Effects of time delay and requiring echoics on answering questions about visual stimuli
Have kids echo the question keyword first—then use progressive time delay—to lift correct answers and generalization in intraverbal wh-questions.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three preschoolers with autism learned to answer “What color?” and “Where?” questions about pictures.
The teacher first asked the question right away and gave the answer if the child hesitated. Over days she waited longer before helping, but only after the child echoed the key word like “color.”
Sessions were short tabletop trials. The team tracked correct answers and checked if the skill spread to new pictures and new question types.
What they found
All three kids jumped from about 0 % correct to 80-100 % once the echo-plus-delay package was in place.
The skill moved to new pictures in the same category and even to new question types they had never practiced.
Progress stayed high when the echo rule was later removed.
How this fits with other research
Reichow et al. (2011) showed that adding quick instructive feedback during progressive prompt delay cut teaching time. Meleshkevich keeps the delay idea but swaps feedback for a required echoic keyword. The two tweaks target different bottlenecks: Brian speeds mastery, Meleshkevich boosts intraverbal accuracy and generalization.
Cariveau et al. (2016) and Sanford et al. (1980) both prove timing matters in autism teaching. They shortened intertrial intervals to squeeze in more learning trials. Meleshkevich stretches the wait before the prompt, showing that the right kind of delay—when paired with an echo—can be helpful, not harmful. The studies do not clash; they tune different clock parts of the lesson.
Kydd et al. (1982) taught us that repetitive questions from autistic kids are social bids. Meleshkevich flips the angle: when adults ask the questions, requiring the child to echo the key word before answering sharpens the intraverbal response. Together they map both sides of the conversation street.
Why it matters
If you run intraverbal programs, add a quick echo rule before the answer and fade your prompts with a progressive delay. The echo acts like a miniature rehearsal that primes the correct response and helps the skill hop to new examples. You can start Monday—just ask, have the child say “color,” then wait a second before supplying the prompt.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
An important communication skill for children with autism is answering multiple questions about visual stimuli (e.g., "What is it?" "What color is it?"). We targeted answering "What number?" and "What shape?" in the presence of numbers inside shapes, and "What is it?" and "What color?" in the presence of colored objects (e.g., a yellow cat) with 3 preschoolers with autism. In addition to a progressive time delay, we required the participants to answer the questions by echoing a keyword from the questions. For example, we taught them to answer, "What color?" with "color blue." In the context of a multiple-probe design across behaviors within a multiple-probe design across participants, the procedure was effective in increasing trained responses and producing within- and across-category generalization. The echoic may have facilitated the responses by increasing the salience of the auditory stimuli and strengthening intraverbals within autoclitic frames.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2021 · doi:10.1002/jaba.790