Caitlin C. Garvey's research while affiliated with St. Cloud State University and other places

One common best practice recommendation for teaching receptive labels to individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder is for the stimulus array to be arranged outside of the view of the learner. Another strategy that may have benefits would be to arrange the stimuli in view of the learner. The purpose of this study was to compare the relative effectiveness and efficiency of arranging the stimulus array in view versus out of view of the learner when teaching receptive labels to three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The results of an adapted alternating-treatments design demonstrated that both conditions were effective, and all participants reached the mastery criterion on all training sets. However, the in-view condition was more, or equally, efficient with respect to sessions to mastery when compared to the out-of-view condition. The results are discussed with respect to clinical and research implications for best practice recommendations related to teaching receptive language.