Comparing two methods to promote generalization of receptive identification in children with autism spectrum disorders

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of our study was to compare the effects of serial and concurrent training on the generalization of receptive identification in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Methods: We taught one to three pairs of stimulus sets to nine children with ASD between the ages of three and six. One stimulus set within each pair was taught using concurrent training and the other using serial training. We alternated the training sessions within a multielement design and staggered the introduction of subsequent pairs for each participant as in a multiple baseline design. Results: Overall, six participants generalized at least one stimulus set more rapidly with concurrent training whereas two participants showed generalization more rapidly with serial training. Conclusions: Our results differ from other comparison studies on the topic and indicate that practitioners should consider assessing the effects of both procedures prior to teaching receptive identification to children with ASD.

KEYWORDS:

• Autism
• concurrent training
• generalization
• multiple exemplars
• serial training

Acknowledgments

Portions of this article were written in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the MS degree in Psychoeducation at the Université de Montréal by the first author. We thank the staff and families from the Gold Centre and ASD Montreal Clinic for their collaboration in conducting the study.

Funding

This research was supported in part by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (#430-2013-000836).

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (#430-2013-000836).