The effects of a conversation prompt procedure on independent play

This study used a multiple baseline design (ABCAD) to determine whether teaching children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) to tact private events would function as a conditioned reinforcer for teaching non-preferred play activities. In this study, 10 children, aged between 5.3 and 8.9 years of age, were taught to tact a set of private events (e.g., fun, bored, easy, hard) after engaging in selected preferred, and non-preferred, play activities. These ‘typical’ language exchanges were built into existing individual activity play schedules, and were designed to prompt a conversational unit after a play period of up to 10 min. This conversational unit was designed to serve as a conditioned reinforcer for the activity under observation. The results show that having access to a set of tacts for putatively private events could function as a conditioned reinforcer when teaching non-preferred play activities, reduced off-task play behavior, while revealing a measurable increase in spontaneous language, emitted both during the targeted play sessions.

► This study used a multiple baseline design (ABCAD) to determine whether teaching children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) to tact private events would function as a conditioned reinforcer for teaching non-preferred play activities.
► Ten children, aged between 5.3 and 8.9 years of age, were taught to tact a set of private events (e.g., fun, bored, easy, hard) after engaging in selected preferred, and non-preferred, play activities.
► Typical language exchanges were built into existing individual activity play schedules, and were designed to prompt a conversational unit after a play period of up to 10 min.
► This conversational unit was designed to serve as a conditioned reinforcer for the activity under observation.
► The results show that having access to a set of tacts for putatively private events could function as a conditioned reinforcer when teaching non-preferred play activities, reduced off-task play behavior, while revealing a measurable increase in spontaneous language, emitted both during the targeted play sessions.