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Efficacy and social validity of procedures for improving conversational skills of college students with autism
Author(s) -
Mann Charlotte C.,
Karsten Amanda M.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1002/jaba.600
Subject(s) - conversation , psychology , autism , generalization , autism spectrum disorder , developmental psychology , social skills , communication , mathematical analysis , mathematics
Better conversational skills correspond to a higher quality of life for adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, we taught vocal–verbal responses discriminated by compound arrangements of concealed conversation partner mands to two college students with ASD. Participants learned to engage in self‐questioning about their conversation partner's behavior and to reinforce three concealed mands for termination of an aversive conversation scenario. We assessed generalization to conversation probes with trained confederates and to interactions with untrained conversational partners (e.g., peers, professors). Finally, we collected peer ratings of the social validity of changes in conversational behavior as well as participants' ratings of study goals, procedures, and outcomes.