Contributions of Skinner's theory of verbal behaviour to language interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders

Johnson, Gaige; Kohler, Kelly T.; Ross, Denise

doi:10.1080/03004430.2016.1236255

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…This is done by providing exemplars that set the occasion for derived responding to emerge as a functional operant. Advances in verbal behavior approaches have shown that early learning skills can be taught under various sources of stimulus control and in natural environment settings (Johnson, Kohler, & Ross, 2017), but once these pre-requisite learning skills have been established, instructional programming can advance to more advanced, relational targets. PEAK-E begins by testing for the emergence of basic reflexive (e.g., identity matching), symmetrical and transitive responding across sense modalities (e.g., identifying the name of gustatory sensations), complex stimulus class formations (e.g., animal names and habitats), and transfer of function between stimuli (e.g., modification of performance during common games).…”

Section: The Peak Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Internal and Critical Review of the PEAK Relational Training System for Children with Autism and Related Intellectual Disabilities: 2014–2017

et al. 2017

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The PEAK Relational Training System was designed as an assessment instrument and treatment protocol for addressing language and cognitive deficits in children with autism. PEAK contains four comprehensive training modules: Direct Training and Generalization emphasize a contingency-based framework of language development, and Equivalence and Transformation emphasize an approach to language development consistent with Relational Frame Theory. The present paper provides a comprehensive and critical review of peer-reviewed publications based on the entirety PEAK system through April, 2017. We describe both psychometric and outcome research, and indicate both positive features and limitations of this body of work. Finally, we note several research and practice questions that remain to be answered with the PEAK curriculum as well as other many other autism assessment and treatment protocols that are rooted within the framework of applied behavior analysis.

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Section: The Peak Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Internal and Critical Review of the PEAK Relational Training System for Children with Autism and Related Intellectual Disabilities: 2014–2017

et al. 2017

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“…The speed with which multiword requesting emerged—and the lack of multiword requesting when textual prompts were removed in the second baseline—suggests that the textual prompting procedures were in fact responsible for the increase in the children’s use of multiword requesting forms. The successful fading of the textual prompts showed that, by the end of the study, both children were using their newly acquired multiword utterances in a fairly spontaneous manner to accomplish an important communicative function, that is, to gain access to preferred items (Johnson, Kohler, & Ross, 2016). The final level of performance represents an important outcome given that the initiation of spontaneous-functional communication and multiword utterances are often problematic for children with ASD (Chiang & Carter, 2008; Halle, 1987; Koegel & Ashbaugh, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using a Textual Prompt to Teach Multiword Requesting to Two Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

et al. 2019

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Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by social and communication impairment, but some children appear to have relative strength in areas such as reading printed words. The present study involved two children with limited expressive communication skills, but relatively stronger reading ability. Based on this existing strength, we evaluated a textual prompting procedure for teaching the children to produce multiword spoken requests. The effect of providing textual prompts on production of multiword requests was evaluated in an ABAB design. The results showed that multiword requests increased when textual prompts were provided and decreased when the prompts were removed. In subsequent phases, the textual prompts were successfully faded by gradually making the printed text lighter and lighter until eventually the prompts were eliminated altogether. We conclude that identification of children’s strengths may assist in identifying effective prompting procedures that could then be used in teaching functional communication skills.

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“…Rather than emphasizing the mechanics of language (e.g., morphology, syntax, semantics), Skinner ( 1957 ) focused on the functions of language (e.g., requesting, labeling, repeating, and responding). As Skinner’s verbal behavior framework directly links the targeted communicative skills with observable context, it has been broadly applied to guide language therapies and research in ASD (Forbes et al, 2020 ; Johnson et al, 2017 ; Sundberg & Michael, 2001 ). It remains unclear, however, whether PRT can be applied to improve the language functions proposed by Skinner ( 1957 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Using Pivotal Response Treatment to Improve Language Functions of Autistic Children in Special Schools: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Wang

2023

J Autism Dev Disord

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Language difficulties exert profound negative effects on the cognitive and social development of autistic children. Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) is a promising intervention for improving social communication in autistic children, but there is a lack of a comprehensive examination of language functions. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of PRT in promoting the primary language functions (requesting, labeling, repeating, responding) defined by (Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. Martino Publishing.) theory of verbal behavior in autistic children. Thirty autistic children were randomly divided into the PRT group ( M age = 6.20, SD age = 1.21) and control group ( M age = 6.07, SD age = 1.49). The PRT group were provided with an 8-week training of the PRT motivation component in addition to treatment as usual (TAU) in their schools, whereas the control group only received TAU. Parents of the PRT group were also trained to practice the PRT motivation procedures at home. The PRT group demonstrated greater improvements in all four measured language functions compared to the control group. The improvement in language functions in the PRT group was generalized and maintained at the follow-up assessment. In addition, the PRT intervention enhanced untargeted social and communicative functioning, cognition, motor skills, imitation, and adaptive behaviors in the autistic children. In conclusion, language intervention using the motivation component of PRT is effective in promoting language functions as well as widespread untargeted cognitive and social functions in autistic children. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10803-023-05988-7.

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Contributions of Skinner's theory of verbal behaviour to language interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders

Cited by 6 publications

References 37 publications

An Internal and Critical Review of the PEAK Relational Training System for Children with Autism and Related Intellectual Disabilities: 2014–2017

An Internal and Critical Review of the PEAK Relational Training System for Children with Autism and Related Intellectual Disabilities: 2014–2017

Using a Textual Prompt to Teach Multiword Requesting to Two Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Using Pivotal Response Treatment to Improve Language Functions of Autistic Children in Special Schools: A Randomized Controlled Trial

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