Effectiveness of Operant Conditioning on the Development of Language Skills in Persian-Speaking Children with Autism

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
Safa Abedi 1
Hayat Ameri 2
Arsalan Golfam 3
1 PhD Candidate, Department of Linguistics, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran
2 2Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran
3 Associate Professor of Linguistics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran
Abstract
In this study, we have examined the effectiveness of operant conditioning on the

development of linguistic skills in Persian children with autism. It was a quasiexperimental

study, and done by using pre- and post-tests. We randomly selected 40

children (6 girls and 34 boys, 5-10 years old) and divided them into experimental and

control groups comprising of 20 children each. We used the Autism Spectrum Screening

Questionnaire (ASSQ) to screen subjects and the Test of Language Development (TOLDP:

3) to measure their language skills. Both groups received grammatical comprehension

and grammatical completion subtests. Using the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

method, the experimental group was then subjected to 48 one-hour intervention sessions

ran for 24 weeks. After the intervention, we ran a post-test in both experimental and

control groups. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. In the experimental group,

the mean score in the grammatical completion subtest had increased by 4.2, and in the

grammatical comprehension subset, the mean score had increased by 3.6. In contrast, in

the control group, the mean score of the grammatical completion and comprehension

subtests had increased by 0.25 and 0.3, respectively. The findings suggested that operant

conditioning had direct effects on the improvement of the 5-10 years old Persianspeaking

children with autism.

Keywords

Subjects

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The International Journal of Humanities
Volume 26, Issue 2
Summer 2019
Pages 50-58