The Role of The Echoic in the Acquisition of Tacts: A Bidirectional Naming Account

Abstract We used an adapted alternating treatments’ design to assess the emergence of tacts after four typically developing children were exposed to simultaneous presentations of pictures and their names while either requiring an echoic response, an incompatible response, or instructed them to be quiet. Sessions attempted to replicate typical parent-child interactions. For three out of the four participants, 100% accurate responding during tact probes occurred sooner after stimulus pairing conditions in which they could engage in echoic responses, compared to when they were prevented from echoing during stimulus pairing. The results seem to support a facilitative role of the echoic in the emergence of tacts. These findings have important implications for understanding typical language acquisition and for teaching verbal behavior to individuals who may experience deficits in this area.