Tact Responses Research Articles

Comparison of Two Maintenance Training Arrangements with Instructive Feedback in Children with Autism

Instructive feedback (IF) can improve the efficiency of teaching in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by establishing emergent skills. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of two types of listener responding maintenance teaching with IF on acquisition of four untaught repertoires in three children with ASD. In one of the teaching cases, attending and tact responses of visual stimuli were required. The emergence was partial for all learners, with no great difference in the efficiency of the types of teaching. Two of the new repertoires were not demonstrated. Errorless performance of some relations was shown by all, but for only one child immediate emergence was verified. The results were discussed regarding the possibility of new investigations on alternative procedure to IF that could produce the emergence of new repertoires.

Effects of Interventions Involving Tablet-Based Speech-Generating Devices for Individuals with ASD: A Meta-analysis.

The purpose of this review was to assess the effectiveness of tablet-based speech-generating devices (SGDs) in improving communication skills for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A total of 31 single-case design intervention studies involving 84 individuals with ASD were reviewed and included in the analysis. We calculated Tau-U to evaluate the impact of interventions involving tablet-based SGDs on four different communication responses: specifically, mands, intraverbals, tacts, and vocalizations. To explore potential moderating variables for mand outcomes, we used the Kruskal-Wallis one-way test. The analysis revealed that interventions utilizing tablet-based SGDs led to improvements in communication responses. Specifically, large to very large changes were observed in mand and intraverbal responses, whereas moderate changes were noted in tact responses and vocalizations. The findings of this review underscore the potential of tablet-based SGDs in enhancing communication among individuals with ASD. We discuss the findings and provide implications for future research and practice.

다중반응교수(MEI)가 자폐스펙트럼장애 아동의 자극 등가 관계 안에서 보이는 파생적 인트라버벌 반응과 네이밍인 택트 반응에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구*

This study was to investigate effects of the Multiple Examplar Instruction(MEI) on untaught tact as Naming and untaught Intraverbal using stimuli within equivalent relations. 4 and 5 year old children with Autism Spectrum Disorder participated in the study. A multiple baselines across participants with multiple probes design was used. Direct instruction on part of possible stimulus-response relations with the stimulus equivalence relations were delivered in order to establish reinforcement history within that relations. Probe for untaught stimulus-response within the stimulus equivalence relations, derived intraverbal and derived tact as Naming were conducted. The participant showed low level of correct derived responses with the equivalence relations. A MEI was implemented where the participant learned to respond within the equivalence relations a type of relational frame. The participants showed derived intraverbal and tact responses within the frame and generalized the responding to a novel set of stimuli. Possible source for inconsistent responding across stimuli were discussed in term of behavioral cusps and stimulus control.

Improving pretend play for children with autism through experiencing the stimulus properties of real objects.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often lack symbolic play skills. Attribution of pretend properties (APP) is a type of symbolic play in which a child tacts pretend properties of an object (e.g., smelling a toy flower and saying, "It smells like a rose!"). Three Chinese boys (5-6 years of age) with ASD served as participants. A multiple-probe design across 5 objects was used to determine the effects of an intervention that involved having the child experience and tact sensory properties of real objects (e.g., rose). Corresponding test objects, including mock (e.g., a toy flower) and arbitrary objects (e.g., a stick), were used to evaluate whether tact responses for sensory properties were transferred. Results indicated that all 3 children emitted tacts of stimulus properties for test objects and maintained the skill for 7 to 10 weeks following the intervention. Two participants also tacted novel (nontarget) properties for test objects.

Observação de pareamento de estímulos e instrução com múltiplos exemplares: efeitos sobre respostas de ouvinte e falante de crianças com TEA

