Weil, T.M., Hayes, S.C., & Capurro, P. (2011). Establishing a deictic relational repertoire in young children. The Psychological Record, 61, 371-390.
Perspective-taking skills have been shown to be pivotal in a variety of
social and interpersonal interactions. A better understanding of the
process involved in building such a repertoire could be beneficial in a
wide variety of language and social skills training programs. A relational
frame theory approach to perspective taking involves a focus on
deictic relations, such as I-You, Here-There, and Now-Then. The present
study examined the effect of operant contingencies on deictic relational
responding in 3 normally developing young (57 to 68 months
old) children. In a multiple baseline across persons and tasks format,
I-You, Here-There, and Now-Then deictic relational frames were successfully
shaped as operant behavior. As the children acquired deictic
relational frames at the Reversed and Double-Reversed levels, the children’s
performance on traditional perspective-taking measures generally
increased.