Emerging Tacts and Selections from Previous Learned Skills: A Comparison between Two Types of Naming

Naming consists of tacting an object and selecting it upon hearing its name as a result of emergence. After acquiring naming, children learn object-name relations more quickly and, hence, it is an important achievement in development. We studied the acquisition of the two skills that define naming, using two procedures, in seven typically developing 4-year-old children. The tact-selection procedure consisted of (a) teaching tacts of objects (or pictures) and probing for object selection upon hearing the objects' names, and (b) teaching object selection and probing tacts. The pairing procedure consisted of presenting objects (or pictures) at the same time that an adult said their names, without requiring from the child other response than attending. Of the seven children, five showed emergence of selection responses and tacts. Children showed more instances of emergence with the tact-selection procedure than with the pairing procedure and with three-dimensional (3-D) objects than with pictures. The results have important implications for teaching preschool children and children with learning disabilities.