Effects of Conditioning Procedures on Vocalizations of Children with Minimal or Emerging Echoic Repertoire

Abstract

Researchers have utilized conditioning procedures to establish neutral stimuli as conditioned reinforcers for decades (e.g., Greer, Pistoljevic, Cahill, & Du, 2011; Lovaas et al., 1966; Dorow, 1980). More recently, researchers have used conditioning procedures as a strategy for facilitating language acquisition (e.g., Sundberg, Michael, Partington, & Sundberg, 1996). However, the effectiveness of these procedures is unclear. Therefore, Study 1 compared three different procedures suggested to condition speech sounds as automatic reinforcers: stimulus-stimulus pairing (Esch, Carr, & Grow, 2009; Sundberg, Michael, Partington, & Sundberg, 1996), response-stimulus pairing (Lepper and Petursdottir, 2017), and operant discrimination training (Lepper, Petursdottir, & Esch, 2013). Study 2 evaluated potential barriers to the efficacy of conditioning procedures (i.e., articulation, reinforcer efficacy, attending skills) with Study 1 participants for whom none of the conditioning procedures was effective. Multielement, multiple-baseline, and reversal designs were used to demonstrate experimental control. Seven children with and without developmental disabilities participated. Results of Study 1 were idiosyncratic. At least one conditioning procedure increased vocalizations for three participants. An echoic repertoire developed during the evaluation for one participant. None of the three conditioning procedures increased vocalizations for three participants. In Study 2, at least one potential barrier was identified for the three participants. Overall, results suggest that children’s vocal behavior may be differentially sensitive to the procedures evaluated. Further, articulation skills, reinforcer efficacy, and attending skills appear to be barriers that may decrease the effectiveness of these procedures for increasing vocalizations.