Emergent completion of multistep instructions via joint control

Area of Science:

• Behavioral psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Applied behavior analysis

Background:

• Early intervention for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) requires efficient teaching methods.
• Facilitating novel response acquisition is key for effective early intervention.
• Joint control is a relevant concept in understanding emergent behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of teaching echoic rehearsals for establishing novel two-step instruction following in children with ASD.
• To analyze the role of joint control in the emergence of novel instructional repertoires.
• To assess the generalization and maintenance of learned skills in a practical setting.

Main Methods:

• Three children diagnosed with ASD (ages 5-6) participated.
• Experiment 1: Taught echoic rehearsals to promote novel two-step instruction completion via joint control.
• Experiment 2: Conducted an experimental analysis of joint control by disrupting rehearsal and tacts.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated functional control over the emergence of novel instruction following.
• Achieved generalization and maintenance of skills in a non-training context.
• Confirmed joint control as the mechanism responsible for emergent performance.

Conclusions:

• The teaching procedures are effective for establishing first-trial performance with novel instructions.
• Joint control plays a critical role in the emergent performance facilitated by these teaching procedures.
• This approach enhances efficiency in early intervention for children with ASD.