1 Chapter 5: Establishing Mand and Tact Repertoires

Children with autism typically exhibit substantial speech delays during early childhood with up to 50 % failing to develop any speech (Charlop & Haymes 1994). Those that do develop speech often engage in echolalia, repeating words or phrases heard previously, or do not speak for social purposes, such as engaging in conversation (Smith 1999). Because one of the best predictors of outcome for children with autism is the development of spontaneous language before six years of age (Szatmari, Bryson, Boyle, Streiner, & Duku 2003), it is essential to develop effective programs to teach language to children with autism. This chapter describes behavioral techniques that can be used to teach basic language to young children with autism in accordance with B.F. Skinner’s analysis of language. Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior Traditional language programs for children with autism divide language into expressive (i.e., language produced to communicate with others) and receptive (i.e., language that is heard and understood) categories with the notion that expressive and receptive language occur as part of the same underlying information processing ability (de Villiers & de Villiers 1999). However, B.F. Skinner proposed a radically different orientation to language in his book Verbal Behavio