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. 2018 May 31;12(1):167-175.
doi: 10.1007/s40617-018-0216-1. eCollection 2019 Mar.

Teaching "Then-Later" and "Here-There" Relations to Children with Autism: an Evaluation of Single Reversals and Transformation of Stimulus Function

Becky F Barron  1 , Leah Verkuylen  1 , Jordan Belisle  1 , Dana Paliliunas  1 , Mark R Dixon  1   2
Affiliations

Teaching "Then-Later" and "Here-There" Relations to Children with Autism: an Evaluation of Single Reversals and Transformation of Stimulus Function

Becky F Barron et al. Behav Anal Pract. .

Abstract

The present study demonstrates the utility of relational training for teaching Then-Later and Here-There deictic relations for two children with autism. Mutually entailed single-reversal relations, transfers of stimulus function, and transformations of stimulus function were also evaluated for each participant. The methods were adapted from the PEAK-T curriculum. Results for both participants support the utility of relational training for teaching children with autism basic perspective-taking skills. Both participants were able to generalize the perspective-taking skills to novel sets of stimuli, and demonstrate mutually entailed responding during single-reversal tasks. Both participants were also able to demonstrate transformations of stimulus function for both Then-Later and Here-There deictic relations.

Keywords: Autism; Perspective taking; Relational frame theory; Transformation of stimulus function.

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Conflict of interest statement

All procedures performed in this study which involved human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.Informed consent was obtained for participation in this research.The last author receives small royalties from sales of the PEAK curriculum.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Percentage of trials completed independently across Then-Later and Here-There relational skills for Parrish. Closed circles indicate trained relations, open circles indicate test probes
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Percentage of trials completed independently across Then-Later and Here-There relational skills for Regis. Closed circles indicate trained relations, open circles indicate test probes
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Dixon, M. R. (2016). PEAK relational training system: Transformation module. Carbondale, IL: Shawnee Scientific Press.

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