Learning and emergence of tacting auditory stimuli in children with autism spectrum disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulties learning to respond to auditory stimuli. We examined a specific procedure designed to teach tacting non-verbal auditory stimuli and to promote their emergence. Pictures of objects or events that produce sounds were organized into four distinct sets, each containing four specific stimuli.Three children diagnosed with ASD first learned to match sounds to the corresponding pictures while simultaneously saying the object’s name. Subsequently, they were exposed to probes assessing tacts to the sounds alone. All three children successfully learned to tact the sounds across all four stimulus sets. Furthermore, two children demonstrated the emergence of auditory tacts within the last two sets. These findings indicate that this procedure facilitates the acquisition and emergence of tacting auditory stimuli, even if the learner does not overtly say the name of the pictures.This approach may represent a valuable instructional strategy for establishing auditory tacts in individuals with ASD or language delays.