children

Relational Frame Theory (RFT) proposes that derived relational responding is crucial to the development of verbal behavior. According to RFT, typically developing children acquire the ability to derive relations through natural language interactions. In contrast, children with autism often do not acquire these skills as readily and require interventions to target their development.

Answering yes/no questions (Y/N-Q responding) is a fundamental repertoire in human language and thus it is of both theoretical and practical importance to investigate the origins and development of this repertoire in children and to examine processes whereby it can be trained in populations in whom it does not easily emerge. This article examines research and theory concerning the development and training of Y/N-Q responding in children.

The aims of the current study were to measure patterns of relational framing linked with categorization in young, typically developing children and to correlate framing performance with linguistic and cognitive potential as measured by standardized instruments, including the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition (PPVT–4), the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales—Fifth Edition (SB5), and the Children’s Category Test (CCT).

Three children with autism or a related disabilities were taught to make coordinated cross-modal conditional discriminations involving gustatory, visual, and auditory stimuli, and test probes were conducted to evaluate the derivation of symmetrical and transitive relations. Participants were able to master the directly trained relations (gustatory-visual, visual-auditory) and consistently demonstrate symmetrical relations (auditory-visual).

Derived relational responding in traditional match-to-sample tasks has been well documented in the behavioral scientific literature utilizing children with developmental disabilities, but less is known regarding derived rule-following and corresponding transformations of stimulus function.

Objective : Outcomes are presented from a public mental health early intervention program for children aged 5 – 9 years with disruptive behaviours.

Method: This was a school-based intervention initiative, delivered within a psychiatric child and adolescent mental health service and includes child,

parent and teacher components. Participants were 235 children selected via school-based population assessments.