Ensino Intensivo de Tato: efeitos da redução da intensidade na indução de nomeação bidirecional e incidental em crianças com autismo

Abstract

The consolidation of the Bidirectional Naming (BN) repertoire as the generalized behavioral relation known as Incidental Bidirectional Naming (IBN) is considered fundamental for effective language development. Previous research demonstrated that an intensive tact training (ITT) procedure with 100 trials per day, implemented three times a week, successfully induced both IBN and BN in two autistic children. This study evaluated the effects of a ITT protocol with 50 trials per day, administered three times a week, on the induction of BN and IBN in three autistic children. The participants were exposed to: BN and IBN pre-tests; ITT teaching; BN and IBN post-tests; and BN and IBN generalization and maintenance tests. Results showed that, following ITT with up to three sets of stimuli, only one participant demonstrated BN emergence, while none demonstrated IBN emergence. This study highlights the need for further investigation into parametric variations in ITT implementation, such as the number of trials per day or week, and number of stimulus sets used, also considering aspects such as the participants' initial verbal repertoire, the reinforcing functions of antecedent and social consequence stimuli used, the reinforcing function of observation responses to stimuli, and the impact of requiring or restricting echoic responses.