Interventions Used to Teach Tacts to Young Children with Autism: a Narrative Review of the Literature

AbstractPurpose of ReviewTact is a verbal operant emitted by a non-verbal stimulus (e.g., object) and maintained by social reinforcement (e.g., acknowledgement). Learning tacts facilitate acquisition of other verbal (e.g., mands and intraverbals) and non-verbal (e.g., listener) operants. Also, there is some evidence that teaching tacts to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) helps with reducing vocal stereotypies and palilalia. Due to the importance of teaching tacts to young learners with autism, this review aimed to examine the literature on tact instruction to this population who ranged from 0 to 59  months. Specifically, this review examined 10 constructs (i.e., interventions, efficacy, target tacts, outcomes of generalization and maintenance, stimuli used to elicit tacts, consequences of tacts, settings in which the interventions implemented, implementers, social validity, preexisting tact r epertoires, and learning histories of the participants).Recent FindingsThe findings of the present review indicate that several interventions were effective in teaching and generalizing tacts to young children with autism. Although limited, the outcomes of maintenance and social validity were also positive.SummaryThere are different interventions that can be used to teach, generalize, and maintain tacts effectively for autistic children. Research on tacts should continue and address generality prior to and after tact instruction, multiple stimulus and response exemplars, non...
Source: Current Developmental Disorders Reports - Category: Child Development Source Type: research