Verbal Behaviour and Communication Research
Research categorised under the heading “Verbal Behaviour and Communication” focuses on strategies for developing initial speech, communicating via augmented forms of communication (eg. pictures, sign or iPad apps), different forms of communication (eg. mands, tacts or responses to questions) and strategies for accelerating learning in this area.
Investigating the effects of the echoic on the mergence of subtypes of naming in autistic children – Emma Hawkins, Kate Hewett, & Veronica Baroni (2026)
This study looked at whether using an echoic (asking a child to repeat a word aloud) helps autistic children learn new words and develop different types of naming skills (learning the names of new items incidentally). Five autistic children aged 4–7 took part in the study. At first, some naming skills were not present for several of the children. When the researchers added an echoic response (having the child repeat the name of an item while matching or pointing to it), all five children developed at least one new subtype of naming that had previously been absent. Importantly, after the skill emerged, the children were often able to demonstrate it again without needing the echoic prompt. The findings suggest that echoic responding may play an important role in helping some autistic children connect what they hear with what they say, supporting vocabulary and language development. The authors propose that adding an echoic component could be a simple first step before using more intensive language interventions.
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The study examined four subtypes of naming, unidirectional naming (UniN), bidirectional naming (BiN), incidental unidirectional naming (Inc-UniN), and incidental bidirectional naming (Inc-BiN), in five autistic children aged 4–7 years. When a subtype of naming was not demonstrated during standard assessments, researchers introduced an adapted procedure that required an echoic response (repeating the stimulus name) while completing listener tasks such as matching or pointing. All five participants subsequently met criterion for at least one naming subtype that had previously been absent. In most cases, the newly demonstrated skill was maintained when tested again with novel stimuli and without the echoic requirement, suggesting that the echoic may have facilitated the emergence of the repertoire rather than simply prompted correct responding.
These findings provide further support for behavioural accounts that identify the echoic repertoire as an important component in the development of naming, particularly for children who have not yet acquired more advanced language capabilities. The authors argue that incorporating an echoic into naming assessments may represent a relatively efficient and low-intensity intervention compared with more resource-intensive procedures such as Multiple Exemplar Instruction (MEI) or intensive tact instruction. However, they note that further research is needed to identify which learner characteristics predict responsiveness to echoic-based procedures and to clarify whether improvements are attributable to the echoic itself, repeated testing, or an interaction of both variables.
The Effects of Changing the Classroom Play Environment on the Peer Interactions of Autistic Children with an Intellectual Disability – Hayley Locke & Brian Fennell (2024)
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The purpose of this study was to explore how different features of a classroom play area might encourage autistic children to interact more with their peers. Six children aged between five and seven years took part in the research, which was carried out in a specialist school.
The researchers compared three different play conditions. One introduced toys linked to each child’s preferred interests, another introduced anthropomorphic toys such as puppets and dolls, and a third involved supervised interaction with guinea pigs. These were compared with the classrooms’ usual play arrangements.
The results showed that, for five of the six children, all three conditions increased social behaviour compared with baseline sessions. Children were more likely to initiate interactions, respond to their peers and display positive social behaviours when these motivating materials were available.
The study found that preferred-interest toys helped create opportunities for shared activities, anthropomorphic toys appeared to encourage communication and imaginative interaction, and guinea pigs often acted as a focus for shared attention and conversation. Teachers who took part in the project reported that the findings were useful and led them to make changes to their classroom play areas.
The authors conclude that social interaction can be influenced by the classroom environment and that simple changes to play spaces may help autistic children engage more with their peers. They recommend that schools regularly review their play areas, include resources linked to pupils’ interests, provide access to anthropomorphic toys, and consider animal-based activities where appropriate and practical. The paper also recommends further research to better understand how classroom environments can support the development and maintenance of social skills.
The Use of Multiple Exemplar Instruction to Induce Emergent Listener Discriminations and Emergent Intraverbal Vocal responses in Autistic Children – Kate Hewett & Emma Hawkins (2023)
It is important that children learn new information in a way that allows them to make connections between things they already know. This helps them learn more efficiently and reduces the need for every skill to be taught directly.
This study explored whether autistic children could learn new information about characters and then use that knowledge in new ways without being specifically taught to do so. The researchers taught children the names and favourite foods of cartoon monsters and then tested whether the children could answer new questions using that information.
The study found that teaching the information directly helped most children recognise the correct answers, but not all children were able to use the information in conversation. For those children, a teaching approach called Multiple Exemplar Instruction (MEI) was introduced. MEI involved practising the same information in different ways, such as naming, listening and answering questions. This approach helped the children develop new language skills that had not been taught directly.
The paper was published in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior in 2023 and highlights the value of teaching methods that promote flexible, generative language skills rather than relying solely on direct instruction.
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Children do not always automatically make connections between different pieces of information they have learned. For example, a child may learn that a cartoon monster named Max likes sweets but may not automatically be able to answer the question, “What does Max eat?” unless that skill is specifically taught.
In this study, four autistic children were taught the names and favourite foods of unfamiliar cartoon monsters. The researchers then tested whether the children could answer new questions that required them to combine or apply this information in different ways. While all of the children learned the directly taught information, only one child immediately demonstrated the ability to answer the new, untaught questions.
To support the other children, the researchers used Multiple Exemplar Instruction (MEI), a teaching approach that rotates between different types of responding, such as naming pictures, identifying pictures when asked, and answering verbal questions. After MEI, the children showed improved ability to answer the previously untaught questions, suggesting that the intervention helped them develop more flexible language skills.
The authors argue that promoting this type of emergent learning is important because it can make teaching more efficient, reduce the amount of direct instruction required, and help learners use their knowledge in new situations. The paper also discusses limitations of the study and identifies areas for future research, including exploring which learners are most likely to benefit from MEI and how these skills transfer to everyday settings.
Deconstructing Common Bidirectional Naming: A Proposed Classification Framework – Emma Hawkins, Grant Gautreaux & Mecca Chiesa (2018)
It is important that when a child can recognise or point to an item when asked, they are also able to name it or ask for it themselves without needing additional teaching. It is equally important for children to learn new words and language naturally through listening to other people, rather than only through direct instruction. This paper explores the concept of naming, which links understanding language (listener skills) with using language (speaker skills). The authors describe different types of naming and explain how they can be assessed. They also provide guidance on how teachers can help children develop these skills in a systematic way. The paper was published in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior in 2018 and offers practical information for educators looking to support children’s language development.
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The term naming is used to describe how children connect what they hear with what they say. For example, after hearing the name of an object and seeing it used by others, a child may later be able to recognise, label and talk about that object without being directly taught each of those skills separately. Researchers have suggested that there are different types of naming. This paper reviews previous research and explains how these different types can be grouped into a clearer framework. The authors propose six subtypes of naming and discuss how each may contribute to language development. The paper also explores how understanding these subtypes could help teachers and practitioners design more effective learning programmes and support children to acquire new language skills more efficiently. The article concludes with suggestions for future research and ways to further develop our understanding of how children learn language
Effects of Tact Training on Emergent Intraverbal Vocal responses in Adolescents with Autism – Richard May, Emma Hawkins and Simon Dymond (2012)
This study looked at whether teaching autistic young people to name pictures could help them answer related questions without being directly taught. Three autistic adolescents were taught the names of cartoon characters and the foods those characters liked to eat.
- After learning these picture-based skills, all participants were able to answer new questions about the characters and foods.
- These new language skills emerged without direct teaching.
- The findings suggest that carefully planned language teaching can help autistic learners develop additional communication skills more efficiently.
The study highlights how teaching one language skill may support the development of related skills, reducing the need to teach every response individually.
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Being able to answer questions and take part in conversations is an important communication skill for autistic individuals. These skills, known as intraverbal skills, help people respond appropriately to what others say and support social interaction and learning. In this study, researchers taught three autistic adolescents to:
- Name cartoon characters when shown a picture.
- Identify the food each character liked to eat.
Researchers then tested whether participants could answer new questions without being directly taught the answers. For example, if they had learned that Simon liked chips, they were asked questions such as, “What food does Simon eat?” or “Which monster eats chips?” Following the teaching programme, all three participants successfully answered these new questions, demonstrating the emergence of previously untrained language skills. The findings suggest that teaching related language concepts in a structured way can lead to the development of additional communication skills without requiring direct instruction for every response. This approach may help educators and therapists teach language more efficiently and support greater flexibility in communication. The authors conclude that carefully designed teaching programmes have the potential to promote broader language development and help autistic learners use their skills in new situations.
The Jigsaw CABAS School: Protocols for Increasing Appropriate Behaviour and Evoking Verbal Capabilities – Emma Hawkins, Jackie Charnock and Grant Gautreaux (2007)
This paper describes how four behaviour-analytic teaching approaches were used to support autistic pupils’ learning and communication. The authors explain key features of the CABAS® educational model and share examples of pupils who took part in different teaching programmes.
The four approaches focused on: increasing interest in activities, developing spontaneous communication, building the ability to learn new words more easily, and helping pupils learn by observing others. Across the examples, pupils showed improvements in areas such as independent play, asking questions, conversation skills, language development and observational learning.
The findings suggest that carefully designed teaching procedures can help autistic pupils develop important learning and communication skills. The authors conclude that these approaches can expand pupils’ access to learning opportunities and increase their ability to engage with others.
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This paper outlines several teaching protocols used within the CABAS® framework and demonstrates how they can be used to develop communication, learning and social skills in autistic pupils. The authors present case examples showing the impact of four evidence-based approaches: stimulus-stimulus pairing, intensive tact instruction, multiple exemplar instruction and peer yoked contingencies.
The results showed that pupils became more engaged in appropriate activities, increased their spontaneous communication, developed stronger language skills and, in some cases, acquired new learning capabilities such as naming and observational learning. These skills are important because they allow pupils to learn more efficiently from both direct teaching and everyday experiences.
The authors argue that educational programmes should focus not only on teaching individual skills but also on developing broader learning capabilities that help pupils access new learning opportunities. They conclude that these protocols can support meaningful improvements in communication, independence and participation across a range of settings.
Effects of Multiple Exemplar Instruction on Naming – Emma Hawkins, Sheri Kingsdorf, Jackie Charnock, Mariann Szabo & Grant Gautreaux (2009)
This study explored how Multiple Exemplar Instruction (MEI) could help autistic pupils develop a language skill called naming. Naming is the ability to learn a new word by hearing someone else use it and then use that word correctly later without direct teaching. Three autistic pupils aged 12–15 took part in the study.
The pupils were taught using a variety of activities that involved matching, pointing to, labelling and answering questions about unfamiliar symbols and words. For two pupils, an additional echoing component was added, where they repeated the word aloud as part of the teaching process. One pupil used sign language rather than speech.
All three pupils showed improvements in their language skills during the study. By the end of the intervention, all participants demonstrated the naming capability, meaning they could respond correctly to new words across different situations without direct instruction. The findings suggest that MEI may be an effective way to develop important language and learning skills in autistic learners.
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This study examined whether Multiple Exemplar Instruction (MEI) could be used to induce the verbal developmental capability known as naming in three autistic pupils who did not demonstrate this repertoire at the outset of the study. Naming refers to the ability to acquire both listener and speaker responses to a stimulus after hearing another person label it, without requiring direct teaching of each response. The development of naming is considered important because it enables more efficient incidental learning and allows individuals to acquire new language through everyday interactions.
The researchers taught pupils using sets of unfamiliar symbols paired with novel spoken words or signs. Following mastery of match-to-sample tasks, pupils were assessed to determine whether untaught listener and speaker responses had emerged. When naming did not occur, MEI was introduced. This involved rapidly rotating instruction across multiple response topographies, including matching, pointing, tacting (labelling), and intraverbal responding (answering questions about the stimulus). For two participants, an additional echoic component was incorporated, requiring them to repeat the target word during instruction. A modified sign-language version of the procedure was used with a non-vocal participant.
Following the intervention, all three participants demonstrated substantial improvements in untaught verbal responses, and the naming capability emerged for each learner. The findings suggest that systematic exposure to multiple response forms may strengthen the connection between listener and speaker repertoires, allowing learners to generalise language across contexts without direct instruction for every response. For two participants, the inclusion of echoic responding appeared to play an important role in establishing naming, supporting previous research highlighting the relationship between echoic behaviour and language development.
Although the authors note that the study’s design limits the strength of causal conclusions, the results provide further evidence that MEI may be an effective intervention for developing higher-order verbal capabilities in autistic learners. The emergence of naming has significant educational implications because it can increase opportunities for incidental learning, vocabulary acquisition, and broader language development, reducing reliance on direct teaching and supporting more efficient learning across academic and social environments.