Does mastery of ABLA Level 6 make it easier for children with autism to learn to name objects?

The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) was developed to assess the ease or difficulty with which individuals with intellectual disabilities are able to learn an imitation task and five 2-choice discriminations, called levels. Level 6 is an auditory–visual discrimination. We examined whether children with autism who passed ABLA Level 6 (Group 1) would more readily learn to name objects than children with autism who failed Level 6 (Group 2). The 2 groups were matched on the communication subscale of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale. Group 1 learned more object names, and in significantly fewer trials, than Group 2. The implications for language training are discussed.

Research highlights
► ABLA test performance has predictive validity for children with autism.
► ABLA test performance predicts ease of tact learning.
► ABLA test predicts language learning with children with autism.