Dois procedimentos têm sido propostos como alternativas para induzir repertórios não ensinados diretamente: 1) instrução com múltiplos exemplares (MEI); e 2) observação de pareamento de estímulos (SPOP). O MEI implica a rotação do ensino de diferentes respostas a um estímulo (ex. tato e resposta de ouvinte), o que favorece a aprendizagem incidental dessas respostas para novos estímulos a partir do ensino de apenas um dos tipos. No SPOP é exigida apenas a observação de estímulos apresentados contíguos, sem reforçamento diferencial para qualquer resposta. Os resultados de alguns estudos sugerem que uma maior frequência de pareamentos poderia levar a emergência de respostas de tato e ouvinte não ensinadas diretamente e que o pareamento de estímulos pode afetar o procedimento de MEI. O presente estudo avaliou o efeito de SPOP com uma frequência maior de pareamentos por tentativas sobre a emergência de respostas de tato e ouvinte em três crianças com Transtorno do Espectro Autista, e o efeito do SPOP no ensino dessas respostas por meio de MEI. Para dois participantes, o SPOP com mais pareamentos a cada tentativa favoreceu a emergência do repertório de ouvinte. Estes participantes somente aprenderam respostas de tato após o MEI. O SPOP teve um efeito facilitador no treino de MEI. Discute-se o papel do MEI e de treino de tato intensivo na emergência de repertórios de tato e ouvinte, assim como os tipos de controle de estímulo que o SPOP parece favorecer, e a possibilidade de investigar o SPOP em ambientes menos estruturados.

Effects of Nonreciprocal Peer Tutoring With Preschool Students.

We investigated the effectiveness of nonreciprocal peer tutoring, a type of peer-mediated instructional intervention, with preschoolers. We used a multiple-probe design across 2 dyads with participants with and without disabilities. The dependent variables were the number of correct tact responses to the untaught stimuli for the tutor and the number of correct tact responses to taught stimuli for tutees. Results demonstrated that nonreciprocal peer tutoring was effective in the acquisition of untaught tacts for the tutors and directly taught tacts for the tutees.

Teaching Children with Autism to Tact the Private Events of Others.

We evaluated the efficacy of a most-to-least intrusive error-correction/prompting procedure for teaching 3 children with autism to tact the private events of others through publicly accompanying stimuli. Participants did not reliably demonstrate correct tact responses to publicly observable stimuli that accompany common emotions reported by others (e.g., bandage = hurt) in baseline. Procedures were taken from the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Relational Training System: Direct Training Module (PEAK-DT) to aid in clinical replication, and training was introduced in a multiple-baseline design. Results showed that the procedures were efficacious in teaching this skill to each of the participants, and fast rates of acquisition were observed.

Effects of Bilingual Tact Instruction for a Child with Communication Disorder

We evaluated the effects of tact training when instruction was presented in English only compared to tact training in a bilingual format (in English and the home language, Portuguese) for a participant diagnosed with a communication disorder. The participant’s parents completed a questionnaire describing his exposure to both languages prior to the start of the study. We also conducted formal language assessments to determine the participant’s preexisting language abilities. An adapted alternating treatment design was used to compare the rate of acquisition in the two training conditions. Results show the participant emitted more correct responses during tact training in English than during the bilingual tact training. Generalization and maintenance of acquired tact responses for stimuli trained in the bilingual condition were greater than for stimuli trained in the English-only condition. These results are discussed with respect to implications for language-training programs for children with language delays and developmental disabilities, and we outline suggestions for future research in this area.

A clinical application of procedures to promote the emergence of untrained intraverbal relations with children with autism

Strategies to promote the emergence of untrained verbal relations are of critical importance for learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study examined the effects of systematically training new relations on the emergence of intraverbal relations within the same set and across untrained sets using a multiple probe across behaviors design. Three sets consisting of three classes of stimuli were developed for each of the six participants with ASD. Training was sequentially introduced within set 1 for listener feature/function, tact feature/function, and bi-directional intraverbals. Following mastery of one relation within the set, probes were conducted to assess emergence of all untrained relations within set 1. Once mastery criteria were met through direct training or emergence for all intraverbal relations in set 1, probes were conducted to evaluate relations across all sets (1–3). The procedures were repeated with the remaining sets. Results indicated that some participants showed emergence of untrained intraverbal relations following training of the listener and tact responses, consistent with prior research. Some participants required training across multiple relations and classes before emergence of intraverbals was observed. These results highlight the importance of evaluating performance over multiple sets and the benefits of systematically programming for emergence within clinical work.

The role of joint control in selection responses

ABSTRACTThe term “manded selection responses” was used to describe a type of speaker–listener relation and a type of listener responding. The origin of manded selection response is the target of current investigation. Several behavioral models such as conditional discrimination, bi-directional relation, or naming had been used to explain the origin of this listener response. However, joint control studies demonstrated that tact, echoic, and selection responses are functionally independent. In addition, training tact and self-echoic jointly evokes manded selection responses.

