Replacing maladaptive speech with verbal labeling responses: A case study promoting generalized responding

Abstract

We taught a mentally handicapped student to answer five questions with verbal labels and evaluated the generalized effects of this training on his echolalia and correct responding to five untrained questions. The student received cuespause-point training on an initial five question set followed by generalization assessments on a different set in another setting. Generalization to untrained questions did not occur until training was instituted on two exemplars from the untrained set. These results replicate and extend previous research that suggested that cuespause-point procedures may be useful in replacing maladaptive language strategies by teaching students an alternative strategy that involves using their verbal labeling repertoires. They also suggest that training exemplars is a viable means of promoting the generalized use of this strategy.