Tact Training Targeting the Expression of Emotions: Using Four-Panel Comic Strips With Elementary School Students With Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Study objective: The present study examined effects of 4-panel comic strips on the expression of emotional words by elementary school students with autistic spectrum disorder. Design: Non-concurrent multiple baseline. Setting: Training was carried out in a room at the university. Participants: 4 boys (8–11 years old) with autistic spectrum disorder. 2 of the boys participated in Experiment 1; the other 2, in Experiment 2. Intervention: The intervention consisted of 2 conditions: (a) training using a word list that included some emotional words, with vocal feedback about the number of emotional words in the participant's expressions (Intervention 1); (b) training using the list of emotional words and feedback with a graph (Intervention 2). Measure: The dependent variable was the number of emotional words in 1 story about a 4-panel comic strip. Results: The number of emotional words increased compared to baseline in a probe test (Experiment 1), and in an assessment of maintenance after 1 month and an assessment of generalization (Experiment 2). Conclusion: These results suggest that this training using 4-panel comic strips may be effective with elementary school students with autistic spectrum disorder for increasing the number of their spontaneous tacts that include emotional words.