The Effects of Multiple Exemplar Instruction on the Induction of Naming in Older Children and Young Adults Diagnosed with Autism

The current project included both conceptual and empirical findings in the field of naming. Conceptually, naming appears to be a generic term that describes several sub-components. The current research focused on one of these sub-components, Full Incidental Naming (FIN), defined as the emergence of untaught listener behaviour and untaught speaker behaviour following an incidental language experience or a match-to-sample (MTS) procedure. Empirically, the initial purpose of the current research was to test the effectiveness of Multiple Exemplar Instruction (MEI) to induce FIN in older children and young adults diagnosed with autism. Because the results of the initial experiments were not as expected, some variations to the experimental procedures were implemented. An analysis of the results of the initial experiments raised additional questions about the measurement of FIN. A series of nine experiments were conducted: six with older children and young adults diagnosed with autism, and three with neuro-typical fully verbal adults. The three experiments with adults focused on the measurement of FIN and the results of these experiments determined the experimental procedure utilised in later experiments. This adaptation to the experimental procedure included conducting an additional MTS session prior to each test for FIN. The results showed that MEI did not reliably induce FIN in older children and young adults diagnosed with autism. Instead, the repetition of the test for FIN, with an additional MTS procedure prior to each test, potentially led to the inducement of FIN. Recommendations are made for future research based on these findings.