Comparing two methods to promote generalization of receptive identification in children with autism spectrum...

The purpose of our study was to compare the effects of serial and concurrent training on the generalization of receptive identification in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

We taught one to three pairs of stimulus sets to nine children with ASD between the ages of three and six. One stimulus set within each pair was taught using concurrent training and the other using serial training. We alternated the training sessions within a multielement design and staggered the introduction of subsequent pairs for each participant as in a multiple baseline design.

Overall, six participants generalized at least one stimulus set more rapidly with concurrent training whereas two participants showed generalization more rapidly with serial training.

Our results differ from other comparison studies on the topic and indicate that practitioners should consider assessing the effects of both procedures prior to teaching receptive identification to children with ASD.