Association for Behavior Analysis International

Traditional accounts of human language have focused on elementary and complex verbal operants discussed by Skinner as verbal behavior. Although this account has led to application in teaching fundamental language skills such as tacts and mands, the same empirical advances have not been shown for more sophisticated language skills that are pivotal in speaking with meaning and listening with understanding. Recently, a series of assessment and curricula have been developed in the Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge Relational Training System (PEAK) that incorporate contemporary advances in a behavior analytic understanding of language and cognition that may have applications in teaching these more advanced language skills. The present set of studies will compare the PEAK assessment to existing behavior analytic verbal behavior assessments and demonstrate how, by incorporating advances in Stimulus Equivalence theory and Relational Frame Theory, practitioners can teach complex language skills across sensory modalities. In so doing, PEAK provides a comprehensive curriculum that may have application in use with a greater range of participants, populations, and target verbal behavior skills.

Sensations such as taste, smell, and texture are important features of the stimuli we encounter on a daily basis. Much attention in the literature on language instruction has been focused on the development of receptive and expressive responding to visual and auditory stimuli, however, few studies have sought to address deficits in responding to non-audio/visual sensations such as those found in gustatory, olfactory, and tactile stimuli. Furthermore, applied investigation of instructional methods designed to promote emergent relations between the various sensory features of stimuli and the arbitrary language functions we, as the verbal community, attribute to them has been lacking. The current presentation will review the applied literature on gustatory, olfactory, and tactile discriminations, and will provide discussion on the importance of promoting derived relational responding between various sensory features of stimuli and the arbitrary language functions used to refer to such features. Data will be presented on several applications of equivalence-based instruction, derived from the PEAK-Equivalence Module, which sought to teach language skills across several sensory modalities. Emphasis will be placed on the necessary procedures required to promote derived relations between sensory modalities and on program modification for when learners require extra support.

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of the implementation of multiple exemplar training using PEAK Relational Training System: Equivalence Module (PEAK-E), and its effects on teaching complex verbal relations in four children diagnosed with autism and displayed very low vocal language skills. A multiple probe design was implemented using programs from PEAK Relational Training System: Equivalence Module. Reflexivity, symmetry, and/or equivalence were trained while teaching Equivalence: Metonymical Tacts and Equivalence: Symbolism, separately. During training for Metonymical Tacts, children were taught through a series of training trials to match a sample related word to a picture, that was not previously directly trained. During training for Equivalence: Symbolism, children were taught to match a sample second written trait to a related picture item following training that previously did not directly train the relation. The results suggest that the participants were able to demonstrate mastery of all the trained and the corresponding untrained relations. The data extend previous research by demonstrating the effectiveness of stimulus equivalence in reducing the number of skills that need to be directly taught while still achieving skill mastery, as well as providing support for PEAK-E as an effective technology for promoting the emergence of equivalence class formation in clinical settings.

While the technology of derived relational responding (DRR) has existed within the behavior analytic toolbox for over 45 years, the translation of this technology to applied usage has yet to take hold in a meaningful manner. Though prior research suggests that the utilization of DRR methods to train skills to individuals both with and without disabilities represents an effective and efficient mode of teaching, practitioners continue to primarily utilize discrete trial training of each skill they wish to increase in their clients repertoires. The PEAK Relational Training System is an assessment and curriculum tool designed to incorporate both traditional applied behavior analytic techniques as well as contemporary techniques using DRR as part of its instructional curriculum. The current talk describes several outcome studies on the effectiveness of programs within the PEAK curriculum which were designed to utilize DRR to train novel skills to individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. The results indicated that novel skills were acquired in each of the participants instructed with DRR techniques.