ORCID ID
Graduation Date
Spring 5-9-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Programs
Applied Behavior Analysis
First Advisor
M. Alice Shillingsburg
Abstract
Difficulties in social communication are a defining feature of autism. Pointing gestures typically emerge in the first year of life and have been consistently shown to predict later language development, yet are often delayed in this population. The present study replicated and extended the findings of Barall and Shillingsburg (2026) by examining whether an intervention to teach imperative pointing gestures (i.e., gestures used to initiate requests, or mands) would be effective for minimally verbal children with autism. Participants were three children (2 male, 1 female; mean age = 4.9 years, SD = 1.5). A nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the effects of the intervention for teaching imperative pointing at a proximal (within arm’s reach) distance and to assess whether children subsequently generalized pointing to distal (out-of-arm’s-reach) distances.
The study further extended prior research by examining broader outcomes associated with the acquisition of imperative pointing. Within a pretest–posttest framework, the study evaluated the generalization of imperative pointing to caregiver–child interactions and the emergence of declarative pointing (i.e., gestures used to share social attention, or to tact). Participants’ early language and communicative repertoires were characterized at pretest and posttest using the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories: Words and Gestures (MB-CDI: WG).
Results showed that all participants acquired proximal pointing and demonstrated generalization to distal pointing without additional intervention. At posttest, imperative pointing generalized to caregiver-child interactions across participants; however, declarative pointing did not emerge. Overall, minimal to moderate changes in communication development on the MB-CDI: WG were reported from pretest to posttest. The findings have important implications for the development of targeted interventions to support early social communication development in minimally verbal children with autism.
Rights
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Recommended Citation
Barall, Rebecca J., "Promoting Social Communicative Gestures by Minimally Verbal Children with Autism" (2026). Theses & Dissertations. 1069.
https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/etd/1069