title: Effects of operant discrimination training on the vocalizations of nonverbal children with autism.
abstract: We evaluated the effects of operant discrimination training (ODT) on the vocalizations of 3 boys with autism. We compared ODT to a stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) condition and a control condition in an adapted alternating-treatments design. ODT increased the target vocalizations of all participants compared to the control condition, and its effects were similar to SSP. All participants preferred ODT to SSP.
authors.affiliation: TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY.
authors.forename: Tracy L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Lepper
authors.forename: Anna Ingeborg
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Petursdottir
authors.forename: Barbara E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Esch
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: autism; discrimination training; speech; stimulus-stimulus pairing; vocalizations