Generalized imitation and response-class formation in children with autism

Using Relational Frame Theory to Examine Racial Prejudice: A Tool for Educators and an Appeal for Future Research

Canadian colleges and universities have begun to acknowledge systemic and institutionalized racism by developing equity statements and policies in support of diverse and accessible learning environments. To encourage these equitable statements and policies as actionable, analysis of racial bias and methods for reducing its occurrence are warranted. In this article, literature on relational frame theory in the context of racial prejudice is reviewed, including treatment approaches shown to be less effective and those that appear promising. The integration of a functional contextual approach into pedagogy is considered with an aim to better understand the origins of racial prejudice. Finally, recommendations on the examination of personal and sociocultural bias among educators and their students are provided.

Teaching Imitation to Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Discrete Trial Training and Contingent Imitation

Imitation is a pivotal skill for children with and without disabilities, serving both learning and social interaction functions for young children. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently experience delays in acquiring this skillset, demonstrating challenges in the ability and/or propensity to imitate the actions of others. Current intervention programs frequently use discrete trial teaching (DTT) or contingent imitation to support imitation development in young children with ASD. This study combined contingent imitation with DTT to teach imitation to individuals who had previously struggled with acquiring this skill. A multiple probe design across three preschool children with ASD was conducted within participants' early learning classrooms. Response to intervention varied across participants, with participants with more advanced imitation skills at study onset demonstrating greater outcomes. Combining contingent imitation with DTT may facilitate the propensity to imitate for individuals who exhibit some appropriate object engagement and are inconsistently imitating others' actions with objects. However, further research using stronger research design is needed to improve the teaching of imitation to young children with ASD who exhibit challenges with this skillset.

Can Social Communication Skills for Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder Rehearsed Inside the Video Game Environment of Minecraft Generalize to the Real World?

In this paper, we outline opportunities within the video game environment for building skills applicable to real-world issues faced by some children. The game Minecraft is extremely popular and of particular interest to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Although the game has been used by support communities to facilitate the social interaction of children and peer support for their parents, little has been done to examine how social skills developed within the game environment generalize to the real world. Social Craft aims to establish a framework in which key social communication skills would be rehearsed in-game with a view to facilitating their replication in a similarly contained real-world environment. Central to this approach is an understanding of the basic principles of behavior and the engagement of a sound methodology for the collection of data inside and outside the respective environments.

A preliminary investigation of fixed and repetitive models during object imitation training

Empirically based guidelines for imitation training for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are limited and there is no existing evidence about what types of imitative models foster faster acquisition of imitation in children with ASD. We compared rates of acquisition for two different methods for presenting the imitative model (i.e., repetitive, fixed) in simple (Experiment 1) and conditional (Experiment 2) discrimination arrangements. The results suggest that some children with ASD may acquire imitation more rapidly when repetitive models, rather than fixed models are used to present the target skill. In Experiment 3, we investigated the features of object imitation models that might influence acquisition. The results of Experiment 3 suggest that the dynamic nature of repetitive models might be responsible for the differential acquisition we observed in the earlier two Experiments. Additionally, the presence of an outcome (e.g., stacked blocks) during training does not enhance acquisition.

The importance of multiple exemplar instruction in the establishment of novel verbal behavior

According to traditional linguistic accounts language, and its generative nature, cannot be taught. From a behavior analytic perspective, language is like any other behavior; it is learned and amenable to change. Based upon Skinner's radical behavioral analysis of verbal behavior, specific procedures have been designed to promote novel verbal relations. However, despite the strength and utility of this approach, using behavioral principles to understand the generativity of language has been challenging. Dependent upon the specific theory (e.g., stimulus equivalence, relational frame theory, bidirectional naming) within the radical behavioral orientation, researchers arrange unique procedures to evaluate the variables responsible for this phenomenon. This paper presents the commonalities and differences of two procedures (i.e., multiple exemplar training, multiple exemplar instruction) with examples of research highlighting the use of both in producing generativity. Further, it describes how multiple exemplar instruction is independent from other procedures leading to this outcome, and concludes by providing recommendations for both research and practice.

