One method that has a 49
strong evidence base for eliciting first words from these 50
children is Discrete Trial Training (DTT; Lovaas 1987) 51
which makes use of the Skinnerian principles of operant 52
learning (Skinner 1957). (Reichow and Wolery 2009) 53
reviewed research using such methods for children with 54
ASD and found that, although few studies consistently met 55
standards for establishing evidence-based practice, 5/6 56
studies that met minimum criteria showed significant 57
improvement for children receiving DTT for expressive 58
language, based on effect size.