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The Effects of TAGteach™ Methods onSign Language Object-Naming Skillsin Non-vocal Children with Autism
Megan Morien, John W. Eshleman, Ed.D, BCBA-D& Susan K. Malmquist, Ph.D, BCBA-DCopyright © 2010 by Megan Morien
Introduction
Many children diagnosed with autism possess a limited verbalrepertoire, though sign language has been shown to be aneffective method for teaching many such verbal skills
(Clarke,Remington & Light, 1968; Sundberg & Partington, 1990/1998; Thompson, Tincani, 2004;Wallace, Iwata & Hanley, 2006; Contnoir-Bichelman, McKerchar, & Dancho, 2007).
Sundberg and Partington (1990) in particular reported thatwhen teaching individuals with developmental delays, signlanguage training can be acquired at a faster rate and withmore accurate responding compared to other non-vocalmethods of communication (e.g., pointing to pictures).
Given that sign language entails quick hand movements,delivering immediate reinforcing consequences following aresponse sometimes may prove difficult.
A delay in the presentation of a positive reinforcer mayinadvertently provide reinforcement to an unintendedbehavior, or attenuate the reinforcing effects of the delayedconsequence.
Introduction
Response-reinforcement essentially indicates that “the longer thedelay between the response and the reinforcement, the lesseffective the reinforcement will be in increasing the futurefrequency of the reinforced behavior”
(Michael, 2004, p. 30).
To bridge the gap between an organism emitting a targetbehavior and the presentation of reinforcement, the field of animalresearch has experienced much success using auditory stimuli asconditioned reinforcers (i.e., clicker training)
(Pryor, Hagg, & O’Reilly, 1969;Ferguson & Rosales-Ruiz, 2001; Fjellanger, Andersen, & McLean, 2002; Pryor, 1999, 2005).
Teaching by Acoustical Guidance (TAG) represents an extension ofclicker training that uses an auditory marker (e.g., click, chirp, ping,and trill sounds) to bridge the gap between the desired responseand the presentation of reinforcement to assist in the learning ofnew behaviors in humans
(Ueda, 2006; Gutierrez, 2007; Maendler, Wasano, 2008;Eshleman & Cihon, 2009; Vargas, 2009).
TAG can provide truly immediate consequences following a givenmovement.
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