Current and future directions of supporting people with autism spectrum disorder to appropriately speak about preferred topics1

Abstract

Design: A multi-element reversal design was used in Experiment 1 to compare interventions that reinforced On-Topic, Problematic, and On-Topic + Preferred speech. For seven of the eight participants, caregiver implementation of intervention was implemented as an additional phase. In Experiment 2, the authors reported cumulative number of selections of intervention type for five participants who participated in concurrent-chains preference assessments. Total minutes of selection of intervention type were reported for three participants who participated in free-operant preference assessments. Allocation: In Experiment 1, all participants received interventions in the same order. In Experiment 2, the authors did not describe how participants were chosen to participate in either concurrent-chains or free-operant preference assessments. Blinding: Although not stated, it appears that the experimenters and data collectors were not blind to the purposes of the study. Study duration: Experiment 1 consisted of 25–75 sessions across participants, with 6–9 sessions per day, 1–2 days per week. Although not stated by the authors, Experiment 2 appears to consist of 8–36 sessions for participants who participated in concurrent-chains preference assessments and 4–8 sessions for participants in the freeoperant condition, with 2 sessions per week. Setting: The study was conducted at a university campus, participants’ schools, and participants’ homes. Participants: Participants were seven children and adolescents with autism aged 8– 14 and one adult with ADHD, aged 44. Participants were selected based on 1Abstracted from: Stocco, C. S., Saavedra, I., Fakharzadeh, S., Patel, M. R., & Thompson, R. H. (2021). A comparison of intervention for problematic speech using reinforcement with and without preferred topics. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 54(1), 217–230.