Multiple Exemplar Training: Some Strengths and Limitations

In successful multiple exemplar training, a set of exemplars that sample the range of stimulus and response topographies is trained, and the full range of performances results. Examples abound in experimental psychology and include abstraction and concept learning, responding to relations, identity matching, rule following, behavioral variability, responding to wh-questions, describing past events, learning sets, and continuous repertoires. Thus, behavior analysts often allude to a history of multiple exemplar training to account for different generalized performances. It is easy to see how a strategy of multiple exemplar training can work with many types of performances, even performances that involve relations between objects or events. However, there appear to be at least two exceptions, where direct multiple exemplar training does not work well: (1) when there are no physical dimensions at all along which generalized performances can emerge, and (2) when the relation between a stimulus and an effective response is complex. Interpretation of the latter type of cases in terms of mediated generalization is outlined and discussed. An experimental and conceptual research program should produce an account of the general limits of multiple exemplar training, and guidelines for the most effective training for generalized skills.

Born Pupils? Natural Pedagogy and Cultural Pedagogy

The theory of natural pedagogy is an important focus of research on the evolution and development of cultural learning. It proposes that we are born pupils; that human children genetically inherit a package of psychological adaptations that make them receptive to teaching. In this article, I first examine the components of the package-eye contact, contingencies, infant-directed speech, gaze cuing, and rational imitation-asking in each case whether current evidence indicates that the component is a reliable feature of infant behavior and a genetic adaptation for teaching. I then discuss three fundamental insights embodied in the theory: Imitation is not enough for cumulative cultural inheritance, the extra comes from blind trust, and tweaking is a powerful source of cognitive change. Combining the results of the empirical review with these insights, I argue that human receptivity to teaching is founded on nonspecific genetic adaptations for social bonding and social learning and acquires its species- and functionally specific features through the operation of domain-general processes of learning in sociocultural contexts. We engage, not in natural pedagogy, but in cultural pedagogy.

Variables affecting the emergence of untaught equivalence relations in children with and without autism

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the formation of equivalence classes among children with ASD and typically developing children.

DESIGN

A single-subject AB and BA design was used.

METHODS

Two of the six equivalence relations were taught. Participants were then tested to determine whether the remaining four equivalence relations were acquired without teaching. Half of the children were taught naming responses first, then selecting responses. Half were taught in the reverse order.

RESULTS

Five out of 10 participants with ASD demonstrated the emergence of all four untaught relations. The remaining five participants showed variability. Nine of the 10 typically developing children demonstrated emergence of all untaught relations. Variation in teaching conditions had no significant effect on outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Many children with ASD are capable of generalising to untaught equivalence relations. The results fail to support the claim that acquisition of naming responses is a pre-requisite for the emergence of untaught equivalence relations.

Contingent imitation increases verbal interaction in children with autism spectrum disorders

Several studies have suggested that contingent adult imitation increase nonverbal communication, such as attention and proximity to adults, in children with autism spectrum disorders. However, few studies have shown the effect of contingent imitation on verbal communication. This study examined whether children with autism were able to promote verbal interaction such as vocal imitation, vocalization, and vocal turn-taking via contingent imitation. We used an alternating treatment design composed of the conditions of contingent imitation and control for six children with autism (aged 33-63 months). For contingent imitation condition, adults imitated children's vocalization immediately. For control condition, adults did not imitate but gave a vocal response immediately. Results showed that in contingent imitation condition, all children increased the number of vocal imitations and vocal turn-takings compared with control condition. The number of vocalizations increased in both condition for all children. Overall, it is suggested that all children promote verbal interaction via contingent imitation.

