On the use of fluency training in the behavioral treatment of autism: A commentary

Abstract

The substantial demand for behavior-analytic treatment of early childhood autism has been associated with rapid dissemination of treatment procedures to practitioners and caregivers. This level of demand could plausibly induce premature dissemination of treatments that do not yet have sufficient empirical support. We argue that this might have happened with the use of fluency training for learners with autism and identify four areas of research that are necessary to ensure that dissemination efforts are better matched to the available empirical support for this instructional strategy.

Referent-Based Instruction to Strengthen the Verbal Behavior of Early Learners with Autism and Related Language Disorders

“…The ultimate goal of this research was to demonstrate the effect of RBI on the development of the verbal behavior of children with ASD. As other researchers have observed, skills taught to an a priori performance aim do not reliably predict retention, endurance, stability, application, or adduction (Doughty et al, 2004;Fabrizio & Moors, 2003;Heinicke et al, 2010). Speaking of "fluency" in this way may be the result of a category error (Baum, 2017;Ryle, 1949).…”

“…Critiques of precision teaching have noted broad variability in its reported practice, along with seemingly arbitrary performance standards that are not individualized to the learner (Cihon, 2007;Doughty, Chase, & O'Shields, 2004;Heinicke, Carr, LeBlanc, & Severtson, 2010). For instance, the frequency aim established by Cihon et al (2017) was based on suggestions from prior research (i.e., Emmick et al, 2010), or more general recommendations (i.e., Kubina, Morrison, & Lee, 2002).…”

“…For instance, the frequency aim established by Cihon et al (2017) was based on suggestions from prior research (i.e., Emmick et al, 2010), or more general recommendations (i.e., Kubina, Morrison, & Lee, 2002). Moreover, Fabrizio and Moors (2003), argued that fluency aims cannot be established a priori, as teaching to a given aim has not been shown to be a reliable predictor of retention, endurance, stability, application, and adduction (Doughty et al, 2004;Heinicke et al, 2010).…”

A Preliminary Investigation of Visual Goal Markers to Prompt Fluent Oral Reading

“…Behavioral fluency, it has been argued, possesses distinct operant functions, including retention, endurance, stability, application, and adduction among others (Binder, ; Dougherty & Johnston, ; Haughton, ; Johnson & Layng, ), which would support the discussion of visual goal markers as within‐stimulus prompts. Others, however, have found a dearth of research to support fluency as anything other than high rates of performance (Doughty, Chase, & O'Shields, ; Heinicke, Carr, LeBlanc, & Severtson, ), which would better support a discussion of the behavior‐altering effects of visual goal markers. Whereas the physical properties of the reading passage were unarguably altered through the visual goal marker, the evocative effects of goal setting may also have increased the oral reading rate of students for whom record breaking had previously been conditioned as a reinforcer.…”

A Functional Contextualist Account of Behavioral Economics: Relational Frame Theory Applied to Decision-Making and Choice Behavior

“…For example, contributions from RFT have been used to account for cognitive biases and how they may lead to the problem of social categorization (Weinstein, Wilson, Drake, & Kellum, 2008): the authors of that study used the implicit association test (IAT) to investigate "the transformation of stimulus functions from socially relevant to arbitrary stimuli as a model of social stigmatization and categorization" (p. 40). Specifically, they were able to condition bias functions to arbitrary stimuli by fluency-based training (see Heinicke, Carr, Leblanc, & Severtson, 2010). Conversely, the IRAP is an experimental procedure for estimating relational acts based on latency between presentation of stimuli and response (Barnes-Holmes et al, 2006).…”