A comparison of methods for teaching receptive language to toddlers with autism.
For one toddler with autism, plain single-picture receptive teaching worked as well as picture-plus-sound, so either format is fine.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Vedora et al. (2015) compared two ways to teach receptive words to one toddler with autism.
One way showed only the spoken word and one picture at a time. The other way showed the spoken word plus extra pictures or sounds.
They used an alternating-treatments design and counted how fast the child learned to touch the right picture when hearing the word.
What they found
Both teaching ways worked about the same. The child learned the words in nearly the same number of trials.
Extra pictures or sounds did not speed things up or slow them down.
How this fits with other research
Bergmann et al. (2023) and Hanney et al. (2019) found the opposite. They taught auditory tacts to older kids with autism and saw faster mastery when sound was paired with pictures.
The difference is age and skill. Toddlers learning first words may not need extra cues, while older kids learning harder sounds do.
Porter et al. (2008) also saw faster tact and intraverbal learning when touch, taste, or smell was added. Their kids were elementary age, matching the pattern that compound stimuli help after the toddler stage.
Why it matters
If you teach toddlers with autism, start simple. Single-picture receptive trials are enough and keep the table less cluttered. Save compound stimuli for older kids or harder tasks like auditory tacts. Always probe first—one toddler showed no gain from extras, but your next client might.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
UNLABELLED: Vocal exchanges are often comprised of responses under multiple sources of stimulus control. For example, a picture may contain multiple components, and an instructor may ask a learner to respond differentially to questions about the picture (e.g., "who," "what," "where," "color," "number," "shape"). The format of teaching may affect the development of verbal behavior under multiple sources of stimulus control. Therefore, the present investigation compared teaching stimuli in isolation to teaching with compound stimuli on the emergence of verbal behavior to evaluate methods that assist with correctly answering questions about compound stimuli. This study used a translational model with undergraduate students in Experiment 1 and replicated the procedures with a child with autism spectrum disorder in Experiment 2. Probes of untrained speaker and listener relations were conducted prior to training and following the emergence of the multiply controlled intraverbal tacts. Results show limited differences in the impact of training stimuli on acquisition and emergence. Results also show trial arrangements that may promote the emergence of untrained verbal relations. Potential clinical applications and suggestions for future research are discussed. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40616-024-00214-6.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2015 · doi:10.1002/jaba.167