Authors: Sara Orsini, Marco Esposito, Denise Smith, Bruna Monopoli, Federica Mondani, Maria Teresa Dipierro, Giovanna Gerardi, John Sykes, Francesca Fotia, Monica Mazza, Marco Valenti.
Early intensive behavioural interventions for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder follow different clinical models. A main component of most of these models is some form of stimulus preference assessment to identify stimuli preferences. An effective assessment of preferred stimuli allows for fluent skill-acquisition and effective mand training, as well as efficient behavior reduction programs.
The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a free-operant preference assessment on the establishing operations governing mands emitted by a 5-year old girl diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder. During baseline, the participant emitted mands only for potato chips. The independent variable consisted of a Free-operant preference assessment as described by Roane et al. (1998). At post-intervention, the participant reached a cumulative repertoire of 73 different mands. Results suggest that the exposition to new stimuli via regular Free-operant preference assessment procedures might enhance establishing operations to interact with new items, therefore increasing the opportunities to teach an enhanced mand repertoire. Based on these results, a frequent Free-operant preference assessment could be recommended to applied behaviour professionals concerned with increasing communication.
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