Teaching observational learning to children with autism

Observational learning (OL) is critical for the acquisition of social skills and may be an important skill for learning in traditional educational settings. Although OL occurs during early childhood in the typically developing population, research suggests that it may be limited in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of the present study was to develop an assessment to test for the presence of OL across a variety of tasks. If OL was deficient, we sought to teach it by training specific skills. Six participants who had been diagnosed with ASD demonstrated deficits in OL. After an initial assessment, a multiple-probe design across OL tasks showed that training produced acquisition of these skills across multiple exemplars. After training, 5 of the 6 participants engaged in OL across multiple tasks and task variations, demonstrating generalization. For 1 participant, generalization of performance did not occur across tasks but did occur within task variations.

Effects of serial and concurrent training on acquisition and generalization

Despite a large body of research demonstrating that generalization to novel stimuli can be produced by training sufficient exemplars, the methods by which exemplars can be trained remain unclear. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate 2 methods, serial and concurrent presentation of stimuli, to train sufficient exemplars. Five preschool children with developmental delays were taught to identify letters or letter sounds using serial and concurrent presentation. Generalization to untrained exemplars was evaluated for targets trained using each method. Participants reached the mastery criterion in fewer training sessions, on average, using the concurrent method of presentation than the serial method, and the concurrent method also resulted in greater generalization to untrained exemplars.

The role of imitation in video-based interventions for children with autism

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this paper is to bridge the gap between the corpus of imitation research and video-based intervention (VBI) research, and consider the impact imitation skills may be having on VBI outcomes and highlight potential areas for improving efficacy.

METHOD

A review of the imitation literature was conducted focusing on imitation skill deficits in children with autism followed by a critical review of the video modelling literature focusing on pre-intervention assessment of imitation skills and the impact imitation deficits may have on VBI outcomes.

RESULTS

Children with autism have specific imitation deficits, which may impact VBI outcomes. Imitation training or procedural modifications made to videos may accommodate for these deficits.

CONCLUSIONS

There are only six studies where VBI researchers have taken pre-intervention imitation assessments using an assortment of imitation measures. More research is required to develop a standardised multi-dimensional imitation assessment battery that can better inform VBI.

The role of atomic repertoires in complex behavior

Evolution and reinforcement shape adaptive forms and adaptive behavior through many cycles of blind variation and selection, and therein lie their parsimony and power. Human behavior is distinctive in that this shaping process is commonly "short circuited": Critical variations are induced in a single trial. The processes by which this economy is accomplished have a common feature: They all exploit one or more atomic repertoires, elementary units of behavior each under control of a distinctive stimulus. By appropriate arrangements of these discriminative stimuli, an indefinite number of permutations of atomic units can be evoked. When such a permutation satisfies a second contingency, it can come under control of the relevant context, and the explicit arrangement of discriminative stimuli will no longer be required. Consequently, innovations in adaptive behavior can spread rapidly through the population. A consideration of atomic repertoires informs our interpretation of generalized operants and other phenomena that are otherwise difficult to explain. Observational learning is discussed as a case in point.

Gesture imitation in autism I: nonsymbolic postures and sequences

This study investigated the ability of children and adolescents with autism to imitate nonsymbolic manual postures and sequences. The controls were children with receptive language delays (matched to the autistic group for age and language level), and typically developing children (matched for language level). Control tasks assessed gesture memory and manual dexterity. Imitation tasks were videotaped for blind scoring of overall accuracy and specific errors. Children with autism performed relatively poorly on posture imitation, but not imitation of simple posture sequences. Reduced manual dexterity contributed to, but did not entirely account for the autistic im itative deficit. An error that was significantly more common in the autistic group suggests that their difficulty in assuming another's perspective may be apparent at the level of simple actions.

Observational learning and children with autism

A skill essential for successful inclusion in general education settings is the ability to learn by observing others. Research, however, has documented children with autism display significant deficits in the fundamental skills necessary for observational learning. This article outlines the skills essential for observational learning from an operant learning perspective, the research base on teaching observational learning to children with autism, and suggests practical strategies to increase these skills in children with autism so they may more fully benefit from inclusion in general education settings.

