The effects of multiple exemplar instruction on listener and speaker behaviors of children with autism spectrum disorder

This study, conducted to determine the effects of Multiple Exemplar Instruction (MEI) on listener and speaker behaviors of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), employed a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants, one of the single-subject research designs. The participants of the study were three boys diagnosed with ASD, aged between 6 years and 3 months and 6 years and 4 months. The dependent variable was the number of correct responses in untaught listener and speaker behaviors during probe sessions conducted after acquiring matching skills with unfamiliar visual stimuli. After meeting mastery criteria in the matching instruction for the first stimulus set, probe sessions were conducted to evaluate untaught listener and speaker behaviors. Following this phase, MEI was provided to each participant using a second stimulus set. Once participants met mastery criteria in the MEI phase, probe sessions were again conducted to assess untaught listener and speaker behaviors for the first stimulus set. Finally, upon meeting the criterion in the matching instruction presented with the third stimulus set, a probe session was conducted to assess the untaught listener and speaker behaviors for this stimulus set. The findings showed that participants who met mastery criteria in the MEI phase gave a higher level of correct responses to untaught listener and speaker behaviors in both the first and third stimulus sets. Additionally, it was determined that these behaviors were highly maintained during the follow-up sessions. Keywords: Multiple exemplar ınstruction, Autism spectrum disorder, Listener behaviors, Speaker behaviors, Bidirectional naming.