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ACQUISITION, GENERALIZATION, AND MAINTENANCE OF QUESTION‐ANSWERING SKILLS IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN
Author(s) -
Secan Kristin E.,
Egel Andrew L.,
Tilley Cynthia S.
Publication year - 1989
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 - 10.1901/jaba.1989.22-181
Subject(s) - generalization , psychology , context (archaeology) , reinforcement , autism , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , social environment , social skills , social psychology , mathematical analysis , paleontology , mathematics , political science , law , biology
We conducted an investigation to evaluate the effects of a training strategy for teaching autistic students generalized responses to three forms of wh— questions (what, how, and why). Students were taught, using modeling and reinforcement procedures, to answer questions with magazine pictures as the referents. Each question form was divided into two or more subcomponents reflective of common social usage and was taught within the context of a modified multiple probe design across subcomponents. Following acquisition of each subcomponent, generalization to natural context and storybook questions was assessed; additional probes were conducted to assess responding over time and whether acquisition of responses to questions promoted question‐asking skills. Results showed that the picture training procedure was effective in teaching a generalized response to questions for which the relevant cue was visible, whereas specific generalization programming was required for situations in which the relevant cue was not visible. All acquired responses were durable over time.