Children with autism spectrum disorder: teaching conversation involving feelings about events

Two procedures were developed to teach individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders labels (tacts) for various private events (emotions): Study 1 attempted to distinguish them from pure tacts and mands (requests); and Study 2 attempted to train initiating a conversation with grammatically correct subject-verb-comment construction.

A multiple treatment reversal design was used in both studies, followed by a probe to see if the tacts were used across novel settings.

The children were prompted to initiate a series of language exchanges, which resulted in an increased ability to participate in conversations about private events.

Together, the results of both studies suggest that, by providing an effective and reinforcing means of teaching both the function and the form of these tacts, conversations can be successfully initiated by children with ASD.