Collateral effects of mand training for children with autism

Proponents of the verbal behavior approach to instruction for individuals with autism have identified mand training as a starting point for early intervention. Mand training is a process whereby the learner is taught to request highly preferred items under conditions when those items are most valuable. A hypothesized benefit of this approach is that mand training has a collateral effect on nontargeted behavior, though empirical support for this hypothesis is currently tenuous. The present investigation examined the collateral effects of vocal mand training compared to vocal request training for 3 previously nonvocal children with autism. Levels of orienting toward a speaker, compliance with instruction, and overall problem behavior were measured across experimental conditions and analyzed using an alternating treatment design. Results indicate that problem behavior for all participants occurred at lower levels during mand training than request training and that the level of nontargeted social behavior (i.e., orienting and compliance) was higher during mand training for 2 participants and was similar across both conditions for the final participant. The results support the hypothesis that mand training can have a collateral impact on nontargeted behavior, though explicit instruction of social behaviors may also need to be embedded within mand training procedures.     

Influence of motivating operations and discriminative stimuli on challenging behavior maintained by positive reinforcement

We examined the effects of an establishing operation (EO) and abolishing operation (AO) on stimulus control of challenging behavior. Two participants with developmental disabilities and challenging behavior participated. In Phase I, a functional analysis was conducted to identify the consequences maintaining challenging behavior. In Phase II, a discrimination between S^D and S^Δ was trained. In Phase III, pre-session MOs (i.e., EO and AO conditions) were arranged to assess their effects on challenging behavior. Finally in Phase IV, in addition to manipulating pre-session MOs the challenging behavior was evaluated under extinction in both S^D and S^Δ conditions. Results indicated that in the context of extinction when pre-session EO and AO conditions were manipulated, responding not only became differentiated but was higher in both S^D and S^Δ conditions in the pre-session EO condition when compared to the pre-session AO condition.     

"Spontaneous" transfer of stimulus control from tact to mand contingencies

An important issue in teaching verbal behavior to persons with severe handicaps is the transfer of stimulus control from tact (e.g., naming) to mand (e.g., requesting) relationships. Previous research has shown that topographies taught as tacts frequently fail to appear as mands unless transfer between these two response classes is explicitly programmed. Procedures promoting this transfer would provide a necessary instructional tool. Transfer from tact to mand contingencies was investigated in two adults with severe mental retardation. Correct pointing responses to line drawing symbols depicting the utensils required to access previously requested food (beverage) items were assessed prior to and following tact intervention. Mands for two of three utensils emerged following tact intervention. The results suggest transfer from tact variables to the conditioned establishing operation may be facilitated by the prior development of a minimal mand repertoire.     

Teaching intraverbal behavior to children with autism

Skinner's conceptual analysis of language has influenced one model of early and intensive behavioral intervention with children, which incorporates verbal operants including mands, tacts, intraverbals, etc. Many studies have examined the mand and tact relations, with little focus on teaching intraverbal behavior. In the present experiment, children with autism were taught intraverbals using a transfer-of-stimulus-control procedure (i.e., tact to intraverbal) in combination with errorless learning (i.e., delayed prompting). Three children were successfully taught to name items associated with preselected categories (e.g., “What are some colors?”) with limited generalization to a fourth, non-targeted category, and limited maintenance of skills.     

Manipulating establishing operations to promote initiations toward peers in children with autism

This study examined the effects of manipulating establishing operations on the frequency of initiations of three children with autism toward peers with autism. The EO targeted was deprivation of preferred edibles, and the target initiation was a mand for the preferred snack. A reversal design was used to assess the effects of the EO conditions on frequency of initiations. Results indicated that when the EO was absent, no spontaneous initiations toward the peer occurred. Two participants required training sessions with an adult to transfer initiations toward peers. Once the EO had been established and was present, the participants initiated mands for the snack. Results are discussed in terms of implications for the use of establishing operations in language training for children with autism.     