Use of chaining to increase complexity of echoics in children with autism

Echoics are a critical target of language intervention for children with autism, because a well-established echoic repertoire on the part of the child allows the clinician to use vocal modeling as a flexible, low-effort prompting procedure during teaching. In this study, we implemented a chaining procedure to increase the complexity of echoics in 2 children with autism and 1 child with developmental delay. The procedure was effective for all 3 participants, and gains were maintained after treatment was withdrawn in most cases.

Teaching children generalized imitation skills: a case report

Generalized imitation plays an important role in the acquisition of new skills, in particular language and communication. In this case report a multiple exemplar training procedure, with an errorless learning phase, was used to teach Ben, a 13-year-old child with severe intellectual disabilities, to imitate behaviours modelled by an adult instructor. After exposure to seven multiple exemplars, Ben learned to imitate novel actions to criterion (i.e. generalized imitation). These skills were maintained at 90 percent at 6 week and 18 week follow-up. In line with earlier research, this article provides some further support for the finding that multiple exemplar training can facilitate the reliable emergence of generalized imitation skills. Topographically similar behaviours during the learning phase can be difficult to discriminate and hence can slow the learning process. Future research could explore how generalized imitation supports the development of basic communication and activity skills.

Mothers' and infants' responses to their partners' spontaneous action and vocal/verbal imitation

Twenty mother-infant dyads (10 boys, 10 girls) were videotaped longitudinally at ages 10, 13, 17, and 21 months during in-home free play and bath sessions. Mothers' and infants' responses to their partners' naturally occurring action and vocal/verbal imitations were described, and relations to infants' imitation rates and vocabularies were examined. Mothers' response rates were consistently high and unrelated to infants' imitation rates. As early as 10 months, infants responded to the great majority of maternal imitations, especially action imitations, often with actions. Infants' return imitations to action matching indicated increasing awareness of being imitated. Infants' responses to mothers' vocal/verbal imitation were associated with their later vocabulary levels. Children who would be more lexically advanced at 17 and/or 21 months provided more social responses at 10 months, more socially responsive actions and return verbal imitations at 13 months, and more non-imitative socially responsive words at 17 and 21 months.

Effects of training and feedback on Discrete Trial Teaching skills and student performance

This study examined the effects of training and feedback on instructor performance of Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) and support skills. This included an examination of the generalization and maintenance of instructor skills, and the impact of instructor skills on student performance. Six undergraduate research assistants received an 8-h training in DTT and taught a variety of skills and behaviors to four preschool students who had developmental disabilities. A multiple-baseline design was used to assess instructor performance following training alone, during implementation of oral and written performance feedback, and at 2, 4, 6, and 10 weeks follow-up. Instructors demonstrated correct use of DTT and related skills at a rate of 63-80% following training. When performance feedback was provided, all instructors attained proficiency ratings of 90% by the second session and 97-100% by the fourth session. High levels of instructor proficiency were maintained at follow-up and generalized across students and learning tasks. Student learning and instructional efficiency were superior in the feedback and follow-up conditions compared to baseline. The results highlight the need for training programs that allow school personnel to correctly use DTT to effectively facilitate learning and development in students who have developmental disabilities.

Generalized imitation of facial models by children with autism

Imitation is an essential skill in the acquisition of language and communication skills. An initial phase in teaching young children with autism to engage in appropriate affective responding may be to teach the imitation of facial models. Using a multiple baseline across participants design, imitation training (consisting of modeling, prompting, differential reinforcement, and error correction) was introduced successively across 3 participants. Low and inconsistent rates of imitation of facial models were observed in baseline. All of the participants learned to imitate some of the facial models presented during imitation training, but only 2 of the 3 participants demonstrated generalized responding across stimuli.