The effects of listener training on discriminative control by elements of compound stimuli in children with disabilities.

The purpose of the current study was to assess whether the establishment of listener relations with compound stimuli as samples and comparisons would lead to the emergence of: (1) speaker behavior in the form of tacts of the compound stimuli; (2) listener and tact responses for untaught compounds; and (3) listener and tact responses for the isolated properties of compounds. Participants were four boys diagnosed with autism and one diagnosed with intellectual disability. We taught participants to select among three compound comparisons consisting of combinations of shapes and patterns in the presence of the corresponding dictated word. Subsequently, we tested for the emergence of tacts for the trained compounds, as well as tact and listener relations for six untaught compounds and their properties. In general, results showed that the acquisition of listener relations led to the emergence of the corresponding tacts, as well as the emergence of listener and tact responses for untaught combinations for three out of five participants. By contrast, the other two participants showed responding characteristic of restricted stimulus control. These results suggest that the establishment of bidirectional relations between listener and speaker behaviors may facilitate the emergence of control by properties of compound stimuli.

Increasing the Mand Repertoire of Children With Autism Through the Use of an Interrupted Chain Procedure

Mand training is an essential component of verbal behavior training for any individual who lacks this skill. The current study replicates and extends, with some procedural differences, the work of Hall and Sundberg (1987) by using an interrupted chain procedure to teach mands for missing items to children with autism. The participants were 3 children with autism, ranging between 5 and 8 years of age, who would regularly mand for a wide variety of reinforcers when they were present but would rarely mand for items that were not in sight (i.e., missing items). Participants were first taught to complete 3 behavior chains. Subsequently, the chains were interrupted by removing 1 item needed to complete each chain to contrive motivating operations (MOs) as a means of teaching mands for missing items. Following mand training incorporating vocal prompt and prompt fading procedures, all participants emitted unprompted mands for the missing items within the context of the trained chains and within the context of novel, untrained chains. After teaching mands for missing items, probes were conducted to test for untrained tact acquisition. All participants also demonstrated tact responses relative to the missing items as a result of the mand training.

Multiple Exemplar Instruction and the Emergence of Generative Production of Suffixes as Autoclitic Frames

We report 2 experiments that tested the effects of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) across training sets on the emergence of productive autoclitic frames (suffixes) for 6 preschoolers with and without language-based disabilities. We implemented multiple exemplar tact instruction with subsets of stimuli whose "names" contained the suffix "-er" denoting the comparative form of adjectives. Subsets of stimuli included regular, irregular, and contrived tacts containing the target relational autoclitic frame in order to determine if our MEI procedure would induce the abstraction of the frame across all stimulus sets. In the second experiment, additional tasks were introduced to the participants to control for a possible sequence effect. A nonconcurrent multiple probe design was used to evaluate the functional relation between MEI and emergence of untaught tact responses containing the comparative adjective "-er." The results of both experiments showed relations between MEI and novel, untaught tact responses containing the target autoclitic frame; the second experiment showing a functional relation. The results are discussed in terms of environmental sources for productive verbal behavior.

COMPARISON OF A STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE PROTOCOL AND TRADITIONAL LECTURE FOR TEACHING SINGLE-SUBJECT DESIGNS

This study compared the effects of a computer-based stimulus equivalence protocol to a traditional lecture format in teaching single-subject experimental design concepts to undergraduate students. Participants were assigned to either an equivalence or a lecture group, and performance on a paper-and-pencil test that targeted relations among the names of experimental designs, design definitions, design graphs, and clinical vignettes was compared. Generalization of responding to novel graphs and novel clinical vignettes, as well as the emergence of a topography-based tact response after selection-based training, were evaluated for the equivalence group. Performance on the paper-and-pencil test following teaching was comparable for participants in the equivalence and lecture groups. All participants in the equivalence group showed generalization to novel graphs, and 6 participants showed generalization to novel clinical vignettes. Three of the 4 participants demonstrated the emergence of a topography-based tact response following training on the stimulus equivalence protocol.

