Jun 6, 2021
The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the effects of a Social Story intervention on the behavior rates of 4 young children
with autism using a multiple-baseline across participants design. The results of this paper indicate that the Social Story was
modestly effective in increasing prosocial behavior rates in 3 of the 4 participants, though none of the participants reached the
prosocial behavior rates of age and gender-matched peers. The problem behaviors of the participants modestly decreased with
the intervention. Maintenance of skills over a 1-month period was demonstrated for all of the participants. The variable and
inconsistent results of the research add to the current literature base in support of the use of Social Stories for some children with
autism.
Jun 6, 2021
Building the communicative competence of individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) requires intervention and support. This systematic review examined experimental studies involving aided AAC modeling to promote the expressive communication of children and youth (i.e., birth to age 21) with complex communication needs. A search yielded 48 studies involving 267 participants. Interventions were categorized according to three different approaches to aided AAC modeling—augmented input, models as prompts, and models within instructional demonstrations. Although the procedures varied, interventions were generally effective at improving diverse measures of expressive communication. This review provides insight for both researchers and practitioners by describing interventions involving three distinct approaches to aided AAC modeling, highlighting areas needing future research, and offering implications for practice.
Jun 6, 2021
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of manual sign mand training combined with prompt delay and vocal prompting on the production of vocal responses in nonvocal children with developmental disabilities. A multiple baseline design across participants verified the effectiveness of this intervention. All participants showed increases in vocal responses following the implementation of the independent variables.
Jun 6, 2021
Behavior analysis has already contributed substantially to the treatment of children with autism,
and further gains can result from more use of Skinner’s analysis of language in Verbal Behavior
(1957) and in the resulting conceptual and experimental work. The approach emphasizes a unit
of analysis consisting of the relations between behavior, motivative and discriminative variables,
and consequences. Skinner identifies seven types of verbal operants—echoic, mand, tact,
intraverbal, textual, transcriptive, and copying a text—which function as components of more
advanced forms of language. This approach focuses on the development of each verbal operant
(rather than onwords and their meanings) and on the independent training of speaker and listener
repertoires. Five more specific contributions are described that relate to the importance of (a) an
effective language assessment, (b) mand training in early intervention, (c) establishing operations,
(d) an intraverbal repertoire, and (e) automatic reinforcement.
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