Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2000

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Taylor, Ronald L.

Abstract

The examination of effective teaching strategies for young students with autism is necessary to successfully address the wide variety of skills deficits exhibited in students with this pervasive developmental disorder. The wide spectrum of cognitive functioning levels and autism severity levels found in this highly heterogeneous disorder make the development of sound instructional techniques a fundamental issue in best practices teaching with students with autism. The purpose of this study was to determine the differential effects of simplified speech discriminative stimuli and typical speech discriminative stimuli on response accuracy on an acquisition level discrimination skill using a discrete trial teaching format with prekindergarten age students with autism. The participants were four students chosen from a pool of students enrolled at The St. Mary's Preschool for Children with Autism, a charter school located in West Palm Beach, Florida. All students were between 3 and 5 years old and met eligibility criteria for special education in the autism category. The targeted instructional skill was a visual discrimination task that was to be exhibited upon presentation of a verbal stimulus and which required discrimination of the verbal stimulus in order to be performed correctly. Each participant was presented with an array of acquisition level picture vocabulary items under one of two instructional conditions: either a simplified speech discriminative stimulus condition or a typical speech discriminative stimulus condition. Each student received both instructional conditions with different but equivalent picture vocabulary items. The results indicated that there were differences in response accuracy under the two discriminative stimulus conditions. For participants with autism severity levels under 36 as measured by the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), criterion was met under both conditions, regardless of IQ. For participants with autism severity levels equal to or above 36 as measured by the CARS, response accuracy was higher under the simplified speech condition, regardless of IQ. One implication of this study is that students with more severe levels of autism may learn most effectively under simplified speech discriminative stimulus conditions and that students with less severe levels of autism may be able to learn effectively under either condition.

Extent

126 p.

Comments

College of Education|Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2000.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|College of Education

Identifier

FADT12630

Format

pdf

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