Emergence of tacts following mand training in young children with autism.

Claire E. Egan & Dermot Barnes-Holmes. Emergence of tacts following mand training in young children with autism. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 691-696.

This study sought to examine the effects of training mands on the emergence of tacts with the same response forms. Results indicated that training adjective sets as mands resulted in the emergence of adjective sets as tacts under modified, but not standard, antecedent conditions. The findings suggested that the apparent functional independence of mands and tacts may be explained by a lack of appropriate antecedent control over responding.

DESCRIPTORS: antecedent control, autism, functional independence, language, mand, tact