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Masashi Kawamura, Hachioji City Utsukidai Elementary School, JapanAbstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often develop rigid, repetitive language patterns. Although discrete-trial training effectively establishes intraverbal responses—verbal behavior controlled by another's verbal stimuli—it frequently produces stereotyped sequences. In the present case, a fixed emission order (e.g., carrot → cabbage → eggplant for “vegetables”) led to blended utterances in which phonemes from adjacent words merged into a single unit, necessitating intervention. This study examined whether combining a Lag 1 schedule with differential reinforcement of different orders from the baseline sequence (DRDO) could increase response-order variability in a 12-year-old boy with ASD and severe intellectual disability. A multiple-baseline-across-behaviors design was employed across five semantic categories (fruits, vegetables, animals, insects, vehicles). Following baseline and instruction phases—during which instructions to vary response order produced no change—variability training was introduced sequentially. Two dependent variables were recorded: (A) the proportion of words emitted in a different order than the preceding trial, and (B) the proportion differing from the baseline sequence. Lag 1 alone produced minimal improvement. Adding DRDO—reinforcing sequences differing from the baseline order—substantially increased both measures in the first category (Non-overlap of All Pairs [NAP] = 1.00; Improvement Rate Difference [IRD] = 1.00 for Measure A; NAP = 0.94, IRD = 0.88 for Measure B). Gains generalized rapidly; later-trained categories reached criterion within one to three training trials, suggesting cross-category transfer. The classroom teacher responded positively on a 15-item social validity questionnaire. These findings suggest DRDO is an effective adjunct when instruction or Lag alone are insufficient and offer a classroom-feasible framework for sequencing interventions.
Paper Information
Conference: ECE2026Stream: Education & Difference: Gifted Education
Published: Wednesday, September 23, 2026
This paper is part of the ECE2026 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Kawamura M. (2026) Increasing Intraverbal Response Order Variability in a Child With Autism: Effects of Lag Schedule Combined With Differential Reinforcement ISSN: 2188-1162 The European Conference on Education 2026: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 769-779) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1162.2026.59
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1162.2026.59
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