Date of Defense

4-23-2016

Date of Graduation

4-2016

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Richard Malott

Second Advisor

Brian MacNeill

Keywords

Autism, vocalizations, echoic training, shaping

Abstract

This study focuses on increasing vocalizations for students with Autism spectrum disorder. A three-part intervention was used to attempt to establish an echoic repertoire in students who had little to no vocalizations. Both students attended an early intervention classroom with a special education school. Students were selected from their classroom if they showed little to no vocalization or echoic skills. The goal during the first phase was to collect all sounds being made by the student to increase the overall number of vocalizations being made. This was done by continuous reinforcement using edible reinforcers. In phase two, the student’s dominant sounds from phase one were put on extinction to increase variety of vocalizations. The final phase was echoic training which chosen from target sounds made by the students in previous phases. An echoic repertoire was established successfully for the first student, and an echoic procedure is currently in place for the second student. This study can help future research to examine further methods for increasing vocalizations in children with autism.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

Additional Files
Thesis Orals Powerpoint-Final .pdf (789 kB)
Thesis Presentation
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