Verbal behavior acquisition is a cornerstone of ABA programming for children with autism, and behavior analysts devote considerable resources to teaching tacts and intraverbals as foundational communicative repertoires. What is often underappreciated, however, is how antecedent variables — specifically the motivating operations (MOs) in place before a session begins — shape how efficiently those skills are acquired.
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Join Free →Read the following article and pass a 10-question quiz on it: Cengher, M., & Fienup, D. M. (2020). Presession attention affects the acquisition of tacts and intraverbals.Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 53, 1742-1767. To earn credit, you will be required to read the article and pass a 10-question quiz about it. You can retake the quiz as many times as needed, but you will not receive exactly the same questions each time. This study examined the effects of presession attention on the acquisition of tacts (Experiment 1) and intraverbals (Experiment 2) in children diagnosed with autism. Each participant experienced 3 conditions. In the first 2 conditions, participants experienced a 15-min interval of either presession attention (PA) or no presession attention (NPA) followed by a teaching session. The third condition was a control condition. Across experiments, all participants acquired the verbal operants assigned to the NPA condition, whereas only 4 of the 6 participants acquired the verbal operants assigned to the PA condition. Five of the 6 participants required fewer sessions to meet the mastery criterion and a shorter duration of training for the verbal operants assigned to the NPA condition as compared to the PA condition. These outcomes suggest that antecedent manipulations traditionally reserved for mand training can positively affect the acquisition of other verbal operants. Theoretical implications are discussed. There are no reviews yet.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB | 2.5 | General |
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.