Teaching Elementary Verbal Behavior by Multiple Exemplar in Children with Autism

Author(s)

Bárbara Trevizan Guerra ^[1] ; Ana Cláudia Moreira Almeida Verdu ^[2]

Affiliation

^[1] Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho - Brasil

^[2] Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho - Brasil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: Psicologia : ciência e profissão; v. 40, 2020-05-18.

Abstract

Abstract In the scope of research about under what conditions the learning and emergency of verbal operants occurs, different teaching conditions have been planned. Considering that the population with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often has a repertoire of verbal operants absent or poorly established, it is necessary to study the planning of systematic interventions in these repertoires with conditions to favor not only vocabulary acquisition, but also their generative potential of new verbal functions. The Multiple Exemplar Instruction (MEI) is a teaching structure that has shown promising results for its ability to establish relationships between listening and speaker behaviors and to generate new verbal responses. The objective of this study was to verify the effects of the MEI on the establishment and integration between the listener repertoires and the speaker (echoic, tact and mand). Two children with ASD, aged between 7 and 8 years old, participated in the study, whose communication was very restricted and based on exchanges of figures. The teaching adopted three sets with three stimuli each. Teaching with each set was carried out separately. The teaching consisted of the training of listener based on selection, sometimes attempts of listener, echoic, tact and mand, were presented in a rotating way. Multiple probes intercalated the teachings and verified the effects of these on the repertoire of speaker with the other sets. The results showed an increase in the emission of listening and speaking responses after MEI teaching for the two participants, both with restricted verbal repertoire, but the procedure was more effective for one of the children. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/13028-0 - Prerequisite skills for acquisition of repertoire of repeating words, label and order objects
• Grantee: Barbara Trevizan Guerra
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• FAPESP's process: 14/50909-8 - INCT 2014: Behavior, Cognition and Teaching (INCT-ECCE): relational learning and symbolic functioning
• Grantee: Deisy das Graças de Souza
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants