Nesrhtens…..

Kubina, Wolfe and Kostewicz published in this number of the journal The Analysis of Verbal Behavior the work they have done on developing  General Outcome Measures (GOM) for verbal operants. They have done an impressive work on this development, and by this work done a significant contribution to the field of language assessment and intervention.

The article states several quite central points and questions regarding GOM´s that the field of Early Intensive Behavior Intervention (EIBI) for children with autism spectrum disorders could benefit from. GOM´s should:

sample relevant domains of development across the desired age range, must be sensitive to growth and change over relatively short periods of time, must be cheap and easy to administer and interpret, and must lead to (and support) evaluations of the effects of ongoing intervention efforts as well as planned variations. (Early Childhood Research Institute Measuring Growth and Development, 1998, p. 4)

Relevant and well designed GOM´s could be especially useful in EIBI in effectively and fast determine starting point for children starting EIBI, make useful evaluation tool for different EIBI programs making comparison easier and more reliable, and also be used to compare EIBI to other treatments to some extent. The development of GOM could of course not replace the rigorous data collection and analysis that characterize EIBI to day, but could be an useful addition.

Now the VB-MAPP developed by Mark Sundberg could serve some of this purpose, but as it requires extended knowledge of the analysis of behavior and verbal operants it probably do not meet the criteria for GOM stated over in the aspect of easy to administer and interpret. The VB-MAPP may not either be sensible enough to growth and change over relatively short periods of time, but is as a really useful assessment tool in both placement and tracing skill development.

Researchers John W. Esch and Barbare E. Esch from Esch Behavior Consultants Inc, have along with Jessa R. Love from Western Michigan Univeristy published an interesting study in the current issue of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior on increasing vocal variability in children with autism.

As all working with children with autism the variability and flexibility of language is a particular challenging area of language teaching, and makes an interesting and important area for behavior analytic research. In this study the researchers has successfully applied a lag schedule of reinforcement. A Lag schedule typically reinforce responses different from the last (or several preceding) responses.

This study shows promising results with children with very limited verbal repertoire, and it would be really interesting to see someone try this out on children with a greater repertoire of language.