Intervention for tact as reporting in children with autism

Many children with autism have severe difficulty in ‘reporting’ on events at schools to mothers at home despite their ability to tact some objects and actions in discrete trial setting. Many studies have attempted to establish tact as labeling in children with autism. Few studies, however, have attempted to establish tact as a functional communication skill. The conditions under which children with autism acquired tact regarding objects and events that are remote in time and space from the listener was investigated in three children with autism. A multiple-baseline design was implemented to evaluate intervention effects. Animated cartoons or still pictures were used as stimuli and the children were required to walk to see a stimulus, observe it, walk back to an adult listener, and tact what they had seen. In the baseline condition, no participants were able to sufficiently tact after moving 1-m from the stimulus. Then tacting was trained using vocal prompts. Through this procedure, all children acquired tact for untrained events that were remote in time and space from their mothers.     

Antidepressant effects of sleep deprivation in bright and dim light

In order to test whether exposure to bright artificial light at night is a necessary condition for the antidepressant response to sleep deprivation therapy, five patients were totally sleep-deprived on two separate nights, once in very bright light and once in nearly total darkness. During the day after the sleep-deprivation night patients were found to have responded equally well to sleep deprivation in both conditions. During the sleep-deprivation night, however, antidepressant responses may have been greater in the bright light condition. Thus, light at night is not necessary for the antidepressant response to sleep deprivation, but we cannot rule out the possibility that the effects of light exposure and sleep deprivation are additive or that exposure to light at some time after sleep deprivation begins (including during the following day) is necessary for the response.     

Interpersonal interactions between institutionalized retarded children and their attendants.

An observational method was devised to enable detailed analysis of the behavioral and situational components of aide-resident interpersonal interactions in an institutional ward for retarded children. With this device we measured mode of communication, interpersonal affect, response to the initiator of an encounter, the context within which the interaction occurs, and a mand/tact dimension. In this article, the development and validation of the scale, including data on its reliablity, utiliy, and communicability in training novice observers, was reported. Interrater agreement in each dimension exceeded 80 percent, averaging 89 percent over all categories. Observations over a 7-week period indicated that the dormitory was consistently characterized by child-care and ward-management activities and a neutral affective atmosphere in which aides initiated most of the interactions. The observational method appears appropriate for evaluating interventions designed to improve the quality of residential treatment.     

Further evaluation of the effects of motivating operations on preference assessment outcomes

The abative effects of a 10-min period of free access to a participant's most preferred edible on preference assessment outcomes was examined using a multielement design with three individuals diagnosed with autism. Four moderately preferred edible items were identified for each participant; access to these edibles was then regulated throughout the study, to control for the number of edibles consumed. Four-item paired stimulus preference assessments were then conducted, under four treatment conditions. A control condition, which involved conducting four-item paired stimulus assessments, was used to determine baseline levels of preference for each edible. Preference assessments conducted under the other three treatment conditions were preceded by a 10-min period of free access to the participant's most preferred edible. The immediate condition involved conducting preference assessments immediately following the 10-min free-access period. The 10-min delay condition and the 20-min delay condition involved conducting preference assessments following a 10-min or 20-min delay after the free access period. For two participants, 10-min of free access to a preferred edible immediately prior to a preference assessment altered the probability of selecting that stimulus, but as the delay between the free-access period and the preference assessment increased, the abative effects became less apparent. For the third participant, preference did not change when assessments were immediately conducted following the 10-min period of free access. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Selective induction of c-Fos immunoreactivity in the prelimbic cortex during reinstatement of heroin seeking induced by acute food deprivation in rats

