A Treatment Evaluation of Successive and Simultaneous Visual Stimulus Presentation During Tact Training with Children with Autism

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess whether variations in visual stimulus presentation during tact training would affect efficacy, efficiency, and the emergence of listener responses. Participants included two preschool-aged children diagnosed with autism. We implemented two teaching conditions using an adapted alternating treatment design with intrasubject replications. During successive tact training, the experimenter presented one picture per trial. During simultaneous training, the experimenter pointed to the target picture in a stimulus array. For one participant, both procedures were similarly effective and efficient. For another participant, successive tact training generated fewer errors and better efficiency results. Moreover, both formats resulted in accurate listener responding. Our results suggest that both procedures are effective, and that the simultaneous format may be a viable alternative for teaching tacts.