Establishing generative yes/no responses in developmentally disabled children.
Ask real yes/no questions during daily routines instead of running separate drills to get faster learning and wider use.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers compared two ways to teach yes/no to children with developmental delays. One group got short drills at a side table. The other group heard yes/no questions only during real classroom moments like "Do you want juice?".
All kids started with almost no correct yes/no answers. The team tracked how fast each child learned and whether the skill worked with new questions.
What they found
Kids who heard yes/no during real requests learned fast and used the answers with new questions. Kids who got separate drills needed extra lessons before the skill showed up anywhere else.
The classroom method won. Embedded questions created a useful skill without extra planning.
How this fits with other research
Davis et al. (1994) used the same design with delayed preschoolers. They stacked three easy requests before a hard social one and saw big gains in play. Both studies show that slipping teaching into normal routines beats pulling kids aside.
Ayres‐Pereira et al. (2018) taught picture-to-object matches and found that some children needed more help to use the skill with real items. Like the yes/no study, it warns us to check that new skills travel beyond the first lesson.
Gomes et al. (2023) trained adults to link separate word groups. Their work and the yes/no paper both push for generative responding, but Gomes used tabletop drills. The 1984 data say drills may slow things down for young disabled learners.
Why it matters
Stop running yes/no drills at the table. Instead, ask real questions during snacks, play, and transitions. You get faster acquisition and built-in generalization while the day keeps moving. One small change, two big wins.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We evaluated the effects of two procedures for teaching four developmentally disabled children to respond yes/no appropriately. During baseline, tutoring was conducted in which five known items were individually presented with the question, "Is this a ----?", followed either by access to requested items or by remedial prompting contingent on responding. When tutoring did not improve performance, instruction was embedded in the regular classroom activities. In this condition, items requested by students were either presented or withheld on the basis of their response to the question, "Do you want ----?". Increases in correct responding were confirmed by a multiple-baseline design across all four students and were maintained with the introduction of new items. However, generalization to "Is this a ----?" questions did not occur in the tutoring setting until specifically programmed. Subsequently, students also demonstrated appropriate yes/no responding to questions involving actions, possession, and spatial relations.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1984 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1984.17-453