Reinforcer Strength in Transfer of Stimulus Control From Tacts to Mands

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of reinforcer strength in transfer of stimulus control from tacts to mands conditions. Three children diagnosed with autism were initially taught to tact most and least preferred abstract stimulus properties of preferred items that had been identified in two preference assessments. Subsequently, we ran probe trials to determine whether the participants would exhibit the same topographical responses under mand conditions. Previous mand responses that did not include the abstract stimulus properties were placed on extinction. Our results show that tact responses may emerge as mands for those abstract stimulus properties identified as most preferred, but not for those that were identified as least preferred. Results are discusses in terms of the role of motivating operations, and potentially, extinction, as variables that facilitate transfer of stimulus control from tacts and mands.

Generic instruction versus intensive tact instruction and the emission of spontaneous speech.

Introduction The expansion of the tact repertoire appears to be critical to the acquisition of subsequent and more complex verbal developmental stages. It is likely that direct instruction in tacts must continue until children have acquired the verbal developmental cusp of Naming, which is defined as the capability to acquire the listener and speaker responses to stimuli incidentally (Greer & Speckman, 2009; Greer, Stolfi, & Pistoljevic, 2007; Horne & Lowe, 1996; Pistoljevic & Greer, 2006; Skinner, 1957). Skinner (1957) described six elementary verbal functions for the speaker, including (1) echoics, (2) mands, (3) tacts, (4) autoclitics, (5) intraverbals, and (6) textual responding. For the purposes of this study, we focus primarily on mands, tacts, and intraverbals. Mands are speaker or substitute speaking topographies that are emitted under conditions of deprivation or annoying conditions in the presence of a listener who then mediates the environment for the speaker (Skinner, 1957; Greer & Ross, 2008). Tacts are verbal operants occasioned by a discriminative stimulus in the environment and are reinforced by generalized reinforcers particularly attention (Tsiouri & Greer, 2003). Children with autism usually demonstrate deficits in functional communication (DSM-IV, American Psychiatric Association, 1994) , including tacts. For example, children with autism typically do not emit language without prompting or questioning by others and thus demonstrate few instances of speech (Krantz & McClannahan, 1998). For this reason, studies have focused on the development of verbal skills by these children. Partington, Sundberg, Newhouse, & Spengler (1994) implemented a procedure for transferring stimulus control from verbal stimuli to nonverbal stimuli in a six-year-old girl with autism. As a result, the girl acquired tact responses to 19 stimuli. Partington et al. then proposed that the reason for the failure of children with autism to acquire tacts may be tied to the antecedent verbal behavior of others (e.g., What is that?) which functions to block the establishment of stimulus control by a nonverbal stimulus. This observation is consistent with findings reported by Williams and Greer (1993). Several evidence-based protocols are available for inducing echoics and then mand and tact responses for children who have no, or limited, vocal verbal operants. Included here are (1) the stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure to induce echoics (Sundberg, Michael, Partington, & Sundberg, 1996), (2) rapid motor imitation to induce echoics to mand and echoics to tact functions (Ross & Greer, 2003; Tsiouri, & Greer, 2003), and (3) direct echoic to mand and echoic to tact instruction (Williams & Greer, 1993). Procedures are also available to expand repertoires such as speaker immersion (Greer & Ross, 2004; Ross, Nuzzolo, Stolfi, & Natarelli, 2006; Schwartz, 1994). However, once repertoires are established, children need extensive instruction in order to expand their language functions or verbal repertoires. The primary repertoire in need of expansion is the tact repertoire because tacts are foundational to the subsequent development of more complex verbal behavior such as Naming, say-do correspondence, conversational units, and age-appropriate self-talk (Barnes-Holmes, Barnes-Holmes, & Cullinan, 2000; Greer & Ross, 2008; Greer & Speckman, 2009; Horne & Lowe, 1996). Several recent investigations suggested the importance of directly and intensely teaching the tact repertoire, especially for those children who cannot acquire tacts through spontaneous observational learning (Williams & Greer, 1993; Ross & Greer, 2003; Schauffler, & Greer, 2006; Tsiouri & Greer, 2003; Pistoljevic & Greer, 2006; Pistoljevic, 2008). The protocol used in these studies is referred to as the intensive tact procedure (ITP). …

The Effects of Peer Monitoring Training on the Emergence of the Capability to Learn from Observing Instruction Received by Peers

