Avaliando a Aquisição de Relações Intraverbais e de Ouvinte via Instrução Baseada em Equivalência

Abstract

People diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show characteristic deficits in verbal behavior. In this sense, recent investigations have evaluated equivalence-based instruction (EBI) to optimize the teaching of verbal relations for this population. The present work consists of two studies that evaluated the effectiveness of EBI in teaching verbal behavior to three children diagnosed with ASD (two in Study 1, and one in Study 2). The effect of a training arrangement consistent with equivalence class formation on the acquisition of relations consistent with symmetry and transitivity was evaluated. In Study 1, intraverbals and listener behavior consistent with the formation of three- and four-member classes were evaluated. Results indicated a superior efficiency for some of the relations. In Study 2, we evaluated the effect of an equivalence-compatible training on the acquisition curve of consistent and inconsistent intraverbals for a child with reduced verbal repertoires. Consistent intraverbals were not established, while inconsistent ones were. Errors were consistent with bidirectional naming and suggest the influence of such repertoire in the findings. The role of contextual control of preexisting repertoires on the efficiency of EBI for teaching verbal behavior to the target-population was discussed.