Teaching receptive language to children with autism: A selective overview.

Abstract

Receptive (to act based on an auditory stimulus) is an important and necessary foundational skill for children with autism. Several strategies establishing this repertoire have been developed within the field of early intensive behavior intervention (EIBI). An electronic literature review with the key words discrimination reveals extensive research by behavior analysts. However, has received far less attention. In this literature review we will present a brief summary of research findings describing the various behavioral strategies that have been effective in teaching children with autism and related developmental disabilities to act based on auditory stimuli whether labeling an object or following instructions. Keywords: Early and Intensive Behavioral Intervention, Receptive language, training techniques. Language Intervention for Children with Autism It is a well-known fact that approximately half of the autistic population fails to develop speech, and the majority fails to use speech in a functional manner when it does develop (Volkmar, 1991). For those children who do develop speech, their ability to communicate is often less advanced than their peers. These children may display speech that is often characterized by short utterances, lack of appropriate use of I/you pronouns, here/there constructions, and now/then relations, idiosyncratic use of words, and restricted use of grammatical structures (Tager-Flusberg, 1989). Furthermore, comprehension may also be severely impaired (Waterhouse & Fein, 1982). The multitude of research clearly documents that despite some recognizable patterns in the manifestation of autism there is much heterogeneity (Green, Fein, Joy, & Waterhouse, 1995). This heterogeneity is characteristic in both the symptoms that children with autism display as well as in the range of success that various children experience as a result of different types of interventions. Nevertheless, it is clear that when children experience severe delay in vocally or visually mediated their chances for inclusion educationally and socially become considerably lessened (Lovaas et al., 2003). For these reasons practitioners and researchers in the field of behavior analysis have invested their time in multiple efforts to develop based interventions that will effectively ameliorate delays in children with autism. Over the past four decades behaviorists have explored strategies for teaching to children with autism that have yielded effective data based interventions. These interventions have been described in sufficient detail and thus, have been often replicated successfully. Furthermore, these interventions have generated advanced use of in individuals with autism (Lovaas, 1987, 1993; McEachin, Smith, & Lovaas, 1993). More recently the behavioral approach referred to as Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) focuses on interventions for children with autism. This approach consists of intensive intervention and comprehensive curriculum protocols combining operant procedures and more recently curriculum analysis and development procedures. Specifically, EIBI focuses on simultaneously building several skill domains, including functional communication, imitation, matching-to-sample, affiliate behavior, and basic receptive and with a gradual progression to increasingly more complex domains (Pelios & Lund, 2001). Language Redefined Behaviorally The terms expressive and language are borrowed from fields in psychology other than behavior analysis and despite their general use by behavior analysts are not considered behavioral terms. A behavioral definition of receptive attempts to specify the environmental antecedents and consequences under which such responses are likely to occur. Skinner first presented a complete behavioral interpretation of in his book Verbal Behavior published in 1957. …