Stimulus equivalence and transfer of function: Teaching categorization skills to children

Equivalence-based instruction (EBI) and transfer of function are effective with neurotypical adults and children; however, only one study to date evaluated their effectiveness with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We used EBI to teach three preschool children with ASD to form three age-appropriate classes (categories) consisting of three stimuli each. We directly taught two relations between stimuli in each class (e.g., firefighter-doctor; doctor-teacher), and the remaining relations between the stimuli (e.g., doctor-firefighter, teacher-doctor, doctor-teacher, teacher-doctor) emerged. Then, we taught participants to respond as listeners when asked about the function of a stimulus in each category (e.g., point to a state when asked, "Point to a place where people live"). As a result, the respective function transferred among the other stimuli in each category. This study supports the effectiveness of EBI and transfer of function with children with ASD learning age-appropriate skills in an applied setting.