Pathological echoic responses in a child: Effect of environmental mand and tact control

Abstract

Echoic and nonechoic verbal responses of a 5-year old boy with pathological echolalia were recorded throughout 15 sessions with a teacher in a nursery playroom. The teacher's verbal behavior—classified as mand and tact responses—was also recorded. The child's echoic and nonechoic responses were found to be related to the teacher's mand and tact responses in the following manner: when tact responses were more frequent than mand responses, echoic responses were more frequent than nonechoic; when mand responses were more frequent than tact responses, nonechoic responses were more frequent than echoic responses. This study adds to previous general observations that pathological echoic responses are subject to environmental controls. It is suggested, however, that normal and pathological echoic responses can be best studied within the context of specific functional relations existing between the verbal repertoire of the child and verbal behavior in the environment. The application of operant conditioning procedures for eliciting normal verbal behavior must take into account these functional relations.