We tested the effects of teaching peer monitoring on the emergence of an observational learning (OL) capability in 2 experiments using delayed multiple probe designs with children diagnosed with developmental disabilities. In probes for the OL capability before and after each stage of the peer monitoring intervention, participants received unconsequated probes on material that was novel to them after they observed peers who were taught mastery of the material. In Experiment 1, 2 participants were probed for the presence of OL of textual responses and tact responses to pictures taught to peers prior to and after each stage of the peer monitoring intervention. In the training, target participants observed peers receiving different instruction involving reinforcement for accuracy and corrections for errors. After participants met criterion on the monitoring intervention, they demonstrated OL with the peer they trained with and a novel peer. In Experiment 2, the same results accrued for vocal spelling responses. The data suggest that for children like these, acquiring the capability to learn by observing instruction received by others in classrooms results from monitoring others receive instruction.

The induction of naming in children with no prior tact responses as a function of multiple exemplar histories of instruction.

The phenomenon identified as naming is a key stage of language function that is missing in many children with autism and other language delay diagnoses. We identified four children with autism, who, prior to the implementation of this experiment, did not have the naming repertoire (either speaker to listener or listener to speaker) and who had no tact responses for two- or three-dimensional stimuli. Tact training alone did not result in a naming repertoire or echoic-to-tact responses for these students. We then provided multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) across speaker and listener repertoires for a subset of stimuli (the teaching set) that resulted in untaught response components of naming and the capability to acquire naming after learning tacts for subsequent sets of stimuli. We used a delayed multiple-baseline probe design with stimuli counterbalanced across participants. The results showed that for all four students, mastery of tacts alone (the baseline or initial training condition) was not sufficient for the naming or echoic-to-tact repertoires to emerge. Following MEI the naming repertoire emerged for all four students for the initial set of stimuli. In addition, we tested for naming with novel stimuli that were probed prior to the MEI and naming also emerged following tact instruction alone for these sets. The results are discussed in terms of the role of naming in the incidental acquisition of verbal functions as part of the speaker-as-own-listener repertoire.

Generalized selection-based auditory matching and the emergence of the listener component of naming.

Abstract We tested the effects of teaching an auditory match to sample repertoire on the emergence of the listener half of the verbal developmental cusp of Naming for 2-preschool students with language-based disabilities. The study was conducted in special education CABAS[R] preschool. Neither of the students had selection or discrimination responses, the listener component of Naming, following mastery of match to sample programs for two-dimensional visual stimuli while hearing the tact as they matched. We taught the students to match same sounds and same words using BIGMac[R] buttons, and tested the effects of mastery of these skills on the emergence of the listener component of Naming. A time-lagged multiple probe design across students was employed to determine if there was functional relation between the acquisition of auditory matching and the emergence of the listener component of naming. The results showed that for these two students, the acquisition of an auditory matching repertoire was functionally related to the emergence of the listener component of Naming. We also report data on the participants' echoic responses to stimuli as well as emergent tact responses (the speaker component of Naming). Keywords: Observational learning, naming, contingency learning, & emotional and behavioral disorders. ********** The productivity of human language is an area of interest for many who research language development (Skinner, 1957; Chomsky, 1959; Pinker, 1999; Horne and Lowe 1998; Hayes, Barnes-Holmes & Roche 2001, Greer and Yuan, 2003, Speckman-Collins and Greer 2005, Lee-Park 2005.) Some linguists account for novel language production in terms of lexicon, lexical rules and an infinite number of combinations available to speaker (Pinker, 1999; Jackendoff, 2002.) Horne and Lowe's (1998) theory on Naming provides an operant explanation of productive verbal behavior. Naming is a circular relationship between classes of objects and events and the responses they occasion (Horne & Lowe, 1998, p.5.) According to the theory of Naming, speakers listen to their own speech. This orients the speaker back to the item of which they are speaking. This can be particular item or class of items in general. If the item or items evoke tact response from the speaker, the cycle may begin again. The individual can then hold the object in consciousness (Horne & Lowe, 1998, p.6) for as long as the cycle continues. Once an individual has an orienting response towards an item, or listener response, an echoic response may occur. Once listener and echoic response are in place, the conditions exist for the corresponding tact response (Horne & Lowe, 1998.) Once the listener response, the echoic response and the tact are in place, the Naming cycle is complete. Horne and Lowe (1998) claimed that Naming is the basic unit of verbal behavior, upon which all complexities of human language are founded. One experiment that tested the Naming theory showed that only 1 out of 5 children tacted items after being taught an echoic response not in the presence of the item and listener response, but 5 out of 5 children tacted items after being taught listener response and an echoic response in the presence of the item (Horne & Lowe, 1998). In other experiments, acquisition of Naming led to the emergence of discrimination responses to those stimuli (Horne & Lowe, 1998) and teaching tact response resulted in correct sorting behavior (Horne & Lowe, 1998) while teaching only listener response did not (Horne & Lowe, 1998). Another study showed that Naming in two to four year old children resulted in the establishment of arbitrary stimulus classes and that match to sample training resulted in categorization responses (Lowe, Horne, Harris & Randle, 2002). The emergence of Naming has been functionally linked to multiple exemplar instruction (Greer, Stolfi, Chavez-Brown and Rivera-Valdes, 2005. …

