Assessing bidirectional naming and the effects of mixed-trial and interspersed-mixed-trial teaching on its emergence

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2021

First Committee Member

Johnson, Cammarie

Second Committee Member

Dickson, Chata

Third Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel

Abstract

"Bidirectional naming emerges in typically developing children at about 2 years of age (Gilic & Greer, 2011; Horne & Lowe, 1996); however, this performance is not always seen in older children with autism (Horne & Lowe, 1996). A screening assessment was developed to evaluate bidirectional naming in eight neurotypical and one child with autism, all under the age of 4. An initial screening assessment was not completed with two neurotypical children after they did not show prerequisite echoic behavior. Bidirectional naming was demonstrated in three neurotypical children. Neither the child with autism, the two youngest, nor one of the oldest neurotypical children demonstrated bidirectional naming. For the child with autism, we used a parallel treatment design to evaluate emergent tacts and listener behavior when listener behavior and tacts were taught in either mixed-trial or interspersed-mixed-trials. Preliminary results suggest interspersed-mixed-trial instruction leads to more generative behavior than mixed-trial instruction. Additional research is needed to evaluate the utility of the screening assessment and compare the effects of mixed-trial and interspersed-mixed-trial teaching on bidirectional naming."

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