An examination of fidelity of two parent-implemented vocabulary interventions for young learners with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

The current study examined fidelity over time of two parent-implemented interventions designed to teach novel vocabulary items to three young children (3;3-5;11) with autism spectrum disorder. Additional dependent variables included: (a) rate of vocabulary item acquisition; (b) learner generalization; and (c) learner maintenance. One intervention required the parent to initiate teaching opportunities while the other intervention relied on the child to initiate teaching opportunities. Both interventions utilized mand, model, and time delay strategies within two different structured play scenarios. Three novel vocabulary items were taught within each of the two play scenarios. One replication was conducted for each parent-child dyad. Visual analysis of the data was conducted within participants. Results showed that all parents exhibited a degrading trend in intervention fidelity across experimental conditions. All participants acquired all vocabulary items across sets, though rate of acquisition differed between conditions. Results from generalization probes using storybooks were mixed. Two participants showed modest generalization across materials while one participant did not demonstrate generalization of vocabulary within a different medium. Maintenance probe results were also mixed, however, all participants showed a decreasing trend across vocabulary items. Implications for practice and research are discussed, as are study limitations.