We previously reported that acute 1-day food deprivation reinstates heroin seeking in rats. The goal of the present study was to begin identifying brain sites potentially involved in this effect. For this purpose, we measured, by immunohistochemistry, the expression of c-Fos following a test for food deprivation-induced reinstatement. Groups of rats (n=9-10 per group) were trained to lever-press for heroin (0.05-0.1mg/kg/infusion) or saline for 10 days (9 h/day); each infusion was paired with a cue light. Rats were then given 10 days of extinction during which the heroin and saline syringes were removed. Next, a test for reinstatement was conducted after exposure to 0 (baseline) or 1-day food deprivation. During training, lever pressing for heroin increased over days, while responding for saline infusions paired with the cue light decreased over time. During extinction, responding on the heroin-paired lever decreased over time, while responding on the saline-paired lever remained low. In heroin-trained rats, food deprivation induced a large increase in responding on the lever associated with drug infusions. Surprisingly, food deprivation also modestly increased responding in the saline-trained rats. Food deprivation selectively increased c-Fos immunoreactivity (IR) in the prelimbic cortex of heroin-trained, but not saline-trained, rats (n=4 per condition). Food deprivation also increased c-Fos IR in both heroin- and saline-trained rats in the basolateral amygdala and the ventrolateral bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST), but had no effect on c-Fos expression in the dorsolateral BNST, cingulate cortex, nucleus accumbens, and central amygdala. These results raise the possibility that the prelimbic cortex is involved in food deprivation-induced reinstatement of heroin seeking.     

The effects of a conversation prompt procedure on independent play

This study used a multiple baseline design (ABCAD) to determine whether teaching children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) to tact private events would function as a conditioned reinforcer for teaching non-preferred play activities. In this study, 10 children, aged between 5.3 and 8.9 years of age, were taught to tact a set of private events (e.g., fun, bored, easy, hard) after engaging in selected preferred, and non-preferred, play activities. These ‘typical’ language exchanges were built into existing individual activity play schedules, and were designed to prompt a conversational unit after a play period of up to 10 min. This conversational unit was designed to serve as a conditioned reinforcer for the activity under observation. The results show that having access to a set of tacts for putatively private events could function as a conditioned reinforcer when teaching non-preferred play activities, reduced off-task play behavior, while revealing a measurable increase in spontaneous language, emitted both during the targeted play sessions.     

Generalized imitation and the mand: inducing first instances of speech in young children with autism

It has been suggested that the use of a generalized motor imitation sequence before a vocal model may be an effective procedure for teaching nonvocal children with autism to speak. However, the tactic has rarely been empirically demonstrated. The purpose of this experiment was to test the effects of presenting a rapid generalized motor imitation sequence before an opportunity to imitate on the vocal speech of nonvocal children with autism. Participants emitted no vocal imitations during a mand training baseline. During the intervention, a rapid motor imitation sequence was presented before an opportunity to imitate a model's vocalizations. The teacher's presentation of the rapid motor imitation sequence was then faded by presenting an opportunity to vocally imitate without the sequence followed by an opportunity to independently mand. Results of the intervention phase indicated that all of the participants began to vocalize with the generalized motor imitation sequence and that mands were maintained during a follow-up phase and 3-month follow-up probes.     

Effects of a lag schedule of reinforcement with progressive time delay on topographical mand variability in children with autism

ABSTRACT

Objective: Evaluate the effects of a Lag 1 schedule of reinforcement and progressive time delay (TD) on topographical mand variability in children with autism. Methods: Using single-subject design methodology, a multiple baseline across behaviors with embedded reversal design was employed. During Lag 0, reinforcement was delivered contingent on any independent instances of manding. During Lag 1 + TD, prompts were faded and reinforcement was delivered contingent on independent or prompted variant mand topographies. Results: Higher levels of topographical mand variability were observed during Lag 1 + TD for both participants. Conclusions: A Lag 1 schedule of reinforcement with progressive TD increased variability across functionally equivalent vocal mand topographies for both participants. This finding extends prior literature by providing a novel model for studying reinforced mand variability in children, and by demonstrating how practitioners could use prompts and differential reinforcement to increase topographical mand variability in children with autism.     

