Effects of foreign mand training on the emergence of foreign tact and listener responses for Chinese‐speaking children with autism spectrum disorder
Teaching English mands to Mandarin-speaking preschoolers with autism can spontaneously create English naming and listener skills.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three Mandarin-speaking preschoolers with autism learned to ask for things in English.
The team used echoic-to-mand training. First the child echoed the English word, then used it to ask for.
They tested if the kids could also name the items (tact) and follow directions (listener) without extra teaching.
What they found
All three kids learned to mand in English.
After mand training, they could also name the items and point to them when asked.
These new skills appeared without direct teaching, showing strong emergence.
How this fits with other research
Meier et al. (2012) and Lancioni et al. (2009) showed the same mand-to-tact jump, but only in the child’s first language. Hu et al. (2023) proves the leap also works across languages.
Matter et al. (2020) compared ways to teach foreign words to typical kids. Hu’s team used a different method—echoic-to-mand—and got the bonus tact and listener skills only in children with autism.
Clements et al. (2021) used matrix training to create many untrained numeral tacts. Hu et al. used verbal behavior training to create untrained foreign-language skills. Both show smart teaching can multiply learning gains.
Why it matters
If you serve bilingual families, start with English mands. The child may pick up naming and listening skills for free, saving hours of extra therapy. Always probe for these emergent skills before adding new programs.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AbstractIn China, there is an increasing demand for preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) enrolled in general education to learn English vocabulary. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of foreign mand training in English on the acquisition of mand responses, and the emergence of tact and listener responses for three Chinese‐speaking preschool children (boys; 4–5 years of age) with ASD. Echoic‐to‐mand training was implemented to teach mands in English. The study employed a concurrent multiple‐probe design across behaviors. The results of the study indicated that the training was effective in the acquisition of mand responses. Moreover, untaught tacts and listener responses for the same vocabulary emerged without explicit training. Implications for small‐group mand training in foreign language acquisition were discussed.
Behavioral Interventions, 2023 · doi:10.1002/bin.1930