tact topographies transferred to mand relations for both participants. Overall acquisition as well as transfer of mands and tacts was faster for the participant with a higher entering repertoire.

In Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior, the tact and mand are suggested to be functionally independent verbal operants. Many studies evaluating the verbal operants have provided results consistent with Skinner's notion of functional independence. For example, previous studies have yielded results showing that responses taught as tacts failed to emerge as mands unless they were directly trained as such. However, in many of the studies evaluating the functional independence of the verbal operants it is unclear whether the mand conditions were designed to actually evaluate that response function. The current study replicated and extended the findings of Wallace, Iwata, and Hanley (2006), who empirically demonstrated conditions that facilitated the transfer from tact to mand relations. Students in the current study were taught to tact both high preference and low preference items and were subsequently assessed on their ability to mand for those items. Responses taught as tacts transferred to mand responses without direct training for the high preference items only. These results suggest that the conditions under which training of one operant facilitates the emergence of an untrained verbal operant may be related to motivating operations.