The effects of intensive tact instruction with young children having speech delays on pure tacts and mands in non‑instructional settings: a partial replication

Abstract

the present study is a partial replication of the intensive tact instruction tactic. Previous applications of this tactic have demonstrated improvements in the pure verbal operant behaviors of preschool students with autism and speech delays and in middle-school students with special needs (Pistoljevic & greer, 2006). t acts, mands, and conversational units have been increased across three non-instructional settings ( nis), before and after the mastery of five categories of pictures using 100 tact learn units. the participants in the present study included two boys and one girl with autism who ranged in age from six to nine years old and attended a private school in h ong Kong. the experimental design was a delayed multiple probe design across participants. All probe sessions were conducted for a cumulative time of 15 minutes including five minutes in each of the three nis. All three students were observed to emit significantly more tacts after mastering the 100 learn units through the intensive tact instruction. there were collateral effects observed in the number of mands emitted for two of the three students. the present study adds to the external validity of the intensive tact instruction tactic with an older age-range of students.