The present doctoral thesis consists of: 1) a systematic literature review that analyzed
experimental studies evaluating the effect of Intensive Tact Instruction (ITI) on the induction
or increase of verbal repertoires, and 2) an experimental study that investigated the effect of
ITI on the induction of Full Naming (FN - emergence of speaker and listener responses to
objects/events after mere incidental exposure to their names) and Bidirectional Naming (BN -
speaker responses to objects/events are taught, and listener responses to these objects/events
emerge, and vice versa) in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The systematic
review analyzed 10 studies, describing the participants' profiles, environment, and
experimental design, parameters of independent variable implementation, results, effect size
of the independent variable (Tau-U), and the methodological quality (MQ) of the studies. It
was found that the majority of studies: a) were conducted with children with ASD in schools
with an analytical-behavioral basis, using a multiple-probe design between participants; b)
implemented ITI with 100 daily tact trials (5 times per week), with five sets of stimuli; c)
showed positive results for the induction/expansion of tacts (with Tau-U from moderate to
strong), mixed results for intraverbals (with Tau-U from weak to moderate), and no effect for
mands (small Tau-U); and d) had adequate MQ. No study adequately assessed the effect of
ITI on the induction of NC or BN. Three children with ASD participated in the experimental
study. After implementing ITI with three sets of stimuli, two children showed emergence and
generalization of BN and FN (one of them maintained both repertoires, and the other
maintained BN). The third child showed emergence of BN and the listener component in FN
tests. The results are discussed in light of the current literature.
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