Empirical Application of Skinner's Verbal Behavior to Interventions for Children with Autism: A Review.

The authors hunted every study since 2001 that used Skinner’s verbal operants with kids who have autism.

They found 143 papers and counted how many taught mands, tacts, echoics, intraverbals, and listener responding.

No new kids were treated; this was a map of what the field has already tried.

Mand training shows up in almost every other study.

Intraverbal training is the second favorite.

Pure tact or echoic programs are rare; most papers mix two or more operants.

Baer et al. (1984) once showed that only 4 % of Skinner citations were real experiments. The new count proves the tide has turned: applied autism studies now test the concepts every year.

Lerman et al. (1995) told us to plan mand generalization up front; the 2017 map shows many later studies followed that advice by adding natural-setting probes.

Mason et al. (2019) built a single score (SCoRE) to sum up the same operants the review counted. You can use their metric to turn the old descriptive counts into a quick clinical dashboard.

You no longer have to guess which verbal operant to target first. The field has voted with its data: start with mands for basic needs, then jump to intraverbals for conversation. When you write a treatment plan, cite the 2017 map to show funders why you picked those two top-tested domains.