Using a generalized verbal response to decrease unrelated verbal responses of a severely retarded adult

Echolalia is viewed as the pathological repetition of vocalizations and is seen as an obstacle to normal language development. Unrelated or contextually inappropriate responses are equally problematic and are also seen as an obstacle to the development of language. This study examined the effect of acquiring a generalized verbal response (i.e., "I don't know") to questions for which the subject did not know the answer on the occurrence of (a) echoic, (b) unrelated responding, and (c) appropriate verbal responding. The subject was a severely retarded 49-year-old female. She was taught a generalized verbal response to one set of questions for which she did not know the answers and generalization across another set of questions was examined. The effect was an increase in appropriate verbal responding and a decrease in unrelated verbal responding. No effect upon echoic responding was seen.