Effects of a modified speaker immersion procedure on the increase of spontaneous speech in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder

ABSTRACT We studied the effects of a modified speaker immersion procedure (SIP) on the spontaneous speech emitted across three non-instructional settings (NIS) by three kindergarteners diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Participants were 5-year-old who emitted very low levels of vocal verbal operants. Two dependent variables in this study were the numbers of vocal verbal operants emitted across three NIS and the number of target mands emitted as responses to the contrived establishing operations (EOs). SIP is an instructional tactic during which we used multiple contrived EOs and echoic-to-mand training in order to increase mand repertoires for the three participants. Results showed an increase in spontaneous speech emitted by all three participants during the NIS probes, and the increase in target mands in the presence of contrived EOs. The SIP used in the study was fast, easily implemented, and effective in expanding participant’s vocal verbal repertoires.