Conditioning voices through stimulus–stimulus pairing with video in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Conditioned reinforcement for listening to adult voices is considered to be one of the earliest capabilities involved in language development and social functioning. It appears necessary for an individual to come into contact with the acoustic properties of speech in order to become listeners. This study addressed possible challenges that could emerge with traditional edible-based voice conditioning interventions by pairing videos with vocal stimuli implementing a multiple-probe design with three preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The intervention consisted of pairing videos (conditioned reinforcers) with human voices (neutral stimuli), with a progressive fading out of the visual stimulus presented by the video. Participants’ attendance to voice recordings and observing responses to voices and environmental sounds were evaluated. Results indicated that pairing videos with vocal stimuli was effective in increasing observing responses to voice and environmental sounds and in selecting listening to human voices, suggesting potential applications of this edible-free procedure for children who lack conditioned reinforcement for listening to voices but demonstrate conditioned reinforcement for videos.