Effects of Instructive Feedback on the Acquisition of Multiple Targets in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly show impairment in skills. Research has investigated procedures that may teach a skill and establish others through emergence, without direct instruction. A given procedure corresponds to instructive feedback (IF) with definition of secondary target during the teaching of a primary target. IF information may be presented in the consequent portion of a contingency. Research has shown that this procedure may produce acquisition of multiple targets in some learners. Methods: The current study directly taught a primary target, simple tact, with IF in three children with ASD. In addition, the effects of training with IF were assessed on the emergence of four secondary targets, that is, listener responding according to category, tact according to category, arbitrary visual matching-to-sample and intraverbal according to category. Results: The children acquired all targets. They had no previous experience with IF and data provided further evidence of its effectiveness with this population. In addition, the effects of training with IF were long-lasting, as high performance maintained 2 weeks later in probes. Limitations were discussed, and recommendations for future investigations were presented. Conclusions: Training with IF established primary and secondary targets for all children involved.