Referent-Based Instruction to Strengthen the Verbal Behavior of Early Learners with Autism and Related Language Disorder
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PRECISION TEACHING: DISCOVERIES AND APPLICATIONS
Referent-Based Instruction to Strengthen the Verbal Behavior of Early Learners with Autism and Related Language Disorders Lee L. Mason 1,2
&
Alonzo Andrews 3
# Association for Behavior Analysis International 2020
Abstract The current study evaluated the use of precision teaching to address the verbal behavior deficits of children with autism and other language disorders. From 2013 to 2018, a high-research-activity doctoral university in the south-central United States operated a free clinic that provided applied behavior anlaysis services to early learners in the local community. Participants received referent-based verbal behavior instruction to strengthen their functional language skills by systematically transferring stimulus control across 4 primary verbal operants: mands, echoics, tacts, and sequelics. Referent-based instruction is premised on the notion that proportionate levels of strength among these 4 operants provide the relational flexibility of naturalistic speaking observed in typical language development. This article details the language gains made by 49 participants who received 13 weeks of intervention for 90 min a day, 4 days a week. Relative strengths and weaknesses were identified in the verbal repertoire of each participant, and individualized fluency aims were subsequently developed. Results of pretest and posttest comparisons show that there was a large effect size within the verbal behavior gains of participants who received precision teaching. Implications for implementing referent-based instruction, as well as future areas of research, are discussed. Keywords Precision teaching . Referent-based instruction . Stimulus control . Verbal behavior
Language impairment is a core deficit of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Wan et al. (2011) estimated that approximately one quarter of individuals with ASD are nonverbal. Of those who develop language, less than half attain fluency (Wodka, Mathy, & Kalb, 2013). Although early intensive behavioral intervention has been shown to remediate the language skills of individuals with ASD, the inability of some children to develop fluent speech Research Highlights • Precision teaching is beneficial for measuring relative rates of verbal behavior. • Selecting aims across learning channels promotes relational flexibility. • Referent-based instruction facilitates the transfer of stimulus control. • Speaking fluency is defined in terms of proportionate stimulus control over verbal behavior. * Lee L. Mason [email protected] 1
Child Study Center, Cook Children’s Health Care System and ANSERS Institute, Texas Christian University, 1300 W. Lancaster Ave., Fort Worth, TX 76102, USA
2
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76102, USA
3
University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
may be a function of stimulus overselectivity (Brown & Bebko, 2012; Reed, Stahmer, Suhrheinrich, & Schreibman, 2013). That is, their verbal behavior has been adequately conditioned under some, but not all, re
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