A Preliminary Analysis Of Teaching Improvisation With The Pi

A Preliminary Analysis Of Teaching Improvisation Withthe Picture Exch

Language and communication are critical developmental areas for children with autism, and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems, such as the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), play a significant role in enhancing their communicative abilities. However, these systems often limit children to a small set of symbols, which can restrict expressive flexibility when facing unfamiliar or unavailable stimuli. Teaching improvisation and problem-solving strategies within PECS can bridge this gap, enabling children to effectively communicate novel requests in real-world situations. The article explores how training children with autism to use descriptors—such as functions, colors, and shapes—in their PECS requests can promote improvisational communication and generalization to untrained items and contexts.

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Recent advancements in the field of autism intervention have increasingly emphasized the importance of fostering functional communication skills that transcend rote responses. In particular, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems have demonstrated efficacy in enabling children with autism to express their needs, desires, and preferences, thus improving social interactions and reducing behavioral issues related to communication deficits (Charlop-Christy et al., 2002). Among AAC modalities, the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) has gained prominence for its simplicity and effectiveness in early intervention stages (Frost & Bondy, 1994). Nonetheless, a key challenge persists: how to expand the child's expressive repertoire to include novel or unrepresented stimuli, especially when individualized symbols are unavailable or impractical to include for every potential request.

Addressing this challenge requires integrating problem-solving strategies into PECS training. Problem solving, as defined in applied behavior analysis, refers to the process by which a person identifies effective substitutes or solutions when faced with unavailability or constraints (Bijou, 1976). In the context of AAC, problem solving involves teaching children to generate imitative requests by combining existing symbols or descriptors to communicate novel requests—an essential skill for effective, context-dependent communication. The current study by Marckel et al. (2006) exemplifies this approach by teaching children with autism to use descriptors—such as functions (e.g., "eat," "drink"), colors, and shapes—in their PECS requests, thereby promoting improvisation and flexibility.

The study's conceptual foundation was grounded in prior research on problem-solving and improvisation in children. Parsonson and Baer (1978) demonstrated that preschool children could be taught to improvise tool substitutes through generalized training and that such skills could transfer across similar tools. Their findings highlighted the importance of teaching children the essential characteristics of unavailable objects and enabling them to identify effective alternative responses, a principle that applies directly to communication via PECS. By extending this logic, Marckel et al. aimed to teach young children with autism to apply descriptors as improvisational tools, thereby requesting unrepresented items and generalizing skills beyond trained exemplars.

The methodology involved training two boys with autism who were already familiar with PECS, focusing on the use of descriptors from three classes: functions, colors, and shapes. Baseline probes assessed each child's spontaneous improvisation capacity when requested to produce items for which specific pictures were unavailable. Subsequent training employed a multiple baseline design across descriptor classes, wherein children learned to incorporate descriptors into their requests, with reinforcement contingent on independent, correct, improvised communication. Notably, training was incremental, emphasizing mastery within each descriptor class before progressing to the next, to facilitate complex combination skills. Generalization was evaluated through untrained stimuli and naturalistic settings, with recordings from parents and therapists indicating whether improvisational requesting generalized beyond the training sessions.

The results demonstrated that prior to intervention, children rarely produced improvisational requests. Post-training, there was a marked increase in the frequency and complexity of requests incorporating multiple descriptors, indicating successful acquisition of improvisation. Importantly, the children showed the ability to generalize skills to untrained stimuli within the same class, such as requesting "white square" for a sandwich or "green circle" for a toy. Moreover, generalization extended across setting and requesters, including natural environments involving parents and teachers, underscoring the ecological validity of the intervention.

This pattern of findings aligns with the theoretical models of stimulus equivalence and creative language use, suggesting that children can learn to synthesize descriptors in novel combinations to produce functionally effective communication. The implications are profound: by teaching children to use descriptors as building blocks, caregivers and clinicians can enhance adaptive communication, especially in instances where specific symbols are absent. This approach also facilitates flexibility, resilience, and problem-solving—core components of functional communication—by enabling children to communicate about items in their environment that may not be represented in their PECS book.

However, the study also acknowledges methodological limitations. The small sample size restricts generalizability, and some procedural omissions—such as the absence of follow-up probes to assess long-term maintenance—suggest the need for further research. Additionally, the skills involved in improvisation are complex, involving multiple sources of control, including the child's recognition of stimulus characteristics and their ability to formulate and coordinate responses. Future work might explore how to extend these skills to more diverse descriptor classes, such as size or texture, and how to train children to discriminate the most relevant features of a stimulus for more targeted communication.

Despite these limitations, the findings contribute valuable evidence to the growing body of literature supporting the application of behavior analytic principles to enhance complex communication behaviors in children with autism. The ability to improvise requests by combining descriptors not only increases communicative flexibility but also promotes cognitive and problem-solving skills necessary for adaptive functioning. Incorporating these techniques into clinical practice could improve the responsiveness of AAC systems, making them more dynamic and capable of supporting real-world communication demands.

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