Equivalence class formation in non-hearing impaired children and hearing impaired children.
Check that a child has at least a two-year verbal age before you run stimulus equivalence lessons.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team taught kids to match pictures and printed words. They used a simple computer game. Kids picked the picture that went with each word.
Some children could hear. Others were deaf. The researchers checked each child's verbal age first. Then they ran the matching lessons.
What they found
Children who could speak or sign at a two-year level learned the matches fast. They also passed tests for stimulus equivalence. That means they could mix and match items they had never seen together.
Most deaf children with very limited language did not form these new links. The training helped only when the child already had basic verbal skills.
How this fits with other research
Davison et al. (1984) got the same good results with hearing preschoolers. Their study came first and showed the protocol works in typical kids.
Jennings et al. (2017) later skipped the matching games. They used only naming and conversation drills with college students. Those students still formed equivalence classes. This newer method can save time.
Cerutti et al. (2004) found the opposite pattern with adults. When the pictures looked too alike, learning slowed. The 1990 study points to verbal age as the key, while the 2004 paper warns about picture choice. Both stress learner readiness.
Why it matters
Before you start equivalence training, test the child's verbal age. A quick language sample or parent report works. If the child is under two years verbal, teach more words first. Save the matching games for later. This small check can spare weeks of wasted trials.
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Join Free →Give a quick verbal-age probe; if the child scores under two years, add more tact and listener training before equivalence drills.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VERBAL BEHAVIOR AND STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE WAS EXAMINED USING THREE SETS OF CHILDREN DIFFERING IN CHRONOLOGICAL AGE AND VERBAL ABILITY: (1) non-hearing impaired three and four year olds who had verbal skills generally consistent with their chronological ages; (2) partially hearing (severe to profoundly deaf) children who were rated with verbal ages of above 2 years; and (3) partially hearing children (also severely to profoundly deaf) who were rated with verbal ages of below 2 years. All children were taught a series of four conditional discriminations using unfamiliar stimuli. The children were then tested to determine whether classes of equivalent stimuli had formed. Although all the children were able to learn the conditional discriminations equally well and all the verbally-able children (normal and partially hearing) formed equivalence classes, only one of the verbally-impaired children reliably demonstrated stimulus equivalence formation. These results are consistent with the suggestion that stimulus equivalence and human verbal behavior are closely related.
The Analysis of verbal behavior, 1990 · doi:10.1007/BF03392844