ERIC Number: EJ1326172
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Dec
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0889-9401
EISSN: N/A
Assessing the Effects of Observational Conditioning and Response-Contingent Pairing on the Vocalizations of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Chance, Sydni; Cividini-Motta, Catia; Livingston, Cynthia
Analysis of Verbal Behavior, v37 n2 p194-216 Dec 2021
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display impairments in communication, such as limited echoic behavior, few vocal-verbal responses, and a lack of functional communication. One potential way to foster the acquisition of vocal responses in individuals with disabilities is by conditioning vocalizations as reinforcers. Conditioning procedures include stimulus-stimulus pairing, response-contingent pairing (RCP), operant discrimination training, and observational conditioning (OC). However, previous research has not evaluated whether OC can be used to condition vocalizations as reinforcers. The current study assessed whether two conditioning procedures, RCP and OC, were effective in conditioning vocalizations as a reinforcer and also evaluated their effect on the rate of vocalizations. Participants included three children with ASD, ages 5-10 years old. During the conditioning phase, rates of vocalizations during the RCP and OC conditions and a control condition were compared within an adapted alternating-treatments design. Reinforcer assessments were completed in a multielement design, pre- and postconditioning, to assess whether the target vocalizations acquired reinforcing properties. A conditioning effect and an increase in the rate of vocalizations were observed for two of the three participants; however, the conditioning effect was minor for one participant. Overall, the results of this study indicate both the RCP and OC procedures may be beneficial in increasing vocalizations for some children and could be incorporated into clinical programs and further explored in future research.
Descriptors: Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Interpersonal Communication, Communication Skills, Verbal Communication, Operant Conditioning, Program Effectiveness, Reinforcement, Children, Responses, Contingency Management
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2123/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A