Determinants of imitation of hand-to-body gestures in 2- and 3-year-old children

Twenty children, ten 2-year-olds and ten 3-year-olds, participated in an AB procedure. In the baseline phase, each child was trained the same four matching relations to criterion under intermittent reinforcement. During the subsequent imitation test, the experimenter modeled a total of 20 target gestures (six trials each) interspersed with intermittently reinforced baseline trials. In each session, target gestures were selected in a pre-randomized sequence from: Set 1--ear touches; Set 2--shoulder touches; Set 3--midarm touches; and Set 4--wrist touches; subjects' responses to targets were not reinforced. In each target set, half the gestures featured in nursery matching games and were termed common targets whereas the remainder, which were topographically similar but did not feature in the games, served as uncommon targets. The children produced significantly more matching responses to common target models than to uncommon ones. Common responses were also produced as mismatches to uncommon target models more often than vice versa. Response accuracy did not improve over trials, suggesting that "parity" did not serve as a conditioned reinforcer. All children showed a strong bias for "mirroring"--responding in the same hemispace as the modeler. The 2-year-olds produced more matching errors than the 3-year-olds and most children showed a bias for responding with their right hands. The strong effects of training environment (nursery matching games) are consistent with a Skinnerian account, but not a cognitive goal theory account, of imitation in young children.

Using video modeling to teach complex social sequences to children with autism

This study comprised of two experiments was designed to teach complex social sequences to children with autism. Experimental control was achieved by collecting data using means of within-system design methodology. Across a number of conditions children were taken to a room to view one of the four short videos of two people engaging in a simple sequence of activities. Then, each child's behavior was assessed in the same room. Results showed that this video modeling procedure enhanced the social initiation skills of all children. It also facilitated reciprocal play engagement and imitative responding of a sequence of behaviors, in which social initiation was not included. These behavior changes generalized across peers and maintained after a 1- and 2-month follow-up period.

Do infants show generalized imitation of gestures?

Two experiments were conducted to investigate generalized imitation of manual gestures in 1- to 2-year-old infants. In Experiment 1, 6 infants were first trained four baseline matching relations (e.g., when instructed "Do this", to raise their arms after they saw the experimenter do so). Next, four novel gestures that the infants did not match in probe trials were selected as target behaviors during generalized imitation Test 1; models of these gestures were presented on unreinforced matching trials interspersed with intermittently reinforced baseline matching trials. None of the infants matched the target behaviors. To ensure that these behaviors were in the infants' motor skills repertoires, the infants were next trained to produce them, at least once, under stimulus control that did not include an antecedent model of the target behavior. In repeat generalized imitation trials (Test 2), the infants again failed to match the target behaviors. Five infants (3 from Experiment 1) participated in Experiment 2, which was identical to Experiment 1 except that, following generalized imitation Test 1, the motor-skills training was implemented to a higher criterion (21 responses per target behavior), and in a multiple-baseline, across-target-behaviors procedure. In the final generalized imitation test, 1 infant matched one, and another infant matched two target behaviors; the remaining 17 target behaviors still were not matched. The results did not provide convincing evidence of generalized imitation, even though baseline matching was well maintained and the target behaviors were in the infants' motor skills repertoires, raising the question of what are the conditions that reliably give rise to generalized imitation.

Arbitrarily applicable comparative relations: experimental evidence for a relational operant

Arbitrarily applicable derived relational responding has been argued by relational frame theorists to be a form of operant behavior. The present study examined this idea with 4 female participants, ages 4 to 5 years old, who could not perform a series of problem-solving tasks involving arbitrary more than and less than relations. In a combined multiple baseline (across responses and participants) and multiple probe design (with trained and untrained stimuli), it was shown that reinforced multiple-exemplar training facilitated the development of arbitrary comparative relations, and that these skills generalized not just across stimuli but also across trial types. The sequence of training identified potential prerequisites in the development of comparative relations (e.g., nonarbitrary comparative relations). Taken as a whole, the present data, along with previous work by others in this area, suggest that relating arbitrary events comparatively is an operant. The implications of this conclusion for the analysis of complex behavior are discussed.

