Evaluating the Emergence of Reverse Intraverbals Following Intraverbal Training in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
The purpose of the proposed study was to replicate and extend prior research on intraverbal training by evaluating whether teaching sets of original and reverse intraverbals from the same category (e.g., animal sounds) would result in the emergence of novel, reverse intraverbals. Three children with autism spectrum disorder participated in the study. We used a multiple baseline across categories design with a constant-series control to evaluate the effects of training original and reverse intraverbals on subsequent trained and untrained reverse intraverbals. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Behavior-based language interventions are often grounded in Skinner’s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior. Skinner’s unit of analysis is the verbal operant, and he proposed seven verbal operants (e.g., echoics, mands, and intraverbals) that are defined by distinct antecedents and consequences. Skinner (1957) defined the intraverbal as the verbal operant that is controlled by a verbal stimulus that lacks point-to-point correspondence between the stimulus and the response. An example of an intraverbal response includes saying, ‘I’m seven’, following the antecedent verbal stimulus ‘How old are you?’ Correct intraverbal responses are typically maintained by socially mediated reinforcement (e.g., praise) for early language learners, which may lead to additional opportunities for social interactions across various settings. Intraverbal behavior plays an important role in conversational skills and early social interactions. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often fail to acquire an intraverbal repertoire; therefore, they do not have the prerequisite verbal