The Use of Correspondence Training to Increase Peer Social Behavior of Children with Autism in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms

Children diagnosed with autism frequently exhibit marked impairments in social interaction. Peer social behavior can be an especially challenging skill for children with autism. Interaction with peers is integral in the development of peer relationships, successful inclusion, membership, and the use of self-advocacy for these children. The purpose of this study was to implement an intervention to increase peer social behavior in inclusive preschool classrooms for three children diagnosed with autism. A multiple-baseline across participants design was implemented to determine if correspondence training was an effective intervention used to increase the participants’ peer social behavior. A partial-interval recording system was used to record peer social behavior and teacher behavior. The results of this study demonstrated that correspondence training was effective in increasing each participant’s peer social behavior. In addition, social validity data suggested that this intervention was minimally-intrusive, easily implemented in a classroom setting and possibly generalizable to additional settings. Running Head: CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING TO INCREASE PEER SOCIAL INTERACTIONS 1 The Use of Correspondence Training to Increase Peer Social Behavior of Children with Autism in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms Correspondence Training is an instructional strategy in which individuals are taught to make statements regarding their own behavior and are then provided with reinforcement when their statement and behavior correspond (Baer, 1990). It is often referred to as “plan-do-review” or “say-do” correspondence, because in the most simple terms, this intervention teaches children to make a plan and then provides reinforcement when they implement the plan as stated. In the earliest research studying the use of correspondence training, correspondence was defined as when an individual’s non-verbal behavior was changed by reinforcing his or her corresponding verbal behavior (Risley & Hart, 1968). In one of the earliest studies examining correspondence training, Sherman (1964) provided 20 children in a child-care program, the option to play with two different toys following a session with a puppet. In this session, the talking puppet reinforced the child’s verbal statements about one target toy with approval and candy. Sherman found that the reinforcement of verbal behavior did, in fact, result in an increase of that verbal behavior. However, the results were varied regarding the effects of the reinforcement on the subsequent non-verbal behavior. While 11 participants demonstrated a significant increase in the non-verbal behavior of a corresponding reinforced verbal behavior, nine subjects showed a minimal increase, and one showed a decrease in non-verbal behavior following the sessions. Due to these mixed results, Sherman concluded that solely reinforcing a verbal behavior may have limited results in the increase of a corresponding non-verbal behavior. CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING TO INCREASE PEER SOCIAL INTERACTIONS 2 Guevremont, Osnes and Stokes (1986) examined the maintenance of skills taught using correspondence training. Whereas some previous research had incorporated maintenance phases of correspondence interventions, few had sought to determine specifically how to design an intervention with the primary goal of maintenance. A multiple baseline design was employed with two preschool-aged, typically-developing children to increase a variety of adaptive classroom behaviors. Results of this study showed immediate and continued increase of target behaviors during each phase of the intervention. However, as shown in previous studies, the sole reinforcement of verbalization is not always a sufficient means of achieving maintenance of skills. This study, in particular, shed light on the fact that the use of mixed procedures removes the participants’ ability to discriminate between contingencies and may have led to continued responding and maintenance of skills (Guevremont, et al., 1986a). This study provides valuable information regarding the importance of not only promoting the increase or decrease of behaviors through the use of correspondence training, but also the need for an effective means of maintaining behaviors following an intervention. Correspondence training has been proven to be an effective intervention, used to increase adaptive behavior or decrease maladaptive behavior in individuals during shorter periods of time and within similar and closely related settings. However, Guevremont, Osnes and Stokes (1986b) studied correspondence training used with three preschool-aged and typically-developing children who demonstrated difficulty with social or academic behaviors to gain verbal control of behaviors that were isolated in time and across a variety of settings. The researchers intentionally and systematically increased the time between the children’s verbalizations and their corresponding non-verbal behaviors within their school settings. In addition, probes were conducted in the participant’s homes following the intervention. A within-subject multiple CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING TO INCREASE PEER SOCIAL INTERACTIONS 3 baseline design was employed with the following experimental conditions: baseline, reinforcement of verbalization and correspondence training. These conditions were employed during four separate activities in the preschool day and the time between the participant’s verbal behavior and the occasion for them to demonstrate the corresponding verbal behavior was systematically increased as the training continued. The study demonstrated that while correspondence training only occurred in the first play session, reinforcement of verbalizations in the following three sessions was effective in controlling the participants’ demonstration of target behaviors (Guevremont, et al., 1986b). This proved that generalized verbal control can be achieved across behaviors and to different play settings occurring much later than the participants’ initial verbalizations (Guevremont, et al., 1986b). However, unlike the preschool settings, generalization of target behaviors to the home setting did not occur until correspondence training was implemented in the third and fourth of the preschool settings. Similar to the Guevremont, et al. (1986b) study regarding the maintenance of acquired skills, Baer, Blount, Detrich and Stokes (1987) also sought to program maintenance of acquired verbal and nonverbal correspondence. In this study, the aforementioned researchers used intermittent reinforcement to achieve maintenance of skills in preschool-aged children in a child-care center. However, unlike most previous studies, this study targeted nutritious snack choices as a behavior to bring under verbal control. The experimental conditions in the study were as follows: baseline, reinforcement of verbalization, reinforcement of correspondence, intermittent consequences for correspondence and verbalization only to test for maintenance. Results of this study provided similar results to previous studies suggesting that a reinforcement of correspondence condition is considerably more effective than a reinforcement of verbalization condition. Correspondence training was an effective means of encouraging nutritious snack choices and intermittent CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING TO INCREASE PEER SOCIAL INTERACTIONS 4 reinforcement was also effective in achieving maintenance of correspondence. Baer et al. (1987) found that the results of the use of intermittent reinforcement support a previous suggestion that gradual thinning of consequences can be an effective strategy in promoting maintenance (as cited in Kazdin & Polster, 1973). Deacon and Konarski, Jr. (1987) questioned whether or not the successful increase in behavior found following correspondence training was due to the effects of reinforcement as opposed to simply verbal self-regulation. They compared a typical correspondence training procedure where participants first verbalized then engaged in a corresponding action with a reinforcement procedure, simply reinforcing a behavior as opposed to a verbalization. Participants in this study included 12 adults with intellectual disabilities who were randomly assigned to either of the experimental conditions. Following the procedures, results showed minimal differences between the behaviors of individuals in each group regardless of if they were exposed to a typical correspondence training procedure or a reinforcement only procedure. The authors suggested the similar results of these two procedures as being a result of rulegoverned behavior, which they described as the effects of “ when people are given, or generate on their own, a verbal description of the contingencies of reinforcement in a situation (i.e. a rule) and are reinforced for following the rule” (Deacon & Konarski Jr., 1987, p. 398.). With the suggestion of rule-governed behavior by Deacon and Konarski Jr. (1987), came the question of whether or not a participant’s own verbalization in correspondence training was important. If, in fact, the demonstrated increase of non-verbal behaviors observed in previous studies was due to rule-governed behavior, then the subjects individual verbalization would be unnecessary as the participant could follow a previously generated rule without actually saying the rule itself (Baer, Detrich & Weninger, 1988). Following this suggestion made by Deacon CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING TO INCREASE PEER SOCIAL INTERACTIONS 5 and Konarski Jr. (1987), a study was conducted to determine if a child’s verbalization was an important factor in the process of increasing a target behavior. In the first experiment of this study, three typically-developing children enrolled in a preschool were chosen to participate. Similar to previous studies, there was a baseline, reinforcement of verbalization condition, reinforcement of correspondence condition and a second baseline to consider maintena