Evaluation of a pre-treatment assessment to select mand topographies for functional communication training

Recent research has suggested that variables related to specific mand topographies targeted during functional communication training (FCT) can affect treatment outcomes. These include effort, novelty of mands, previous relationships with problem behavior, and preference. However, there is little extant research on procedures for identifying which mand topographies to incorporate into FCT. In the current study, a mand topography assessment was conducted following functional analyses to identify the proficiency with which individuals used several different mand topographies. Two mand topographies (high and low proficiency) were then compared during FCT-based treatments. FCT was more effective when the mand topography identified as high proficiency was incorporated into FCT as compared to FCT that included the lower proficiency response. The results are discussed in terms of the need for individualized assessment procedures for selecting mand topographies that are targeted during FCT.     

Brief Report: Effects of Tact Training on Emergent Intraverbal Vocal Responses in Adolescents with Autism

The present study evaluated the emergence of intraverbal responses following tact training with three adolescents diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Participants were taught to tact the name of a cartoon character (e.g., “What is the name of this monster?” [“Simon”]) and that character’s preferred food (e.g., “What food does this monster eat?” [“Chips”]). Following tact training, test probes revealed the emergence of untrained vocal intraverbals. Specifically, in the absence of pictures, participants stated the name of the character when given the food preference (e.g., “Which monster eats chips?”), and stated the food when given the character name (e.g., “What food does Simon eat?”). The findings are discussed with reference to the growing literature on verbal behavior and derived relational responding.     

Facilitating derived requesting skills with a touchscreen tablet computer for children with autism spectrum disorder

Two experiments were conducted employing derived relational responding and conditioned motivating operations to establish untaught mands with 11 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who lacked a vocal repertoire. Following formal language assessments and preference assessments, a multi-stage automated protocol was implemented on touchscreen tablet computers. Children were first taught to mand by picture exchange for missing items necessary to play with a toy and then learned to conditionally relate the dictated names of the items to the corresponding pictures of the items (A-B training) and to relate the dictated names to the corresponding printed words (A-C training). Test probes, in the absence of reinforcement, were presented to determine whether or not participants would mand for the missing items using text exchange (hence demonstrating derived manding/requesting). Probes for spontaneous matching (B-C and C-B) and labeling (B-A and C-A) were also presented in both experiments, one of which employed a pretest/posttest design and the other a multiple probe across participants design. Across both experiments, all but one of the participants showed evidence of derived requesting and derived stimulus relations. Implications for research on high-tech devices for facilitating independent communication skills of children with ASD and for derived relational responding approaches to verbal operants are discussed.     

Brief Report: Teaching Situation-Based Emotions to Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Many individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have difficulty recognizing emotions in themselves and others. Three children (all males) participated in the study. In a multi-element design children with ASD were trained to tact situation-based emotions (i.e., “happy”, “sad”, “angry”, and “afraid”) using novel video based scenarios. To increase the likelihood that each child would learn a generalized repertoire of emotion understanding, multiple exemplars of emotion identification were trained using a multi-component procedure. The results indicated significant increases in tacting situation-based emotions. To evaluate the generalization of training, novel video stories were employed that depicted the trained emotions. The findings indicated generalization of situation-based emotional tacting to the novel video stories.     

Lead exposure and attention regulation in children living in poverty

This study examined the relationship between lead exposure and attention regulation in children from low-income families. Children with lead exposure were expected to have lower attention regulation abilities than children who were not exposed. The 57 participants (39% male, 61% female) were children aged 4 and 5 years (mean age 4y 7mo [SD 5mo]); 24 children were lead-exposed (10-29microg/dl) and 33 were non-exposed comparisons (1-6microg/dl). Both groups qualified to be enrolled in programs for low-income families. A puzzle-matching task was completed in parent-child and child-alone conditions. Attention allocation and puzzle-matching performance were assessed in the two conditions. Children who were lead-exposed demonstrated less self-regulated attention than comparisons and had poorer puzzle performance in the child-alone condition. Attention patterns did not differ in the parent-child condition. This study extends previous knowledge concerning effects of lead exposure on preschool children from disadvantaged environments and suggests that lead exposure affects specific attention regulation abilities.