Generalization of mands in children with autism from adults to peers.

Children with autism are characterized by deficits in communication and social skills. Teaching children with autism to mand with adults is a common practice in behavioral interventions and is listed as a necessary skill to be taught in many curricular sequences (Leaf & McEachin, 1999; Lovaas, 1981; 2003; Maurice, 1996; Maurice, Green, & Foxx, 2001; Sundberg & Partington, 1998). Most of these curricular sequences also list manding with peers as a target skill in the area of socialization (Leaf & McEachin, 1999; Maurice, 1996; Maurice, Green, & Foxx, 2001; & Sundberg & Partington, 1998). The designation of these curricular sequences to include manding with adults and manding with peers as separate targets leads one to assume that this skill does not generalize across people, but must instead be specifically taught in each domain. In contrast, when analyzing the social behavior of typically developing preschool children, Tremblay, Strain, Hendrickson, and Shores (1981) found that, on average, they exhibited one initiation toward a peer every two minutes in an unstructured setting. A later study obtained similar results, showing that non-disabled children initiated with each other an average of five times in a 10--minute session (McGrath, Bosch, Sullivan & Fuqua, 2003). Research investigating the social behavior of children with autism and developmental delays repeatedly indicates impairments in socialization, including initiations toward peers (Guralnick & Weinhouse, 1984; Pierce-Jordan & Lifter, 2005; Stone & Lemanek, 1990). Many studies have been successful in teaching children with autism to initiate toward their peers using a variety of strategies including the use of a tactile prompt (Shabani et al. 2002; Taylor & Levin, 1998;), script fading (Krantz & McClannahan, 1993), visual supports ( Johnston, Nelson, Evans, & Palazolo, 2003), and peer tutors (Goldstein, Kaczmarek, Pennington, & Shafer, 1992; & Pierce & Schreibman, 1995). Hancock and Kaiser (1996) specifically taught children to mand with their siblings during play and snack times. Similarly, Taylor, Hoch, Potter, Rodriguez, Spinnato, & Kalaigian, (2005) taught children to mand for preferred items with their peers during snack time. The participants in the Taylor et al. study all were reportedly able to mand for preferred items with adults, but did not mand with peers until specifically taught to do so. Skinner (1957) described the different verbal operants as functionally independent. Establishing one verbal operant does not automatically result in the appearance of another. A word with the same topography may serve several different functions, such as a discriminative function or a reinforcing function. For example, the word or object drink may function as a discriminative stimulus which evokes a listener's echoic or tact response, but it may also function by producing a reinforcer when an establishing operation is in effect. Lamarre and Holland (1985) were the first to demonstrate empirically the functional independence of the different but related classes of verbal operants, specifically mands and tacts that were topographically the same. Since then many studies have supported their research by demonstrating that the acquisition of one verbal operant does not necessarily transfer to another class of operant. Namely, the acquisition of a mand repertoire did not generalize to the acquisition of a tact repertoire without direct teaching (Sigafoos, Doss, & Reichle, 1989; Twyman, 1995; Twyman, 1996; Nuzzolo-Gomez & Greer, 2004; & Nirgudkar, 2005). Given the empirically validated fact that a mand repertoire may not generalize to other verbal operants, it is speculated that the acquisition of a mand repertoire may also fail to generalize across settings and/or people, especially in children with autism who are known to have difficulties with the generalization of skills (Wynn & Smith, 2003; Williams, Carnerero, & Perez-Gonzalez, 2006). …