The acquisition of receptive and expressive language skills by students with autism and developmental disabilities (DD) is often delayed, thus making the process of communicating with others challenging. Some students develop language skills incidentally through conversations with their families and peers, but others require instruction in specific aspects of language to build their communicative repertoire. Preposition comprehension is a critical component for the development of language that is meaningful for both academic and functional purposes. The use of a direct instruction script may be a way to improve preposition comprehension for students with autism and DD. This column provides an overview of this script, materials, and procedures and additional tips for efficiently teaching prepositions to this population of students.
AllorJ. H.MathesP. G.RobertsJ. K.JonesF. G.ChamplinT. M. (2010). Teaching students with moderate intellectual disabilities to read: An experimental examination of a comprehensive reading intervention. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 45, 3–22.
2.
BergeronR.FloydR. G. (2006). Broad cognitive abilities of children with mental retardation: An analysis of group and individual profiles. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 111, 417–432.
3.
Charlop-ChristyM. H.LeBlancL. A.CarpenterM. H. (1999). Naturalistic teaching strategies (NATS) to teach speech to children with autism: Historical perspective, development, and current practice. California School Psychologist, 4, 30–46.
4.
CollinsB. (2012). Systematic instruction for students with moderate and severe disabilities. Baltimore, MD: Paul Brookes Publishing Co.
CooperJ. OHeronT. EHewardW. L. (2007) Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
7.
CoventryK. R.GarrodS. C. (2004). Saying, seeing, and acting: The psychological semantics of spatial prepositions (Essays in Cognitive Psychology Series). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
8.
CowanR. J.AllenK. D. (2007). Using naturalistic procedures to enhance learning in individuals with autism: A focus on generalized teaching within the school setting. Psychology in Schools, 44, 701–715.
9.
DelpratoD. J. (2001). Comparisons of discrete-trial and normalized behavioral language intervention for young children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33, 315–325.
10.
EngelmannS.CarnineD. (1991). Theory of instruction: Principles and applications. Eugene, OR: ADI Press.
EngelmannS.OsbornJ. (1999). Language for learning. Columbus, OH: SRA/McGraw-Hill.
13.
FloresM. M.NelsonC.HintonV.FranklinT. M.StrozierS. D.TerryL.FranklinS. (2013). Teaching reading comprehension and language skills to students with autism spectrum disorders and developmental disabilities using direct instruction. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 48, 41–48.
14.
FrischS. A.SchumakerJ. B. (1974). Training generalized receptive prepositions in retarded children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 7, 611–621.
15.
GanzJ.FloresM. (2009). The effectiveness of direct instruction for teaching language to children with autism spectrum disorders: Identifying materials. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 75–83.
16.
HartB.RisleyT.R. (1982). How to use incidental teaching for elaborating language. Lawrence, KS: H & H Enterprises.
17.
HicksS. C.RiveraC. J.WoodC. L. (2015). Effects of direct instruction on the use of and response to prepositions by students with intellectual disability. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1044/2015_LSHSS-14-0088.
18.
HicksS. C.StevensonK. M.WoodC. L.CookeN. L.MimsP. J. (2011). Effects of direct instruction on the acquisition of prepositions by students with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44, 675–679.
19.
KinderD.KubinaR.Marchand-MartellaN. E. (2005). Special education and direct instruction: An effective combination. Journal of Direct Instruction, 5, 1–36.
20.
KingA.MoorsA. L.FabrizioM.A. (2003). Concurrently teaching multiple verbal operants related to preposition use to a child with autism. Journal of Precision Teaching and Celeration, 19(1), 38–40.
21.
KuderS. J. (2012). Teaching students with language and communication disabilities (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Marchand-MartellaN. E.SlocumT. A.MartellaR. C. (2004). Introduction to direct instruction. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
24.
McGeeG. G.KrantzP. J.McClannahanL. E. (1985). The facilitative effects of incidental teaching on preposition use by autistic children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 18, 17–31.
25.
Miranda-LinnéF.MelinL. (1992). Acquisition, generalization, and spontaneous use of color adjectives: A comparison of incidental teaching and traditional discrete-trial procedures for children with autism. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 13, 191–210.
26.
OdomS. L.HornerR. H.SnellM. E.BlacherJ. (2007). Handbook of developmental disabilities. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
WeissM. J. (2008). Skill acquisition, direct instruction, and educational curricula. In LuiselliJ. K.RussoD. C.ChristianW. P.WilczynskiS. M. (Eds.), Effective practices for children with autism (pp. 195–212). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
29.
WestlingD. L.FoxL. (2009). Teaching students with severe disabilities (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
30.
WrightP.MilesN.AlexanderR. (2011). The effects of error correction and goals setting with reinforcement on the acquisition of tacts of form and function of unknown nouns for individuals with autism. Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis, 5, 1–7.
