Caregivers can implement play‐based instruction without disrupting child preference
Parents can weave mand and tact training into play without making kids avoid the toys.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers taught three moms of preschoolers with autism how to mix language lessons into play.
Each mom learned to sit beside her child, follow the child's toy choices, and slip in mand and tact training.
The team used a multiple-baseline design across toy sets to see if the kids still liked the toys after mom added teaching.
What they found
All three children learned new mands and tacts while playing.
The kids kept choosing the same toys, showing play stayed fun even when mom taught.
Skills moved to new toys at home and lasted one month later.
How this fits with other research
Carr et al. (1985) tried operant toy-play drills with older, more impaired kids and saw almost no gain.
Pisman et al. (2020) shows that blending language goals into child-led play works better than drills alone.
Lattal (1975) used video modeling to teach adjectives and got strong generalization; the new study adds parents as the teachers and keeps play preferred.
Mazur et al. (1992) trained peers to teach first aid; here, moms become the peer-like teachers for tiny kids.
Why it matters
You can coach parents to teach language during play without killing the joy. Start by having mom sit beside the child, copy the child's play, and add one mand or tact prompt every 30 seconds. Check that the child still picks the toy freely after each prompt.
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Join Free →Pick one toy the child already loves, have the parent sit parallel, and add one mand prompt every 30 seconds while watching for continued free toy choice.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder often require systematic teaching to learn new skills, and caregivers can teach their children by embedding learning opportunities in a play-based context. However, researchers have not evaluated procedures to train caregivers how to implement a combination of strategies designed to establish rapport and early language skills while maintaining play as a preferred context. Caregiver-child dyads composed of 2 mothers and their sons were recruited to participate. A multiple-probe design across strategies was used to demonstrate the efficacy of behavioral skills training on the mothers' integration of parallel play, child-directed interaction, teaching requests (mands), and teaching labels (tacts). Both children acquired the target requests and labels as a function of their mothers' teaching. By assessing the children's preferences, we confirmed the teaching strategies did not decrease toy engagement or the value of playing with their mother. We obtained stimulus generalization of the mothers' implementation of the strategies from a clinic to their home and maintenance of mother and child performance across a month.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2020 · doi:10.1002/jaba.705