Feasibility of an Auditory Bombardment and Recasting Treatment for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

There is a paucity of research surrounding evidence-based treatments for minimally verbal children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), especially in regard to the treatment of morphosyntactic deficits within this population. This study tested the effectiveness of an auditory bombardment and recasting treatment, based on principles of statistical learning, for treating these deficits in minimally verbal children with ASD. Three children between the ages of three and four were all initially treated with an auditory bombardment treatment requiring the auditory delivery of 24 unique exemplars of a targeted morphosyntactic form. When appropriate, enhanced conversational recasting was also implemented with one child, likewise requiring the auditory delivery of 24 unique exemplars. Each child received either 16 or 24 treatment dosages over ten to 18 weeks. One child made significant gains towards using and generalizing the targeted form, and another child showed an increase in the number of verbalizations attempted to accurately produce the targeted form. The results suggest that an auditory bombardment and recasting treatment based on principles of statistical learning can be successful when treating morphosyntactic deficits in minimally verbal children with ASD.