Acquisition of Manual Sign Use: Collateral Reduction of Maladaptive Behavior, and Factors Limiting Generalization

An 11-year-old, nonverbal boy diagnosed as “autistic” was trained to communicate wants and needs with manual signs. The signs were trained first in a corner of the classroom, and when generalization did not occur to other times of day and other areas of the classroom, training was delivered in “natural” classroom situations. Training in the natural situations was introduced in a multiple baseline design across signs. Both use of manual signs and frequency of maladaptive grabbing and yelling were measured. Results indicate that sign training in the corner had no effect on the use of signs in the classroom or on the maladaptive responses. Training in the natural setting was functionally related both to use of signs across the school day, and a dramatic reduction in grabbing and yelling. Implications for sign language instruction, generalization and reduction of maladaptive behavior are addressed.