An Abbreviated Evaluation of the Efficiency of Listener and Tact Instruction for Children with Autism

Frampton et al. (2017) compared two ways to teach new words to kids with autism. One group got listener training. They heard a word and pointed to the right picture. The other group got tact training. They saw a picture and said the word out loud.

The team used an alternating-treatments design. Each child tried both methods in mixed order. They tracked how many trials each child needed to master the new words.

Most kids learned faster with tact training. They reached mastery in fewer trials. Skills taught with tacts also showed better emergence. That means the new words showed up in other tasks without extra teaching.

Listener training worked, but it took more time and did not spread as easily to new uses.

Morton et al. (2023) extends this idea. They added short instructive feedback while teaching tacts. Kids not only learned the labels but also started new play actions on their own.

Cihon et al. (2020) seems to clash. Their RCT found no speed difference among three prompting systems for tact training. The key gap: Cihon compared prompts within tact training, while Frampton compared tact to listener formats. Both can be true.

Belisle et al. (2020) widens the scope. They used most-to-least prompting to teach kids to tact others' feelings. Tact procedures still worked, now for social-emotional words.

Start with tact training when you want efficient vocabulary growth. Pick listener tasks later for extra practice. Watch for emergent skills after tact sessions. If a child stalls, check Morton et al. (2023) and add quick instructive feedback to spark play. Keep prompting simple; Cihon et al. (2020) says the style does not change speed.