Teaching reciprocal imitation skills to young children with autism using a naturalistic behavioral approach: effects on language, pretend play, and joint attention

Children with autism exhibit significant deficits in imitation skills which impede the acquisition of more complex behaviors and socialization, and are thus an important focus of early intervention programs for children with autism. This study used a multiple-baseline design across five young children with autism to assess the benefit of a naturalistic behavioral technique for teaching object imitation. Participants increased their imitation skills and generalized these skills to novel environments. In addition, participants exhibited increases in other social-communicative behaviors, including language, pretend play, and joint attention. These results provide support for the effectiveness of a naturalistic behavioral intervention for teaching imitation and offer a new and potentially important treatment option for young children who exhibit deficits in social-communicative behaviors.

Modifying the affective behavior of preschoolers with autism using in-vivo or video modeling and reinforcement contingencies

The purpose of this study was to modify the affective behavior of three preschoolers with autism in home settings and in the context of play activities, and to compare the effects of video modeling to the effects of in-vivo modeling in teaching these children contextually appropriate affective responses. A multiple-baseline design across subjects, with a return to baseline condition, was used to assess the effects of treatment that consisted of reinforcement, video modeling, in-vivo modeling, and prompting. During training trials, reinforcement in the form of verbal praise and tokens was delivered contingent upon appropriate affective responding. Error correction procedures differed for each treatment condition. In the in-vivo modeling condition, the therapist used modeling and verbal prompting. In the video modeling condition, video segments of a peer modeling the correct response and verbal prompting by the therapist were used as corrective procedures. Participants received treatment in three categories of affective behavior--sympathy, appreciation, and disapproval--and were presented with a total of 140 different scenarios. The study demonstrated that both treatments--video modeling and in-vivo modeling--systematically increased appropriate affective responding in all response categories for the three participants. Additionally, treatment effects generalized across responses to untrained scenarios, the child's mother, new therapists, and time.

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.

The formation of a generalized categorization repertoire: effect of training with multiple domains, samples, and comparisons

The present experiment explored the effects of three variables on the spontaneous categorization of stimuli in perceptually distinct and novel domains. Each of six stimulus domains was created by morphing two images that were the domain endpoints. The endpoints of the domains were male and female faces, two abstract drawings, a car and a truck, two banded-elevation satellite land images, a tree and a cat, and two false-color satellite images. The stimulus variants at each end of a domain defined two potential perceptual classes. Training was conducted in a matching-to-sample format and used stimuli from one or two domains, one or three variants per class as samples, and one or three variants per class as comparisons. The spontaneous categorization of stimuli in the untrained stimulus domains showed the emergence of a generalized categorization repertoire. The proportion of spontaneously categorized stimuli in the new domains was positively related to the number of domains and samples used in training, and was inversely related to the number of comparisons used in training. Differential reaction times demonstrated the discriminability of the stimuli in the emergent classes. This study is among the first to provide an empirical basis for a behavior-analytic model of the development of generalized categorization repertoires in natural settings.

Measures in intervention research with young children who have autism

In this paper, the outcome measures used in intervention research with young children with autism were analyzed. Two types of literature were reviewed: reports evaluating specific intervention practices and reports of complete intervention programs. A description of the types of measures used in each literature source and measurement practices reported were analyzed and described. In addition, the intervention program literature was reviewed to determine whether factors that may mediate outcomes were measured. Finally, the literature was reviewed to identify instances in which multiple risk and opportunity factors were analyzed to account for variations in outcomes.

Generalized imitation within three response classes in typically developing infants

Effects of modeling and contingent praise on infant imitation of three different responses was analyzed. Generalization to nonreinforced probe models was assessed both within and across response types. Three 12- to 14-month-old infants and their mothers participated in this study. During baseline the mothers provided models only. During treatment mothers modeled and also praised contingent upon infant matching of the training models. During interspersed probe trials the mothers modeled different responses, which, if matched by the infant, produced no praise. The three responses modeled were motor-with-toy, motor-without-toy, and vocal responses. The dependent measure was the percentage of maternal models that were matched by the infant within 6 s. Nonmatching responses of the same response type were also measured. Results showed a systematic increase in the percentages of training and probe models matched by the three infants following the introduction of the model-and-praise treatment condition. Nonmatching responses did not systematically increase. Thus, imitation generalized within response class, but not across response classes.