Comparing echoic and textual prompts for teaching intraverbal behavior

Abstract

We compared the use of echoic and textual prompts to teach intraverbal behavior, answering questions, to three children with an autism spectrum disorder. Previous research has suggested that both echoic and textual prompts are effective methods for teaching verbal behavior. Finkel and Williams (2001) found that textual prompts were more effective than echoic prompts for teaching intraverbal responses whereas Keenan, Ahearn, and Miguel (in prep) found that echoic prompts were more effective than textual prompts. Each child was taught to answer 12 social questions using either a textual or an echoic prompting procedure. A multiple probe design across sets of questions was used and observers measured the following: (a) the number of trials to criteria during acquisition in each condition, (b) the number of correct full sentence answers to the target questions during probe sessions for each condition, and (c) the number of correct partial answers to the target questions during probe sessions for each condition. The effects of the prompting procedures were assessed across acquisition trials, post-training, and generalization probes, as well as throughout a 3-week follow-up phase. During the probe sessions, questions were posed both vocally and as a textual script. The results showed that, for all three participants, with the exception of the last set of questions for one participant, echoic prompts were more effective than textual prompts for teaching intraverbal behavior and that acquisition of the target response occurred faster with the use of echoic prompts. Acquisition data showed that echoic prompts required fewer trials to reach criteria than textual prompts across participants. Probe session data showed that, after training was implemented, responding increased across all participants with the exception of textual prompts for one participant during set 1. Responding was maintained throughout follow-up for all participants. These data indicate that children with autism may be more likely to learn to answer questions more rapidly when taught with echoic prompting.